By Michael Nickerson
So you want to join the military. Fantastic! Welcome aboard. We certainly have some spaces just waiting to be filled. A few questions first, if you don’t mind: How are you with bedpans? Ever changed an adult diaper? Certainly you have experience giving your grandparents sponge baths. Necessary skills for the modern soldier, I’m afraid. What did you think you were signing up for?
I’m going to stick my neck out here and suggest that when the Canadian Armed Forces dared recruits to be “extraordinary” they weren’t referring to excellence in social work, palliative care, or the nitty gritty of personal support work for seniors and the disabled. I suspect those recruits weren’t prepared to watch our most vulnerable die badly and not be able to do anything about it. That’s rather anathema to military culture and training in general no?
In theory it’s also anathema to Canadian culture and values, but the coronavirus pandemic is laying bare some truths about us all. Stress will do that. Apply a bit of it and you’ll see the soft spots. Apply lots of it and you’ll see just where the seams start to burst, and where things simply explode.
As of this writing, there were some 5500 deaths officially recorded in Canada (from a population of 38 million) as being the result of Covid-19. While many argue the number is actually higher, relative to the United States (89,000 and growing amongst a population of some 330 million) and the United Kingdom (34,000 deaths amongst a population of 67 million), that’s a rousing success. Relative to countries like South Korea (262 deaths amongst a population of 51 million) or New Zealand (21 deaths amongst a population of 4.8 million), that is a dismal failure.
But what seems merely dismal becomes downright criminal when you consider that over 80 percent of those Canadian deaths occurred amongst the residents of long-term care facilities…our seniors, our disabled; our most vulnerable. They’re dying before their time and in the most horrible ways (respiratory failure, suffocation…think a drawn-out state of drowning and you’ll start to get the idea), alone, separated from loved ones due to quarantine rules.
Why? Lack of preparation, lack of money, and a lack of care on the part of all Canadians. We are a society that shuffles off those most difficult to deal with to the sidelines, but then forgets about them when it comes to funding and support. Underpaid care workers working multiple jobs at minimum wage transferring the virus from one residence to the other; a dearth of personal protection equipment (PPE); poor to no oversight or foresight, standards or accountability. In short, it’s a case of no money, no care, and just hope things don’t get so bad we have to pay attention.
Enter those soldiers who never dreamed they’d be up front and personal with the sort of problems we all as a society try to ignore. Be it issues of climate change, pandemics, or the simple fact we’ve ignored our most vulnerable for decades, we continue to call on our military as just another Band-Aid to solve the latest problem. That’s right soldier, you’re not here to defend Canadians from others, your here to defend Canadians from themselves.
In a recent interview with the CBC, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the government is “not thinking about raising taxes” despite all the stimulus spending they’re doing and the historic deficits they’re about to rack up. He’s printing money by the billion to keep the economy going, so no need. But that won’t go on forever, and it begs the question: will Canadians ultimately accept higher taxes to properly face the challenges that become more obvious by the day?
The current pandemic has lain bare the realities that our healthcare system is underfunded, our long-term care system is underfunded, and given the threats facing us domestically and globally given climate change, our military and its veterans are underfunded. Will Canadians give up some disposable income to fund these broader institutions? I fear we haven’t been hit hard enough yet to care.
