By Scott Taylor
The Canadian military’s changing policies, regulations and culture are reflective of the shift in our societal values. For instance the current explosion of sexual misconduct scandals within the senior ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces include many allegations of incidents that date back ten, twenty and even thirty years ago.
Up until 1987 women were not allowed to serve in combat arms units or serve aboard warships.
Fast forward to 2021 and we now have women serving at the highest levels of command, with many of those individuals having actual combat experience.
That is an incredible transition within the military culture in a relatively short span of time.
As for the sexual orientation of CAF members, up until 1992 it was illegal to be a homosexual and serve in uniform. Closeted service members were routinely interrogated and summarily dismissed from the forces.
Although a court ruling overturned that military policy in 1992, it was not until 2017 that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a formal apology to all those personnel who had been purged by those discriminatory rules.
It took the Department of National Defence another two years before they issued personal letters of apology to 432 individuals who had been released from service due to their sexual orientation.
The military’s record of racial discrimination has also not been stellar.
During the First World War the enlistment of Black recruits was vehemently opposed by Canada’s top soldier. In April 1916 at the height of the Great War recruiting crisis, General W.G. Gwatkin, Chief of the General Staff issued an official memo that stated, “The civilized negro is vain and imitative; in Canada he is not impelled to enlist by a high sense of duty; in the trenches he is not likely to make a good fighter.”
The problem with Gwatkin’s assessment, besides its outright racism, was that many Black Canadians did wish to enlist and serve in uniform.
While they were not explicitly forbidden to join, Blacks were often rebuffed by the individual commanding officers who had the authority to reject volunteers using their own discretion.
Despite the discrimination and racism, several hundred Black males did manage to enlist.
This created a problem for the military and the solution came about in 1916 when the decision was made to create a segregated unit. The Number 2 Construction Battalion consisted of Black enlisted men with white officers.
As the name implies, they were not to be employed as combat soldiers, but rather as labourers digging trenches and cutting down trees to provide revetment and shelter for the rest of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Flanders.
Between General Gwatkin’s comments and the creation of a segregated, Black -only labour battalion, it clearly illustrates the prevailing official racism of the times in Canada.
However, in recent years there has been a deliberate effort to celebrate No. 2 Construction Battalion’s contribution to the war efforts as some sort of success story.
This unit’s history was the central theme of the CAF’s annual recognition of Black History month and I even had the occasion to attend a special concert dedicated to this very unique unit.
Like most of the Canadian Expeditionary force, Number 2 Construction Battalion returned to Canada in early 1919 following the November 11th 1918 armistice. The unit was subsequently disbanded in September 1920.
Since that juncture, members of the Black community have persistently lobbied the Canadian government for some sort of formal acknowledgement for No. 2 Construction Battalion.
On March 28 of this year, the Liberal government bowed to that pressure and announced their intention of issuing a formal apology to the descendants of the members of this unit for the racism and discrimination which these Great War veterans faced.
It took all this time, but the powers that be in the Canadian military have finally realized that it was wrong to segregate Black volunteers and make them do menial tasks.
What was until recently something the military celebrated as inclusion is now being apologized for because it is finally being recognized as racism.
The formal apology to descendants is scheduled to take place in Halifax on July 9, 2022.
