Decision to let newcomers serve in army applauded

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This article was published 08/12/2022 (1089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s decision to let permanent residents join the military is being hailed as a positive step for newcomer youth and a way to change the culture of the Canadian Armed Forces.

“It will definitely expand the employment opportunities that are made available to newcomers, especially for those who come to Canada with very unique skills and education, and who may struggle to find a job in their field,” said Margaret von Lau, chief executive officer of Newcomers Employment and Education Development Services Inc.

National Defence Minister Anita Anand announced Monday that permanent residents who meet the same criteria as Canadian citizens are welcome to apply to enrol in the military as recruits or officer cadets.

The move provides newcomers with a career opportunity and the armed forces with a chance to better reflect the diversity of Canada and address its labour shortage.

In Manitoba, the latest labour market figures show the unemployment rate for youth (ages 15 to 24) rose to 10.2 per cent in October, from 7.7 per cent in September. For young men, the unemployment rate more than doubled to 12.3 per cent in October, from 5.6 per cent in September.

The military is short approximately 8,000 regular force members to achieve its mandate of 71,500 members, as spelled out in Canada’s defence policy.

The military has increased recruiting centre capacity to handle 5,900 new members by March, and is offering recruits who are permanent residents a path to citizenship, making sure Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada processes their applications on a “priority basis.”

Von Lau, an immigrant who in 1999 founded NEEDS Inc. that’s helped thousands of young newcomers integrate, said the military’s decision to open doors to permanent residents is “great news.”

“We’ve had clients in the past who were interested in the career with law enforcement, becoming a firefighter, etc.,” she said. “Exploring work in the army might be even more appealing for youth, given the number of different opportunities that the Canadian forces can offer.”

The non-profit agency works with newcomers ages six to 29, including young adults with education and expertise.

“A career in the army may allow them to utilize those skills, knowledge, and the fact that they speak other languages for the benefit of them and the country as a whole,” von Lau said. “Many of them may have served in the army in their home countries and they would be now able to continue working in their chosen occupation in Canada,” she said.

The military stands to benefit from more diversity, which will better reflect the population, she said.

As of 2020, the Department of National Defence found that the military is mostly male and white. Just 16 per cent of members are women, 2.8 per cent are Indigenous, and 9.4 per cent belong to visible minorities.

Allowing permanent residents to sign up, a Department of National Defence news release said, is a step toward “changing the culture” within the Canadian Armed Forces to make it “an institution where everyone feels safe, protected, and respected.”

That hasn’t always been the case.

The military investigated how bullying at Winnipeg’s Minto Armoury contributed to a soldier’s suicide at CFB Shilo, near Brandon, in 2017. A military report following the death of reservist Cpl. Nolan Caribou found “deep administrative deficiencies and troubling recurring activities in the Minto Armoury” which “include bullying, unsanctioned fighting, inappropriate use of alcohol resulting in violence and initiation activities.”

In 2019, the Free Press exposed reservist Patrik Mathews, who was moonlighting as a neo-Nazi recruiter. He fled to the U.S. where he is serving a nine-year prison sentence for charges related to what the FBI described as a neo-Nazi plot to instigate a race war in the United States.

Von Lau said the military is giving itself an opportunity for a positive reset.

“I strongly believe that the opportunity for permanent residents to serve in the Canadian forces is something the newcomers truly deserve,” she said.

“They are equally hard-working, skilled and committed to their own success and to the success of our nation as Canadian-born citizens.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca