Acting Chief of Military Personnel on Diversity, Inclusion, and Culture Change Short-Term Initiatives

[btrudy]

I don't think we can walk in with a diverse TF and hold the moral high ground any more than the Belgians, Spaniards, or British.

Pretty hard to be worse than the Belgians were in the Congo.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

Pretty hard to be worse than the Belgians were in the Congo.

Oh I know. I was pointing out that our colonial past isn't as squeaky clean as we like to think.

 

[QV]

Oh I know. I was pointing out that our colonial past isn't as squeaky clean as we like to think.

List me the cultures or societies that have not committed some bad behavior in the past.

 

[Halifax Tar]

List me the cultures or societies that have not committed some bad behavior in the past.

And that is the unspoken truth. History is violent and messy and there is no country or culture without sin.

For some reason it's just that's it's become fashionable to only recognize the sins of some... I blame our shitty post secondary education system.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

List me the cultures or societies that have not committed some bad behavior in the past.

Not going to get into this.

We have committed atrocities as a species since we first walked upright.

My ancestral homeland (an island in the middle of the Mediterranean) has been invaded/conquered by everyone from the Phoenicians to the Nazis in its millenia of continued settlement. It's the nature of the game when there's only so much room on this rock orbiting the sun.

My point was that no amount of forced diversity in a theoretical Canadian Peacekeeping operation in Africa will change the fact that Africa needs to fix Africa. My point is also that we don't hold any moral high ground compared to the usual suspects.

As always, the best trained, best equipped, and best lead troops are the ones that will be successful on operations; regardless of the race, gender, orientation, or background of those that make up the task force.

 

[Good2Golf]

Let's just say there's more people of a WASPHNM hue in Hong Kong than Richmond. Old joke: Q. Which river separates India and China. A. The Fraser.

I think my Scottish immigrant WASPHNM grand uncle was the last non-Asian resident of Richmond, prior to passing away a few years ago…

 

[Grimey]

And that is the unspoken truth. History is violent and messy and there is no country or culture without sin.

For some reason it's just that's it's become fashionable to only recognize the sins of some... I blame our shitty post secondary education system.

^^^This. I could self-flagellate myself all day for the temerity of my ancestors in colouring a quarter of the planet imperial pink. Conversely, I could go for reparations against Italy and Denmark for soundly thrashing those same ancestors a thousand years previously. I feel the hurt to this day .

 

[Navy_Pete]

I've had similar experiences with Indigenous communities.

It's almost as if we could learn alot from them about how to respectfully share different ideas and practises with others in a way that facilitates authentic engagement, understanding and appreciation.

This was mine too, and honestly when I was listening to some of the stories I was a bit baffled by how they could share the residential school experiences and not have a lot of hate for any 'colonizer'.

Better people than me, but have been to some smudging ceremonies, an actual pow wow, drum circles and have always found it really welcoming and learned a lot. Plus the food is good and people are pretty friendly, so it's almost like if you aren't a jerk and just listen to people you can figure things out.

Still haunted from doing some trips up in around Labrador and seeing small communities with no potable water, really wish I could do something concrete to help there. I figure I have enough practice working through the BS of government that I could maybe pitch in to help navigate the stupid bureaucracies.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I think my Scottish immigrant WASPHNM grand uncle was the last non-Asian resident of Richmond, prior to passing away a few years ago…

I lived in Richmond for awhile when i was a kid. It was like being Huckleberry Finn.

We roamed the landscape with impunity, fishing in the Fraser River and shooting frogs with pellet guns because: 70s kids.

I didn't even think about it at the time but we had a gang that ran the full range of backgrounds. I think that, between us all, we had just about every continent covered

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Maybe, but not in the way you expect.

For example:

Say we go to another African nation for peacekeeping or whatever, and say that nation was a colony of either France, UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy...you get my drift.

If I were the one picking candidates (I am not), maybe a thought would be "would the local population be more receptive to a white or black dude", all things being equal (e.g. they both speak the local lingua franca, etc). I would probably be considering that even more if it's not under the auspices of something like the UN.

Taking it further - same goes with women. I wasn't doing that, but I've heard that in Afghanistan, having female soldiers/etc on patrol meant that they could talk to the women, whereas generally the men could not. That gives an entire new aspect to the situation and yeah, I'd probably want to make sure that the task force includes women.

This is hitting on the actual point of GBA+ (which we failed horribly to teach in the CAF).

There are several much better courses available thru the NATO Joint Advanced Learning e-school. I can provide the ADL names/#s to anyone interested. Free PD once you register on the NATO JADL site, the training covers all the things CAF GBA+ failed horribly on.

Those specific ADLs are also linked to MITE codes.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

This is hitting on the actual point of GBA+ (which we failed horribly to teach in the CAF).

There are several much better courses available thru the NATO Joint Advanced Learning e-school. I can provide the ADL names/#s to anyone interested. Free PD once you register on the NATO JADL site, the training covers all the things CAF GBA+ failed horribly on.

Those specific ADLs are also linked to MITE codes.

I will echo EITS on this one. I completed ADL 169 & 170 and they hit the mark far better than the GoC effort. Great training and we'll worth the time spent.

 

[OldSolduer]

Here's a thought. Lets get our Indigenous population up to speed. FOrget about GBA bullshit.

 

[TacticalTea]

Bit of propaganda media rehashing, from two hours ago: Military failing to remove barriers to diversifying ranks: ombudsman

The ombudsman noted numerous barriers to the recruitment of Armed Forces members from the designated groups had been reported over the years, including language requirements, security-clearance delays and a lack of representation among recruiters.

Okay so should we be enrolling folks that can't even speak one of the two constitutional and working languages of the Forces?
Then, what in the world do security clearances have to do with racism?
And for the third one... so... fix racism with more racism? Got it.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

It goes a little like this…

 

[daftandbarmy]

Bit of propaganda media rehashing, from two hours ago: Military failing to remove barriers to diversifying ranks: ombudsman


Okay so should we be enrolling folks that can't even speak one of the two constitutional and working languages of the Forces?
Then, what in the world do security clearances have to do with racism?
And for the third one... so... fix racism with more racism? Got it.

Yet another 'sore thumb' report.

It's kind of like Mike Tyson continually being put in the ring with Rick Moranis...

 

[Booter]

Bit of propaganda media rehashing, from two hours ago: Military failing to remove barriers to diversifying ranks: ombudsman


Okay so should we be enrolling folks that can't even speak one of the two constitutional and working languages of the Forces?
Then, what in the world do security clearances have to do with racism?
And for the third one... so... fix racism with more racism? Got it.

So. On the topic of security clearances, we let in a bunch of people without them- a “we ll sort it out during training” thing to get the “right” folks in- there was some naming conventions that slowed things down- and residences and family etc.

The overwhelming majority were fine- as you would expect. But we also let in a bunch of known gang members.

There is a barrier there that causes an issue for some certain applicants. But it really is necessary-

The answer? In case anyone is interested- is to take security seriously and dedicate the right amount of resources. Not to risk it out and go “oops”

 

[TacticalTea]

So. On the topic of security clearances, we let in a bunch of people without them- a “we ll sort it out during training” thing to get the “right” folks in- there was some naming conventions that slowed things down- and residences and family etc.

The overwhelming majority were fine- as you would expect. But we also let in a bunch of known gang members.

There is a barrier there that causes an issue for some certain applicants. But it really is necessary-

The answer? In case anyone is interested- is to take security seriously and dedicate the right amount of resources. Not to risk it out and go “oops”

Exactly.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Exactly.

How ? What is that effect elsewhere by shifting those resources ?

 

[Booter]

The effect of having the right amount of people dedicated to security clearances and the backlog is that security clearances get done and we aren’t asking outside agencies and international partners to trust our certificates and promises that the person will get a clearance in lieu of an actual security clearance

I’m of course being a bit of a bitch. But it’s either a thing you do or it’s not. If it’s important you do it- and if it’s not let’s not act like it is.

If it’s a barrier to recruitment from certain communities- it also needs more resources.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Bit of propaganda media rehashing, from two hours ago: Military failing to remove barriers to diversifying ranks: ombudsman

The report from the 'budsman.

Employment Equity and Diversity in the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces - Canada.ca

This report examines the history of employment equity in the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) from 1997 to 2021. We looked at how these organizations have dealt with hiring, recruitment and retention for the four groups designated in the Employment Equity...

www.canada.ca