Canadian military not doing enough to prevent extremism
White supremacists infiltrating its ranks, damaging report says
A scathing new report on racism in the Canadian Armed Forces says the military is not doing enough to detect and prevent white supremacists and other violent extremists from infiltrating its ranks.
The report, released Monday by Defence Minister Anita Anand, also takes the military to task for not acting on dozens of previous studies and reviews on racism in the ranks over the past two decades.
The report comes after a yearlong review by a panel of retired Armed Forces members, and follows a spate of incidents linking some military personnel with violent extremism and hate groups, including white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
It also coincides with concerns about a growing disconnect between the makeup of Canada’s military, whose ranks are primarily white men, and the rest of the country’s population.
White men account for 71 per cent of Canadian military members but only 39 per cent of the country’s civilian workforce. The report notes Indigenous Peoples, visible minorities and women are significantly under-represented in Canada’s Armed Forces.
The panel in its report describes the suspected presence of extremists in the military as a “pressing moral, social and operational issue,” with such members representing a threat to unit cohesion and Canadians’ trust in the institution.
It found despite adopting a zerotolerance approach, efforts to detect extremists were “siloed and inefficient” and extremists themselves were more adept at avoiding detection.
“The need for education and training for leaders at all levels of the defence team was highlighted repeatedly during the advisory panel’s consultations,” the racism report reads.
Anand said Monday the government has earmarked more than $200 million to help change the military’s culture, but she did not lay out any specific new measures.
Gen. Wayne Eyre, chief of the defence staff, said the military needs to find a balance between privacy concerns and remaining vigilant when it comes to things like monitoring members’ social media posts.
“The real challenge we face with many of these organizations is they tend to morph once they’re illuminated, once the spotlight goes on them,” Eyre added during a virtual news conference with Anand and members of the review panel.