Canadian Army Hat Badges

[Shelldrake]

Maybe Peace Enforcement with appropriate ROE would be a better term.

[Michael Dorosh]

Why would Canada get rid of a perfectly good airborne regiment?

The Canadian Airborne Regiment was disbanded as the result of a military scandal that involved the murder of a Somali teenager at the hands of two soldiers when the Airborne was deployed to Somalia in the mid-90s. It has been argued (rightly so in my view) that the regiment should never have been deployed as peace keepers since the unit was not properly trained as peace keepers and the was in a state of disorganization as a result of recent government cutbacks. IMO the Liberal government "punished" the Canadian Forces by disbanding its elite unit.

The regiment was also reported to have had long-standing discipline issues which haven't been mentioned here, and a number of hazing videos were leaked to the press at the time. Not relatively mild hockey-team stuff, we're talking new troops being forced to eat excrement and vomit. Maybe still not as bad as some of the stuff in Russian videos where they are beaten unconscious, but I don't suppose it is a contest.

I believe there were also a number of soldiers in the regiment linked to the white supremacy movement in Canada. Even though I had nothing to do with the Airborne, as a military reservist, I was questioned by the Special Investigations Unit with regards to an association on one occasion and warned of their concerns about soldiers with links to suspected "white supremacists." So I experienced this one first hand. Luckily I was given a clean bill of health and a letter to my C.O. stating I was not a "white supremist" as they put it, but the experience had been unnerving.

I seem to recall reports about some of the senior leadership as well. I couldn't say one way or another but the Liberal government was not well liked by the military community so it would be easy to blame them. While there is more clear evidence that they hold the bag for a number of other problems the military suffered, it may be that the Airborne was at least partially responsible for its own demise.

Somalia clearly scared the military, and no doubt the government. It also changed the military in Canada as an institution forever, I would argue for the better. We now have diversity and sensitivity training, and the words alone cause eye-rolling but the change itself has been positive. I don't know that there has been a real impact on how soldiers treat minorities (whether racial minorities, people of colour, sexual orientation, etc.) but I suspect any change that has occurred has been for the better. What is more apparent is simply the number of visual minorities in this country and consequently the CF. It is projected that within my lifetime, caucasians will be a minority in Canada. Few immigrants seem to choose the CF as a career but the proportions increase every year. It is certainly within our best interests to promote harmony and good relations/working relationships. It may be that the CF has always been colour-blind, but that may be a little optimistic, just as it might be optimistic to think we will never have tensions between race, gender, etc. I think Somalia opened a lot of eyes as to which path we need to go down, and that was a culture of respect. Which is why an institution that hazed their own troops, harboured white supremacists, etc., couldn't be tolerated.

To the main topic of this older thread - I'll throw out this URL for anyone not aware of the Commonwealth badge collectors forum for anyone looking for a good source of info. There are galleries as well as good forums for having questions answered, etc.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/forums/index.php