Alright, I'm going to weigh in here and hopefully provide you all with some context to this situation. For those who don't know, I'm an instructor at RMC and a member of the Training Wing Staff so the first thing I will say is there is a lot more to this story than what has been reported in the media and the version that is being pushed by many Cadets on Social Media is one side of the story, there is another.
I'll start by talking about the Special Staff Assistance Visit (SSAV) where all of this came from. Coles notes version, The CDS launched the SSAV last year as a result of a number of incidents at the College stemming from a breakdown in Discipline, Poor Morale and a Systemic Toxic Command Climate at the College. The report which I will link, gave a list of recommendations that the Military should adopt in order to make the necessary changes at the College. The CDS gave the order that all of the recommendations would be implemented and personally hand picked a team of Officers to sort the College out. Additional NCO's were brought in, Squadron Commanders were all replaced with an entirely new team tasked with supporting the CDS initiative to change the culture of the College.
SSAV Link:
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/special-staff-assistance-visit.html
I can personally tell you that the problems when I arrived here 8 months ago were monumental. There was no standard, no enforcement of discipline, the actual administration of the Cadets themselves was a disaster. Even the infrastructure at the campus was a dilapidated mess with many of the dorms being in a very poor state of repair. This was surprising to me considering I was a Cadet a little less than a decade ago and the College had undergone a number of massive infrastructure revitalization programs.
Worst of all, College Policy had strayed very far from CAF Policy. The very first thing the new Command Team did when they arrived was rip up the Cadet Wing Instructions (CADWINS) which is the College Code of Conduct that RMC is allowed to have according to QR&O Volume IV, Appendix 6.1, 3.10 link:
http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/about-policies-standards-queens-regulations-orders-vol-04/appx-06-01.page. The QR&O's clearly state that RMC is allowed to have its own Code of Conduct which falls outside the Code of Service Discipline (CSD) and CAF Remedial Measures. The reason for this is because RMC is first and foremost a "
Training Institution" and uniquely, it is a four year long one where Cadets are supposed to be objectively assessed by Training Wing Staff as to their suitability to be future Officers in the Canadian Forces. Secondly, the College has its own Code of Conduct with its own form of disciplinary measures as Cadets are expected to largely police themselves with Cadets in leadership positions being allowed to sanction other Cadets for breaching CADWINS. This is used to keep Discipline to a high level and also to teach Cadets that they will be expected to uphold rules and regulations once they leave RMC. Also, many of the offences committed day to day are not significant enough to warrant a CSD investigation.
What people fail to understand is,
CADWINS IS THE TRAINING. RMC training environment is one where future Officers are presented with a series of ethical & moral dilemmas (many very minuscule) that they are expected to formulate a plan and take decisive action. It could be as simple as a Cadet skipped numerous classes at taxpayer expense to a Cadet committed a criminal offence such as sexual assault. Bottom line, if you know something about it, you report it and do your job i.e. Uphold the NDA which the CADWINS falls under. I am one Officer, with a Warrant Officer as my 2IC and we are responsible for monitoring 86 Cadets ourselves. It is impossible for me to police them 24/7 therefore I rely on them to police themselves. I can tell you that I sign off on every disciplinary sanction taken by my Senior Cadets and there isn't one thing I don't know about. I also step in when the situation is too difficult or sensitive for Cadets to handle. Everything from attempted suicide, drug use, fighting, personal conflict, disciplinary infractions, alcohol abuse, etc. I have dealt with them all this year and spent many weekends and my own personal time mentoring and training the Cadets so I can hopefully prepare them for the future.
I am not alone in this, we were told when we got here and were offered the job that things at the College would change and new Squadron Commanders were expected to take an active role in the day to day life of their Cadets. It is a big commitment but one that I really enjoy as 95% of the Cadets are awesome young Canadians that simply want to be in the military and serve their country. I participate in Intramural sports with the Cadets, I am involved with the Model UN club, all of my Cadets have my personal cellphone number, I Conduct all activities with the Cadets, I'm going to watch them do a drill competition in a couple of hours on a Sunday.
Now as for this specific incident itself, as I said before, there is more to this story. The Training Wing has spent the last eight months rewriting the CADWINS, it is presently being translated but has been reduced from a 350 page document to a 50 page document, a massive undertaking. We are also redesigning the Military Component of the College along with the First Year Orientation Program. There are many changes happening and all of them pertaining to the SSAV. Contrary to what's been said in the media, the dress standard here has been significantly relaxed. The Number 4 blues uniform is no longer worn by first years in town, there is no tiered system of dress for Cadets as there was before with different years being required to wear different outfits. We have removed curfews for different years. The only thing that has changed is that No Jeans are allowed to be worn off the Peninsula, which was the case anyways expect fourth years were allowed in years past. We've done away with privileges for different years, everybody is the same. FYI the jeans policy was under further review even before this happened, the message has always been "this may change but until it does, we expect you to follow the direction we've given".
It's easy to cherry pick what the College is doing when we have 78 different recommendations to work towards, some of them complimentary to each other. This is where the misinformation is so difficult. While dress standards were identified as a point of contention by Cadets, another thing identified was the Cadet Culture of "
Cover your *** and that of your buddy rather than doing the right thing". This has been something that the staff have persistently been working at changing and is the reason why the Cadets are presently confined to the Peninsula.
This is a culture we have been fighting since the beginning of the year and is still a real problem. There has been a systemic issue of Senior Cadets not enforcing standards and this is the mechanism we are using to break this poor leadership habit. If a Commanding Officer gives an Order and all the Senior NCOs in a Regiment choose to ignore it, what do you think would happen? Yes 95% of Cadets follow the Orders the problem is those 95% let the 5% that couldn't give a damn and will be real pains in the *** for their troops when they leave here, walk all over them. That culture has ended here and there is a new Regime in town that is holding people accountable. The CDS has given us direction that Personal Accountability at all times is what we are to strive for.
The Cadets that don't like this are the ones that are causing problems because they are finally being taken to task concerning their conduct and performance by a new group of Officers and NCOs that have more experience than previous groups of staff, understand policy and have the backing of the Chain of Command. I have personally given two Cadets their walking papers since arriving here and more will be coming unless they get on board with the Program. The message is a clear: shape up or ship out.
