Canada’s military is so short-staffed under Trudeau’s leadership that 10,000 positions are currently unfilled, and recruitment admits there’s an “applicant crisis.”
“We are without a doubt in an applicant crisis right now,” says Brig.-Gen.Brigadier-General Krista Brodie, who oversees the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) recruitment and training.
Of the 100,000 positions required to protect and serve Canada domestically and abroad, about 10,000 are currently unfilled.
“I don’t think we’ve got a good answer anywhere. I think there are so many factors and components and dimensions of the why,” Brodie said.
In 2020-2021, the CAF reached less than 50% of its intake goal.
“The reality is that the Canadian workforce has changed but we, the CAF, have not. Seventy-one percent of the CAF workforce are still white males, although they only represent 39 per cent of the Canadian civilian workforce,” Major General Lise Bourgon said in March.
“So as an organization, we must attract, recruit, retain and develop talent that is representative of our Canadian society.”
Brodie is pushing for a “cultural reckoning” in the military.
One strategy employed earlier this year loosened uniform and hair codes. There are also quotas for a minimum number of women and non-white members and a maximum number of white men.
The far-left agenda of equity, diversity, and inclusion is sprawled across the CAF’s website. The website boasts of removing sex designation from military members’ driver’s licences.
Additionally, the website promotes a staff selection process that requires a Gender Based Analysis Plus, including bias awareness training and mandating that one voting member is from a so-called “equity seeking group.”
Brodie says she’s unsure if the focus on woke ideology and policies is hurting or helping.
“We can’t measure the impact of that right now. It’s too early. But to be very, very clear — we want suitable candidates, and suitable candidates are those that first and foremost reflect the values of the Canadian Armed Forces.”
CAF is so desperate that $25,000 signing bonuses are on the table for some positions.
Earlier this week, federal Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre called on Trudeau to remove the COVID vaccine requirement for the CAF.
“The government now admits that it is safe for an unvaccinated person to get on an airplane, to work in a government office, but unsafe for that same person to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces,” he said.
