Can the Canadian Forces address their toxic culture?

On paper, Canada’s military has been a leader in LGBTQ2S+ inclusion, far outpacing our neighbours to the south. Queer people have been able to serve openly since 1992, after lesbian military officer Michelle Douglas sued the Canadian Forces for her dismissal as part of the ongoing LGBT Purge within the ranks, and the government dropped their policy (and settled with Douglas). Trans people have been able to serve openly as well, and in some cases, the military actually paid for gender-affirming surgeries when provinces would not. In recent years, the Canadian Forces have made a point of showing up at Pride parades, in part to encourage people to sign up at a time when they are facing a dire recruitment shortfall.

Of course, this inclusion has largely been formal as opposed to substantial. As sexual misconduct scandals continue to reverberate through the military, going up to the very top brass, the issue has also driven home that queer and trans people in uniform face disproportionate levels of harassment and sexual violence. For as much as the military has opened its ranks to women—who are able to serve equally in all capacities, unlike in many other countries (though it took until 2001 for that to include submarines)—an insular culture of toxic masculinity has permeated all facets of the organization. And that culture greatly impacts the experience of queer and trans service members.

When the Conservative government commissioned the Deschamps Report as a response to a devastating story of sexual assault in the Forces that was on the front cover of Maclean’s, former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps was scathing in her description of the state of the military, citing:

“There is an underlying sexualized culture in the [Canadian Armed Forces] that is hostile to women and LGTBQ members, and conducive to more serious incidents of sexual harassment and assault. Cultural change is therefore key. It is not enough to simply revise policies or to repeat the mantra of “zero tolerance.” Leaders must acknowledge that sexual misconduct is a real and serious problem for the organization, one that requires their own direct and sustained attention.”

As part of her report, Deschamps made 10 recommendations that were not seriously followed up on by either the senior leadership of the military, who treated it like a superficial box-ticking exercise, or by the former minister of National Defence, Harjit Sajjan. As a former member of the military, Sajjan was too close to the culture to actually do the job of civilian oversight, and didn’t challenge the senior leadership on their lack of action on the report.

While Sajjan was generally useless in the file, he did commission an advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination, whose focus was on “anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism, LGBTQ2S+ prejudice, gender bias and white supremacy.” There was one queer woman as part of the panel. It released its final report in April to little fanfare, and the new minister of defence, Anita Anand, agreed to consider their recommendations to bring about change in the Forces, as well as the Department of National Defence, whose population is made up significantly of former serving personnel (which is another aspect that is bad for civilian control).

The panel’s recommendations didn’t touch a lot on LGBTQ2S+ issues, but did recommend increasing the use of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in data collection within the military—something the government has not been great at doing, per the Auditor General—which can also help with monitoring progress on diversity and inclusion initiatives. In fact, the panel found that there was no data at all collected on LGBTQ2S+ personnel in the military’s demographics. They also recommended elevating the status of Defence Advisory Groups, one of which is the Defence Team Pride Advisory Organization, so that their voices are heard by the military leadership. There was also a recommendation around trying to ensure that military chaplains are more empathetic and have an appreciation for diversity, rather than those who would force beliefs on to members of the Forces—particularly those who have had traumatic encounters with religion in the past, including queer and trans members, as well as Indigenous people. A military that is like evangelical Bible camp (looking at you, United States Air Force) is not one conducive to diversity and inclusion.

The panel report also had a specific section about embracing trans members of the Forces, and looked at how a lack of understanding from the military medical community was compounded by homophobic notes that went into members’ files and followed them around between postings. As well, trans members face added barriers to getting their gender-affirming surgery, including providing psychological proof of their commitment to the process. Two of the recommendations of the report were specifically dedicated to addressing the needs of trans members.

The most recent report to come out was the Arbour Report, which was largely a road map for driving the changes in the Forces that didn’t happen after the Deschamps Report. Again, there weren’t a lot of LGBTQ2S+-specific recommendations, but a couple stood out: trying to weed out problematic beliefs early on in the recruitment stage, and trying to head off the perpetuation of a toxic culture at the Royal Military College by getting rid of its undergraduate programs. Arbour said that RMC could stay open for graduate studies, by which time officer cadets would have less opportunity to be influenced by the school’s tradition of toxic masculinity. 

Part of why this is important is the fact that the military is facing a full-on recruitment crisis. They are at least 10,000 personnel short, and that cuts a lot of needed capabilities, both at home and abroad. This becomes an even harder task, given that we have a strong economy and labour market right now, and unemployment is at record lows. And while we will be seeing Canadian Forces tents up at Pride festivals around the country over the summer and into the fall, we want to ensure that anyone who does join up can do so feeling safe, and included and that they won’t be subject to sexual violence—and be expected to just suck it up. We’ll see if the military is actually up for the task of changing its culture, and if the current government can hold their feet to the fire and make it happen, which they didn’t do with Sajjan as minister.