By Scott Taylor
We have now passed the threshold into 2022 and the New Year is always a good time to reflect on the events that transpired over the previous 12 months.
For the Canadian Armed Forces those reflections reveal some depressingly similar circumstances to those which face our military and political leadership moving forward into 2022.
At the end of 2020 major military procurement projects such as the replacement of the CF-18 fighter jets and the building of the RCN’s future fleet were facing problematic delays, indecisions and cost escalations. Ditto 2021.
COVID-19 restrictions posed a serious challenge for units to train, parade and operate effectively. Ditto 2021.
In terms of deployments, Canada had a 650 member battlegroup stationed as a deterrent to Russian aggression in Latvia, and a Parliament-authorized contingent in Iraq and the Middle East with a strength of up to 850 personnel. Ditto 2021.
One of the major headaches plaguing the senior military leadership was that of dealing with sexual misconduct in late 2020.
On Oct. 28 of that year, Gen. Jonathan Vance had announced a plan called The Path Towards Dignity and Respect. This was to be a long term plan to refocus the 2015 Operation Honour – the CAF’s campaign against sexual misconduct in the ranks – on changing the underlying culture of misconduct and setting up the program to be a permanent fixture of DND.
Now readers need to remember that Op Honour was implemented after a damaging series of media reports in 2013/2014 revealed widespread sexual misconduct throughout the CAF.
This led to an independent review by former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps which confirmed everyone’s worst fears and detailed what she called a military steeped in a highly masculine, sexualized culture where leaders turn a blind eye to misconduct.
Unfortunately for all involved, the Path Towards Dignity and Respect turned out to be laden with landmines that devastated the military senior command tasked with navigating it.
The first to fall was outgoing Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Vance, when Global News reported on February 2, 2021 that he had allegedly committed two acts of sexual misconduct.
After a months long military police investigation, Vance has been charged with a single count of obstruction and is scheduled to appear in court in March 2023.
The Vance story set in motion a flurry of allegations against top Admirals and Generals including Vance’s successor as CDS, Admiral Art McDonald.
At time of writing, no fewer than nine senior General Officers or Flag officers were suspended or ‘retired’ from their posts pending investigations or court cases.
On the surface it would seem that the Canadian military is closing out 2021 just as embattled on the sexual misconduct front as they were in 2020.
However, as an eternal optimist, I have to believe that as we move forward into the new year, the changes put in place in recent months will allow our military to actually make real headway in effecting cultural change.
Up until now it has seemed like that running Peanuts comic gag where Lucy promises to hold the football while Charlie Brown kicks it. Invariably Charlie Brown mistakenly puts his faith in Lucy, promises he is going to kick that ball “to the moon” and every time Lucy reverts to character, swipes the ball away and Charlie Brown ends up flat on his back.
Long time observers of the Canadian military will recall that the first major sexual misconduct revelations came to light in 1998 when Macleans magazine ran an unprecedented four consecutive cover stories on the topic. Public outrage sparked the creation of the office of the Canadian Forces Ombudsman.
However that post was proven to be incapable of changing the culture when Macleans revisited the subject in their 2013 reports.
Then it was the Deschamps’ report, followed by Op Honour, refocused as Paths towards Dignity and Respect and then, as a result of the current crisis, yet another independent review by former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour.
That is a lot of announced solutions without success to make one sceptical that this time around things will be different.
However, there has also been a major changing of the guard at virtually every top job in the military environment.
We now have a female Minister of National Defence, Deputy Minister, Vice Chief of Defence Staff and Lt-Gen Jennie Carignan assigned to a new position designed to focus on reforming the military culture.
In recent media interviews, Carignan has predicted it will take up to five years to obtain the desired results.
Given the team in place, I think this time there will indeed be contact with that ‘football’.
They might not kick it “to the moon” but they will boot it downfield. I hope.
