Hmmm ... here‘s another article.
Monday, April 16, 2001 Back The Halifax Herald Limited
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Hoopla about military equality just missing one thing - women
By Scott Taylor ON TARGET
In recent weeks, Defence Minister Art Eggleton has seemingly embarked on a one-man crusade to integrate women into combat units.
On International Women‘s Day, Eggleton proudly proclaimed that service on submarines - heretofore the last all-male bastion - was now open to both sexes. Although this decision ran counter to the navy‘s survey results and the advice of senior commanders, feminists praised the defence minister for "breaking down the barriers."
But days later, Eggleton‘s office released a damaging report concluding that "insensitivity, ignorance and biases" toward women remain rampant throughout the Canadian Armed Forces.
Although the study had been conducted by Capt. Sandra Perron, his own adviser on "the integration of women and minorities," Eggleton appeared to be shocked by the publicized results. Looking his combative best, he vehemently denounced this "neanderthal behaviour."
Echoing the threats issued two years before by Gen. Maurice Baril, chief of the defence staff, Eggleton decreed that such attitudes "would not be tolerated in the Forces" and that anyone harbouring such chauvinism should "look elsewhere for work." Once again, feminists applauded the minister of defence for "laying down the law."
On March 12, Eggleton went one step further when he wrote a letter to the Association for Women‘s Equity in the Canadian Forces. Contained in that correspondence was an admission that female army recruits were being treated unfairly due to "inexperienced" instructors making "biased" and "subjective" assessments designed to keep women out of the infantry.
In his letter, Eggleton alleged that the tougher male fitness standards had been improperly invoked (horrors!) and that although "the department has not uncovered any proof of this, the possibility that files may have been altered in an inappropriate manner cannot be excluded."
To get to the bottom of this scandal, Eggleton announced the commissioning of a full-blown board of inquiry and has made it his personal objective to establish a minimum of 13 per cent female representation in front-line units by the year 2010.
What is truly unfortunate is that Eggleton‘s proposed inquiry will not be public, and he will be nowhere near whatever‘s left of our Defence Department in 10 years so that he can be held accountable for his policies.
The army‘s only real hope for a reprieve from such politically driven experimentation is to expose the whole mess once and for all before a public forum. The record would show that Eggleton is not the first to set an unachievable quota that ignores the department‘s own exhaustive studies.
On Dec. 20, 1996, Lt.-Gen. Bill Leach, then a major-general and acting army commander, issued a directive that said: "In order to achieve integration, I have set a goal of achieving a critical mass of 25 per cent women on all future combat arms (training) serials."
He concluded by ordering his staff to "recruit to these targets."
At that time, there was a tremendous amount of internal discussion.
According to research, even if DND were to accept every woman who simply walked into a recruiting centre (regardless of ability, education level or physical handicap), it could never recruit more than a 16 per cent level of women.
Undaunted by the facts, then acting commander Leach and Gen. Baril pulled out all the stops in an attempt to convert their policy into reality. Physical training standards were "amended" so as not to provide an "impediment," and a $1.5-million television advertising campaign was launched in 1998.
The stated objective of the brass was to recruit 250 female combat soldiers. Despite herculean efforts by recruiting officers, the Leach-Baril initiative was a dismal flop. A mere 41 women signed up for jobs in the infantry, only three of whom graduated. None of these women served out their three-year contracts in the infantry.
Although it has been a full 12 years since a human rights ruling "allowed" women to serve in combat roles, females still represent only 0.6 per cent of our front-line units.
It is similar with the air force. Despite all the hoopla about allowing women to pilot our fighter aircraft, only a handful of "pioneers" have successfully completed the training. None has flown operationally, there are "no female fighter pilots in the service - and there are none in the training system," according to a DND spokesman.
Once he becomes aware of this fact, Eggleton will no doubt wish to denounce the "neanderthals" in the air force and launch another of his probes into this potential "scandal."
A third inquiry may soon prove necessary when it is learned that no women have yet been transferred to the submarine squadron.
It has been six weeks since International Women‘s Day. The navy admits that it has so far only had "a number of informal requests for information but no actual applications as yet."
Neanderthals!
Yard Ape
