Is it time for a change?
As of late, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has found itself at the centre of a number of unfortunate scandals and an ensuing media frenzy, bringing the otherwise insular and largely ignored arm of our government into the public eye.
In a democracy such as Canada, exposure of government arms is important for the voter base to make informed decisions on the direction they wish the country to take. The F-35 debacle, for instance, took an interesting turn when the Department of National Defense released concurrent reports in December of 2014 stating that the cost of procurement and future replacement was excessive, and that Canada has little need of an advanced stealth fighter.
More recently, it has become obvious that Canada is participating in combat operations that target ISIS in a greater capacity than initially revealed to the Canadian public.
The development of the F-35A Fighter Jet sparked controversy in late 2014 when the Canadian government released reports of excessive cost for little benefit.
This, and other government moves over the years, has shown a drift towards a closer alignment with the combative capabilities of the US than the UN. This creates an interesting space for Canadians to look at the country and take inventory of how they view Canada on the world stage.
Canada is oft renowned – even caricatured – for kindness and understanding. Over the decades, we have been instrumental in the organization and enforcement of peace treaties, cease fires, and truces in combat zones around the world. Lebanon, Namibia, Croatia, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia have all seen Canadian blood shed in the interest of maintaining a prosperous and peaceful world.
There is also the Canadian Armed Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), another silent hero of Canada’s military arm which is deployed upon request by either an individual nation or the UN to disaster zones around the globe. Made up of engineers, medics, military police, communications specialists, and support personnel, volunteers from the regular CAF join up with DART to risk life and limb in disaster and combat zones to establish power, basic medical care, clean drinking water, and reliable access to food for those affected. Yet, how often have they been in the news?
All of this is not to say that there is no need for aggressive military force. Joint Task Force Two, the CAF’s mysterious Special Operations division, is by all accounts very proficient at executing their missions in a secretive manner. The Canadian Army and Reservist forces are also a force to be reckoned with. However, the question remains as to whether an alignment with the US and their policy of aggressive military action is appropriate for a country with such a small military, whose public favour government expenditures geared more towards social policies and improvements than those towards equipping military men and women with the latest and greatest.
As with most things, focusing on small, well-defined objectives yields far better results than attempting to perform many different tasks simultaneously. More money and attention directed towards a few key elements of the Canadian military could see them better equipped, better trained, and more capable than they are right now.
The utmost respect is reserved for the men and women in the CAF who work day and night under unforgiving circumstances and through great personal peril. It would not be prudent, as civilians, to presume to know enough to tell them how to do their job. But like many of us, they work for an organization that answers to a larger group of people. In the corporate world, it may be shareholders or board members, but in this case, it’s the Canadian people.
It is perhaps time for Canadians to re-evaluate what part this country should be seen playing in the great world drama of armed conflict, because if, as civilians, we were suddenly thrust into the shoes of those serving the CAF, what role would we want to play?