A gender-based analysis of recruitment and retention in the Canadian Army Reserve

LAY SUMMARY In this qualitative study, 29 members of the Canadian Army Reserve were interviewed to investigate Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) recruitment and retention strategies. Studying member attitudes and participation in recruitment and retention led to original insights about the importance of community outreach, peer recruiting, and commitment on behalf of leadership when it comes to fostering a recruitment-focused culture. Participants pointed to camaraderie and the quality of training opportunities as significant considerations to improve retention, providing further validation to existing research on retention in reserve units. Using a gender-based lens, reservists were asked about the culture of the CAF, sexual misconduct, and other issues facing under-represented groups. Participants felt the military was doing well meeting recruiting targets and that representation and mentorship were important tools to encourage women and members of under-represented groups to join. The answers regarding sexual misconduct were extremely consistent: most were surprised when hearing Reserve Force statistics on sexual misconduct, and many displayed low awareness of how to report incidents. Nevertheless, participants thought their units were better than others when it came to equity, diversity, inclusion, and preventing sexual violence, signaling these topics could be further examined in the reserves.

How emerging trends in historiography expose the Canadian Army’s past discriminatory practices and provide hope for future change

This “lessons learned” article examines how emerging trends over time in the historiography of the Canadian Army have challenged and continue to challenge the white Anglophone masculine heterosexual culture which is especially associated with its combat units. This study began as an examination of the intersection between the historiography and the current priorities for sufficient female participation in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) which are intended to improve past abusive patriarchal practices and create effective and safe international interventions. Gender and sexual abuses were the initial foci, but the historiography revealed the interconnectedness of widespread discriminations against all “others”—defined here as anyone with a different gender, sexuality, race, language, religion, or culture. The article opens with a brief summary of evolving feminist ideas about security forces in general. It then delves into the historiographical trends which have demonstrated how systemic discriminations have privileged white Anglo men in combat roles while underplaying their contributions and the contributions of “others” in support roles in the Canadian Army over time. The key lesson learned from this work is that gender balance alone is not enough to address the profound cultural issues which plague the Canadian Army.

Military Service and Canadian Army Suicides of the Second World War, 1939–44

Over 230 Canadian Army soldiers took their own lives during the Second World War. For many, soldiering seems to have exacerbated stresses and depressions. Their suicide notes and the testimony of family, officers, and bunkmates reveal that wartime disturbance was an important section of the complex array of reasons why. In attempts to explain the motivations for their tragic final actions, the instabilities brought by the Second World War and the stresses of military mobilization must be added to the many biological, social, psychological and circumstantial factors revealed by the proceedings of courts of inquiry. Major military risk factors include: access to firearms, suppression of individual agency, and disruption of the protective networks of friends and family. Some Canadians had a difficult time adjusting to military discipline and authority and were frustrated by their inability to succeed by the measures set by the army. Suicide motivations are complex and it may be too simplistic to say that the Second World War caused these deaths, however, it is not too far to say that the war was a factor in their final motivations. Some men, due to the social pressures and constructs of masculine duty, signed up for active service despite previously existing conditions which should have excused them. Revisiting these traumas can expose the difficulties that some Canadians experienced during mobilization for total war. Many brought deep personal pain with them as they entered military service and for some, the disruptions, frustrations, and anxieties of life in khaki were too great to bear. Like their better-known colleagues who died on the battlefield, they too are casualties of the Second World War.

“The Army Origin of the Royal Canadian Navy”: Canada’s Maritime Defences, 1855-1918

In 1954 army historian George Stanley claimed that naval initiatives from the eighteenth century to the 1870s by the French and British armies in Canada and the local land militia were the true roots of the Royal Canadian Navy. He privately admitted that he was being intentionally provocative. The present article, however, reviews subsequent scholarship and offers new research that strengthens Stanley’s findings, and shows that the Canadian army continued to promote the organization of naval forces after the 1870s. The army, moreover, lobbied for the founding of the Royal Canadian Navy in 1910, and supported the new service in its troubled early years. En 1954, l’historien de l’armée George Stanley a affirmé que les initiatives navales entreprises du 18e siècle aux années 1870 par les armées française et britannique au Canada et par la milice terrestre locale étaient les véritables racines de la Marine royale canadienne. Par contre, il a aussi admis en privé qu’il avait été délibérément provocateur. Le présent article passe en revue les études ultérieures et propose de nouvelles recherches qui viennent renforcer les conclusions de Stanley et indiquent que l’armée canadienne a continué de promouvoir l’organisation des forces navales après les années 1870. De plus, l’armée a fait pression en faveur de la fondation de la Marine royale canadienne en 1910, puis elle a appuyé le nouveau service au cours de ses premières années tumultueuses.

Mutinies after War

If mutinies are significant threats to those military parties facing defeat during wars, they are still more dangerous to the victors after the war is ended, when those conscripted for the duration of the war are desperate to return home. This chapter covers three such mutinies: those affecting British forces in 1918 and 1919; those facing Canadian forces in 1919; and finally the mutiny that literally grounded the RAF in 1946 in India and the Far East. The first cases occur in the south of England and France as the First World War is ending, but Churchill in particular was keen to retain both naval and army units to continue the fight against the fledgling Bolshevik regime. What is intriguing about these is just how militant the mutineers were and how the British government treated them with kid gloves, unlike those in the British Foreign Labour units who we meet in chapter 6. For the Canadian army the problem starts in Russia but end up in Wales, as the troops kick their heels waiting to return home and frustrations boil over into gunfights near Rhyl in 1919. Finally, we consider the similar issues prevailing over the RAF in India and the Far East as it becomes clear to the subordinates that they are a long way from home and have little immediate prospect of going home—unless they mutiny.