AN ARMY BRIGADE COMMANDER THREATENS TO LEAVE HONORARY POSITIONS VACANT IF REGIMENTS FAIL TO FIND WOMEN TO FILL THE ROLES. ‘WHEN I SAY GENDER DIVERSITY TARGETS: THINK 50/50.’

An army brigade commander is threatening to leave appointments vacant if regiments don’t begin naming women as honorary colonels and lieutenant colonels.

“I will not recommend any new honorary appointment unless we see improvement of our diversity targets,” Colonel Daniel Stepaniuk wrote in an Aug. 13 email after a strategic planning session for all regular and reserve units in Ontario.

Postmedia has a copy of the email.

“I will not recommend an extension of any current honorary unless we move to satisfy our diversity targets … When I say gender diversity targets, think 50/50,” Stepaniuk wrote.

He is the commander of 32 Canadian Brigade Group, based in Toronto but with 12 reserve regiments in Hamilton, Brantford, Mississauga and other cities in southern Ontario. He spent 30 years in the forces, 27 in the army reserve.

In the Canadian Army, “honoraries,” as the appointments are colloquially known, are traditionally recruited locally, from the ranks of regimental supporters, business and the like. Army colonels and honorary lieutenant colonels are primarily the preserve of the militia, or parttime reserves.

A key part of the honorary’s job is to represent the unit and protect its independence and history.

The 50-50 gender balance is a directive that flows from the federal government, and it is, in the final analysis, the defence minister, now Harjit Sajjan, who makes these appointments.

But where army leaders heretofore have been careful to speak in general terms about “targets” — two female honorary colonels across the reserves now, then four, etc. — Stepaniuk was much more direct, both in his email and in a phone interview late Monday.

“Honorary appointees are nominated by the CO (unit commanding officer) to me, not by the senate or regimental committee,” he said in his email.

“If your association/regimental committee/senate are helping you to choose a suitable nominee and they are not using an appropriate diversity lens, it is your responsibility to ignore their recommendations and proceed to find a suitable candidate.

“If this is not absolutely clear, if we don’t proceed in the direction of achieving gender diversity, I’m prepared to have no honoraries because as current appointments expire, folks won’t be replaced.”

Stepaniuk warned that “The appearance is that many folks are not taking this direction seriously and/or are hoping that this is a ‘fad’ and will simply go away.

“It’s not going away.” Stepaniuk told Postmedia that “I think we should be casting as wide a net as possible” in recruiting honoraries, adding, “We haven’t been as open and inclusive as we should be.”

The problem for the reserves is that, while the militia is probably one of the most ethnically and racially diverse organizations in Canada, only about 15% of the Canadian Forces overall are women. That number is probably somewhat higher in the reserves, but still nowhere near 50%.

In his brigade, for instance, Stepaniuk said only one of 26 honoraries was female.

Yet the vast majority of honoraries across the country serve combat arms units — about 55 infantry units, 20 artillery, 17 armed and about 10 units of combat engineers.

Traditionally, these aren’t the occupations that draw women.

And with few women in the combat arms, fewer still have risen to higher ranks such as commanding officers or, in their civilian lives, become captains of industry, the usual and the modern hunting grounds for honoraries.

As Stepaniuk put it, “If we’re going back to the same well” of potential candidates, regiments will end up with the same sort of appointments.

“There are plenty of accomplished, successful and inspirational women who would make great honoraries,” he said, adding that the processes to find them have to change.

In his memo, Stepaniuk offered one bit of good news: The division, he said, is now willing to move up an honorary lieutenant colonel to an honorary colonel.

“Here’s a thought,” he wrote cheerfully: “If your HLCol is male and you’d like to make him the HCol — go for it, but nominate an awesome Canadian Woman to be your HLCol.

“If you cannot find one, you cannot be looking very hard.”

The appointments are usually for three years, with one renewal possible.

Despite his tough talk in the memo, Stepaniuk said he doesn’t foresee telling units “that look, you didn’t find a female …” and rejecting their choices holusbolus.

Rather, he said, he would ask, “Why aren’t you trying a little bit harder? It’s an opportunity and an obligation.”

He said he doesn’t predict “a sea rebellion of COs” deciding to thwart the goal of gender equity.