Why young women won’t join the army
Graphic images and guns discovered
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In peace,
Steve
It’s appalling. Two more shocking incidents involving members of the Canadian Armed Forces of racism, sexism, antisemitism and and outright anti-government rebellion have emerged this week, leaving many Canadians stunned.
What’s worse is this evidence that this was known at the highest levels of the military leadership, who then tried to manage media coverage to their benefit, rather than coming clean and dealing with the problem.
The first story involves 200 Ottawa-based soldiers using Facebook to share offensive comments and images in clear violation of military rules. The awful messages and photos of troops – including nude pics posing with weapons, are disgraceful.
The secret Facebook group was being tracked by Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese, but the military’s public relations department tried to pull the wool over the eyes of a less well-informed CBC reporter.
Scott Taylor, publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine, explains the story (Warning: includes graphic language and content):
The second story revealed that serving soldiers were part of a paramilitary “terrorist” group in Quebec who were stockpiling weapons and training for an anti-government rebellion.
The RCMP accused four men, including Canadian Armed Forces members, of amassing a trove of weapons and explosives as part of a scheme to take over land near Quebec's capital.
Police called the plot an act of "ideologically motivated violent extremism."
Scandals will thwart Carney’s military build-up
Prime Minister Carney has made expanding the Canadian Armed Forces (and our weapons industry) a key plank of his political agenda, as PeaceQuest readers know.
But the military doesn’t have sailors for new ships and submarines, pilots for aircraft, and the list goes on. These repeated scandals are driving down recruitment – especially among young women. And no wonder!
As Canada looks to ramp up spending on the Armed Forces to meet NATO commitments, there appears to be hesitation from young Canadians to fight for their country, the Angus Reid Institute found.
According to its poll, three-quarters of Canadians said there was “a culture of disrespect toward women in the military.” Perhaps that plays a role into why Canadian women (36%) are much less likely than men (63%) to say they would volunteer to serve in the event of an armed conflict.
Leave a comment explaining your vote.
Recommended reading
Revisiting Trinity: The race to close the nuclear circle of hell, by Sean Howard, tells the story of one hibakusha, the novelist Kyoko Hayashi, who returned to the site of the Trinity nuclear test from Nagasaki in 1999 as part of her survivor’s journey.
Last week’s survey results
Last week I asked you, “Are you surprised Canadians increasingly support more military spending, according to pollsters?” Two out of three readers (64%) said they were surprised, with one out of three (35%) saying they weren’t.
Read the comments from readers to understand their responses.
Did you miss last week’s newsletter?
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Steve
The big "problem" is people assuming that dogma can reliably prevail over instincts that have been refined for survival over hundreds of millions of years. A smaller problem is that we expect our soldiers to be on par with the finest ones ever, but we are involving them in imperialist wars, which need brutal bullies, and expecting them to abandon the xenophobia and suspicion needed for quick, safe responses.
When I see evidence of Canadian forces infested with fascist-like members, it reminds me of the accusations being made by some on the left that Ukraine is a fascist country because it too has neo-Nazis in its military, albeit with little political influence. Moreover, the Russian military has its share of fascists. Even though Canada is regarded as a democratic country, its participation in the so-called defence forces betrays that it exhibits similar and alarming traits to the military "defence" in other countries. In Canada's and Ukraine's case, there is little reason to think of our military as a defence. It is part of a world system of profitable weapons manufacturing and destruction. Our PM has even declared that he is for the so-called Golden Dome, which is a farcical space weapons system, touted as a defence, that has the most effective result of heightening dangerous tensions and enriching the already bloated weapons industry tot the benefit of the U.S. Carney's elbows up pretence would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous and cowardly.