first reading: new 'anti-racist' canadian military scrapes new lows for morale, capability
more than half of canada’s naval and air fleets are now unfit to 'meet training and readiness requirements'
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first reading is a daily newsletter keeping you posted on the travails of canadian politicos, all curated by the national post’s own tristin hopper. to get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.
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a new report finds that while the department of defence is making steady progress on all its new “equity and diversity” goals, morale is plummeting and the canadian military has reached new lows in terms of its ability to actually deploy forces.
for the first time, more than half of canada’s naval and air fleets were marked as being unfit to “meet training and readiness requirements,” according to the military’s latest departmental results report, published tuesday.
only 45.7 per cent of royal canadian navy ships are fit to be used for “training and operations,” and the same is true for just 48.9 per cent of rcaf “aerospace fleets.”
and the figures weren’t much better in the army. the report wrote that the serviceability of canadian army equipment remained in a “persistent downward trend,” with army personnel forced to rely on “aging and increasingly obsolete fleets.”
one example was the bv 206, a tracked snow carrier that is ostensibly the main form of transportation at the nunavut-based arctic training centre. the vehicle now has an incredible 80 per cent failure rate, with the report saying that it can’t be safely used for “essential” tasks.
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morale is also hitting new lows. in a survey, just 30.4 per cent of military personnel said that the armed forces provide a “reasonable quality of life” — that’s far less than the official target of 85 per cent.
the bv 206 tracked carrier pictured in a rare moment of not failing.
department of national defence
and among full-time personnel, just 53.5 per cent said they felt “positive” about their job.
some of the few figures in the document that weren’t in decline were in the realm of “equity and diversity.”
the canadian armed forces slightly increased the share of personnel who “self-identify as a visible minority” (from 11.1 per cent in 2023 to 12.2 per cent in 2024).
there was also a moderate uptick in the number of civilian employees “who self-identify as a woman” (from 42.4 to 43 per cent).
the report boasted of a new system of military promotions that does not “disadvantage the intersections of diverse groups of women, men and non-binary people.”
it also announced that “gender advisors” were now being routinely deployed on overseas operations, including on operation unifier, canada’s mission to provide combat training to ukrainian soldiers engaged in their ongoing war with russia. “the task force gender advisor was involved in all aspects of this training mission,” it read.
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the report also noted some progress in the military’s “path to net zero strategy.” “rcaf fleets have already used low carbon fuels where operationally feasible, available and affordable,” it read.
the canadian armed forces have been steadily losing capability since at least the 1970s, and canada has long suffered from a chronic failure to replace aging equipment.
but in recent years, the military has been faced by a new problem of being so strapped for resources and recruits that they’re struggling to use whatever equipment they have.
it was only in 2018 that the department of national defence started specifically keeping tabs on how many of its ships, vehicles and aircraft were “serviceable to meet training and readiness requirements.”
in that first year, 91.4 per cent of the navy met the threshold, 79.1 of the air force and 72 per cent of the army. all three, as noted, are now below 50 per cent.
this time last year, vice-admiral angus topshee, commander of the royal canadian navy, said that despite the military receiving a new fleet of offshore patrol vessels, due to personnel shortages they could only be deployed one at a time.
in the new departmental results report, both the navy and the air force cited staffing shortages as to why so much of their equipment couldn’t be used.
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the rcaf didn’t come close to meeting its serviceability targets due to “a limited number of qualified technicians.” the navy similarly reported “crew availability” as a problem, as well as mechanical breakdowns across basically its entire fleet.
ships were either too old, like frigates which saw “longer docking work periods … primarily attributable to the age of the class.” or, like the new offshore patrol vessels, the ships were new and still couldn’t be used for extended periods due to “a class-wide machinery issue.”
meanwhile, the canadian armed forces has leaned hard into anti-racism doctrine, with department of defence brass openly pledging to turn the military into an “anti-racist organization.”
it was only two years ago that an official department of defence audit declared that military personnel served a systemically racist country.
“racism in canada is not a glitch in the system; it is the system. colonialism and intersecting systems such as patriarchy, heteronormativity and ableism constitute the root causes of inequality within canada,” reads the final report of the advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination, published in 2022.
in a statement accompanying the new departmental results report, defence minister bill blair cited the importance of a “diverse military” in responding to an “increasingly complex geopolitical landscape.”
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“central to rebuilding our military is fostering a more inclusive military culture and ensuring a respectful workplace for all,” wrote blair. he also cited climate change as a key danger increasing the “frequency, duration and intensity” of military operations.
the report has largely gone unnoticed in ottawa, given that it was tabled just as parliament broke for the holidays — and the liberal party was plunged into a highly public legitimacy crisis.
but in a brief social media post, conservative shadow minister of defence james bezan reacted to the report by saying, “trudeau hasn’t just broken our military, he’s trying to destroy it.”
in other news
some quick updates on the liberal legitimacy crisis:
- trudeau obviously hasn’t resigned. his plan instead is to shuffle his cabinet on friday.
- chrystia freeland’s monday departure was a more of an “you can’t fire me, i quit” situation. her resignation was preceded by a zoom call in which trudeau reportedly told her she was being replaced by mark carney.
from our old friend, election modeller raymond liu, here’s what it might look like if an election were held tomorrow. the figures are based on the “committed voter intentions” contained within a new abacus data poll conducted in the immediate wake of chrystia freeland’s resignation from cabinet. it shows just 10 liberal seats, confined exclusively to ottawa, toronto and montreal. this one even has green party leader elizabeth may losing her seat to the conservatives.
@realalbanianpat
liberal mp sean casey was an early entrant in the category of liberals calling for justin trudeau to resign (he was saying as much two months ago). in a press scrum this week, casey was particularly scathing on both why trudeau is refusing to resign, and why more liberals aren’t calling for his ouster:
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on the former point: “he’s absolutely convinced of his talents, his abilities, his intelligence.”
on the latter point: “if there’s eight or nine cabinet positions available, there’s 30 people that think they’re in the running … there’s going to be a heck of a lot more speaking out once they find out that they’re not going into cabinet.”
one of canada’s most famous aviation mishaps is getting a monument. the gimli glider was an air canada boeing 767 that ran out of fuel over rural manitoba in 1983 due to a botched metric conversion – but was nevertheless brought in for a perfect landing on a gimli, man., go-kart track. this is a newly released plan to permanently install the aircraft’s cockpit in gimli, where there’s already a museum to the incident (complete with a flight simulator where you can re-enact the landing).
the gimli glider exhibit
u.s. president-elect donald trump basically kicked off the liberal fiasco by threatening crushing 25 per cent tariffs against canadian exports – driving a conspicuous wedge between trudeau government ministers in terms of how to respond. after cheering freeland’s exit earlier this week, he again suggested annexation. “many canadians want canada to become the 51st state. they would save massively on taxes and military protection. i think it is a great idea. 51st state!!!” trump wrote on truth social.
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