Ruminations: Canadian Armed Forces Culture Change

The Minister’s Advisory Panel was created in December 2020 with a clear mandate to seek out the policies, processes and practices that enable systemic racism and discrimination in the Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and provide advice on how to eliminate them from our institution. Their work has focused on Anti-Indigenous and Anti-Black Racism, LGBTQ2+ Prejudice, Gender Bias, White Supremacy, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and discrimination against people with disabilities.
News Release: Government of Canada -- April 25, 2022 – Ottawa – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces

"[Allyship is defined as an] active, consistent and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person in a position of privilege and power seeks to operate in solidarity with a marginal group."
"[Colour-blindness, or refusing to see race, according to the lexicon, can] foster the systematic denial of racial subordination."
"[White is a] social colour [that comes with] unearned power, benefits, advantages."
"White fragility [is ] a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable [for white people] , triggering a range of defensive moves ... such as anger, fear and guilt, and behaviours such as argumentation, silence and leaving the stress-inducing situation."
Department of National Defence, Canada, Anti-Racism Toolkit

Defence Minister Anita Anand speaks to military personnel after getting a tour of a CC 177 Globemaster aircraft at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, in Trenton, Ont., April 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

Under the Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand, in the Liberal-progressive government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- he of women's liberation and LGBTQ-2, post-national credentials -- a radical "culture change" is shaking up the Department of National Defence. In December the department hosted a talk by a social justice studies professor claiming Canada is "completely infected" by white supremacy. In January a grant was awarded to a political science professor and fellow in Black excellency to study white supremacy in the Canadian military.

Under the astute guardianship of Minister Anand the Canadian service members are to be taught all about diversity, equity and inclusion. National Defence's director of anti-racism implementation is the proud producer of the new culture toolkit. The current interim director's interests includes promotion of an "e-binder" containing profiles of Black public servants as a guide in hiring managers, and to find people to promote (diversity targets mandated in the federal government).

Positive discrimination that imposes constraints on one group held to be privileged and 'entitled', is the essence of anti-racism while awarding and rewarding another group to level out the playing field, enabling the formerly unprivileged and unentitled to occupy positions now denied to the former. The post of the anti-racism director is to support "organizational cultural evolution by elevating the defence team members' awareness and understanding of racial equity issues through strategic communication tactics, resources, training and tools".

The lexicon guide of the Department's anti-racism toolkit lists 122 terms relating to gender, race and DEI -- all burdened with a heavy social justice perspective. "Equality" is defined as treatment of people that "brings about an equality of results". Believing in equality but not equity is racist. Decolonization "requires non-Indignous individuals, governments, institutions and organizations to assist Indigenous peoples to reclaim all that was taken from them".

A series of instructions is presented for military servicepeople to preach to one another about DEI and anti-racism in the toolkit's "Guide to courageous conversations on racism and discrimination". Such as the practice of discrimination against groups considered "privileged" in the opinion of critical race theorists. Service members are instructed to make use of the "Brave Framework", essentially a formula for holding racial struggle sessions.

At every opportunity, the Trudeau Liberals are enabling the woke to further divide Canadians and create an unbridgeable chasm between progressive and conservative-minded people. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes a knee for George Floyd during a rally in Ottawa, June 5, 2020. Photo credit: The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

"Anti-racism" tips and tools in the toolkit includes a section interpreting the Employment Equity Act that requires every federal department and any company wishing to bid on big federal contracts to honour diversity targets (quotas) for the workplace. This leads inevitably to de-prioritizing white or male applicants to the military for hiring. Race- and gender-specific job postings in other federal departments undergo similar treatment. Valid criticism of the law is dismissed in the toolkit as a "myth".

An anti-racism learning hub has been launched as well by the Defence Department, linked to a number of resources that stress ideology, and direct defence staff to DEI training materials. Which include the Harvard Implicit Association Test, a test of a type that supposedly measures subconscious bias. What is now a set-piece in the Department of Defence is commonplace in the federal public service. The Canada School of Public Service provides a "standardized curriculum" for public servants. The top-down New Canada.