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A few lazy men Since the Airborne scandal, Canada has toned down the way it treats its recruits. But are we mollycoddling our future soldiers?
by PATRICK LEJTENYI Photos by Jason Felker
"The Canadian Forces standard to put on a gas mask, from start to finish, is nine seconds!" lectures Master Corporal Maciej Jonasz. The troops take off their masks and put them in their carrying case, a green tote-bag-sized pouch they wear on their hip, the strap over their shoulder. "Again! Gas! Gas! Gas!" yells Jonasz. The troops quickly replace their rifles between their knees, close their eyes, hold their breath and put on their masks. It takes just over 15 seconds. Still not good enough. As part of their training for the Canadian Army reserves, these recruits in General Military Training (GMT) Course 9905A are learning their Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence (NBCD) drills at CFB Longue-Pointe, deep in Montreal's East End. To make their drills instinctual, the recruits have to learn to perform every movement without thinking. They'll keep doing it until they get it right, then they'll enter the base's dreaded gas hut and do it while exposed to tear-gas. "Don't wear contact lenses in the gas hut," Mcpl Jonasz warns. "If your mask isn't properly sealed, they'll melt and stick to your eyeballs." He grins as nervous laughter is heard behind about forty gas masks. "You've been warned, so now you have no legal recourse against us. Yeeha! You're gonna suffer!" Jonasz continues his lecture, cracking the occasional joke. But what's most striking is what he doesn't say: Jonasz does not swear, yell at or insult any of the recruits. No one does push-ups, no one runs laps. That's illegal now, and mistreatment of his recruits could land Jonasz in very serious trouble. Welcome to the New Army. There's no life like it.
Firearms drills, sensitivity training The New Army does not debase, demean, insult, humiliate or physically or mentally abuse its recruits. Instruction is based on speed, repetition and thinking, not push-ups and vituperation. Instructors are told to respect the recruits as human beings and to treat them as such. But the changes don't please everyone--they raise the question of just what type of soldier Canada is creating. As one senior non-commissioned member says, "We're building smarter but lazier soldiers."
Beginning with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, which outlawed hitting soldiers, the army's brutality, sexism and racism have been the target of new initiatives from Ottawa to weed them out. As of January 1997, every CF member, from Brigadier-General to raw recruit, has to take a Sexual Harassment and Racial Prejudice (SHARP) course at least once a year. A day-long seminar, using videos and open discussions about feelings, is designed to highlight and expose inappropriate behaviour among CF members and to send a clear message to all: it will not be tolerated. Captain Chantal Lussier, the SHARP co-ordinator for 34 Brigade (comprising southern Quebec and Abitibi-Temiscamingue) has watched how the course has affected the soldiers over the past two years. "All big changes take a certain amount of time to be felt," she says, "especially among the old guard. They think things like push-ups and the abuse of power are part of the military culture. They don't realize that society has changed and that we have to change with it. Our policies change and adapt." Younger members of the Canadian Forces seem to agree. Lieutenant Sébastien Boucher, course officer for another Longue-Pointe recruit course, believes in the changes. "The course is necessary because all these recruits are living close together in a high-stress environment," says Boucher, 23. "It clarifies the army's new philosophy in a practical sense. What we're asking for is good leaders, people who can look for something good in the recruits and praise them for it. We want to actualize their potential." Phrases like "actualizing potential" don't please everyone. While recruits are still being taught basic military skills--drill, the rank system, navigation, first aid, weapons, NBCD and so on--the emphasis has changed from physical toughness to mental prowess and sensitivity. As a result, many serving and retired military personnel doubt whether these new soldiers, whom they consider only half-trained, will be up to the job--especially if they end up in combat roles.
Don't think, you'll hurt the team Corporal Andreas Beauchamp joined the Royal Montreal Regiment in January 1994 and spent six months in the former Yugoslavia on the second NATO peacekeeping tour. He thinks the decreased emphasis on physical conditioning doesn't make for a better soldier; he thinks it actually decreases their combat effectiveness. "Under the new rules, every soldier in the Canadian reserves always has to know why they're following some particular order. I don't think they need to know so much. It hinders efficiency because everyone is asking questions. There's nothing wrong with asking questions, but too many? That's problematic. "As for the physical conditioning, you can see it when the new guys do the advance-to-contact exercise [a gruelling sniper-elimination drill in which soldiers have to run three steps, drop, crawl three metres, fire, get up and repeat the sequence over distances of over 300 metres]. They're weak. You've got to keep moving forward all the time, carrying a full 30- to 40-pound load and your weapon. You have to be in good shape." The physical conditioning has not disappeared from reservist training, but its intensity has been toned down. Sergeant Clyde Roberts, Jonasz's second-in-command, says PT is designed to help the recruit slowly work his way up the fitness scale to "avoid a massive blast when they start." There is speculation among serving members that a big part of the new approach is designed to keep retention levels high. Beauchamp estimates that 70 per cent of recruits who finish their summer trade courses are out of the reserves after a year and a half. That means a lot of time and money is wasted on recruits who don't stick around. For his part, the proudly old-school Beauchamp focuses on traditional motivation: those who can't handle it are letting down their section, their platoon, their company, their regiment. And he tells them that the pain is only in their heads. "I always tell privates that if the mind doesn't matter, the body doesn't mind," says Beauchamp. "Then they look at me like I'm from the Stone Age." |
The recruits are standing in a three-sided open square, their rifles between their knees, racing to get their gas masks on. It takes them over 20 seconds.
As little as five years ago, recruits routinely suffered Full Metal Jacket-style treatment from their superiors. But in the wake of the Somalia and Airborne scandals, and the subsequent savaging the Forces received in the press, the army has had to refocus and redefine itself. It has become a kinder, gentler army.