Military culture reform is key to fix recruitment ‘death spiral’: minister

Canada’s defence minister says steps taken last week to modernize the military justice system is part of an overhaul of military culture that is crucial to reversing the “death spiral” of shrinking recruitment.

“I very strongly believe cultural change is a process, not an event,” Bill Blair said in an interview on The West Block with Mercedes Stephenson. “And it really requires that we’re going to institutionalize that change.“

Blair believes a crucial first step in fixing the military’s recruiting problem is admitting there is a serious problem. Blair gave a speech in early March to a military conference and, in a room filled with admirals, generals, and other senior leaders of the Canadian Armed Forces, he described the CAF’s inability to attract more members as “a death spiral.”

He told Stephenson he deliberately used that strong language as a “wake-up call” to the leaders in the room.

“I think it’s really important for us to acknowledge that a prolonged period of time where more people are leaving and joining the Canadian Armed Forces isn’t sustainable,” Blair said in The West Block interview.

“That was my intent in speaking to people who I think are very important in Canadian military and military culture.”

Blair made a direct connection between boosting recruiting numbers and overhauling the current culture of the Canadian Armed Forces, a culture where sexual misconduct by senior male leaders was for many years overlooked or trivialized.

Former Supreme Court of Canada justice Louise Arbour’s scathing report released in 2022 found the top ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces were “incapable” of recognizing the “deficient” parts of a culture that keep sexual misconduct and abuse of power entrenched.

Global News first brought