The Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and police forces across Canada are struggling to recruit new members. That’s a problem that affects everyone.
It doesn’t help that five police officers in Canada have been killed in the past six weeks, four of them while on the job.
Canada’s military has 10,000 unfilled positions – one-in-ten roles – within its ranks and top officials are being forced to cancel all but the most essential missions.
Both organizations are dealing with self-inflicted wounds, caused by senior leaders harassing and assaulting junior members or turning a blind eye to it, as well as other missteps, from the unwillingness to take care of their own suffering from PTSD and other illnesses to a rise in right-wing extremism.
Federal governments have neglected the RCMP and the military for decades. The armed forces are chronically underfunded at nowhere near what is required to be a member of NATO. RCMP members had to unionize to get the better pay enjoyed by officers in local and provincial police forces.
Both organizations are also struggling with their role in modern society. After all the paperwork and the social work, law enforcement seems to take a backseat for many police officers and the courts punt the most frequent offenders back on the street. Military personnel seem to be providing domestic disaster relief as or more often than they are conducting essential training exercises or being deployed in conflict zones abroad.
Meanwhile, numerous surveys show that young, urban Canadians have little to no interest in leaving the big city for any reason, never mind putting on a uniform, relocating to rural military bases or remote RCMP outposts and taking orders. The social status that once came with military service or a law enforcement career is nowhere near what it once was, and the obvious workplace hazards discourage most risk-averse millennials from signing up to police the city streets where they grew up.
Don’t blame the kids, though. Good luck finding parents encouraging their children to sign up.
These problems are going to take more than a marketing campaign to fix. These issues in our uniformed services were allowed to fester for years and it will take years and dedicated social and government effort to fix.
Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
