Military Launches Probationary Period for New Recruits Amid Personnel Shortage

Staff work at a Canadian Armed Forces recruitment centre in Ottawa, on Sept. 20, 2022. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Prospective candidates interested in joining the military can now expect an expedited process. If their cultural perspectives post-enrolment do not align with the organization’s established values, however, they could be shown the door in short order.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) launched its new process to speed up recruiting on Dec. 31, which includes the implementation of a probationary period for newly joined members. The CAF announced the change by way of an official “CANFORGEN” message on Jan. 7.

“The CAF is experiencing challenges recruiting the required personnel to achieve its strategic intake plan resulting in shortages of personnel across many occupations,” says the message.

These challenges are affecting the CAF’s ability to “force generate” and meet its operational commitments, it says, adding that modifying the recruiting process is necessary to increase the number of enrolments.

The Department of National Defence’s (DND) year-end report says 72.9 percent of CAF occupations face “critical” shortfalls to personnel, with the objective being less than 5 percent.

When taking on the role last summer, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan said boosting recruitment was her top priority. Carignan told a House of Commons committee last September that the Regular Force had 63,622 members for an authorized force size of 71,500.

The creation of a new probationary period had been raised in Canada’s defence policy update of April 2024, which mentions streamlining the security clearance process and taking steps to re-evaluate medical requirements.

CAF candidates no longer need to establish a security or reliability status, or demonstrate they are medically fit before being enrolled, Department of National Defence spokesperson Derek Abma told The Epoch Times in a statement. Security, suitability, and medical requirements can now be assessed after enrolment to allow applicants to start basic training.

“We are taking bold steps to improve our recruitment processes, while maintaining our high standards,” Abma said.

CAF DEI

Consistent with the CAF’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the revised defence policy explicitly aims to “abolish outdated processes and criteria wherever possible to support efforts to urgently fill our personnel gap while also diversifying our forces.”  The policy pledges the removal of “barriers to the recruitment of diverse Canadians.”

As for the CANFORGEN message, it pledges the quick removal of new soldiers who do not share the current values of the CAF.

The message cites the external review by former Justice Louise Arbour as a reason to establish a probationary period to “ensure that problematic attitudes on culture and gender-based issues are assessed and promptly dealt with to include early release.”

Abma said the CAF has established a process to “expeditiously address new members who display a clear inability to meet the ethical and cultural expectations of the CAF as outlined in CAF Ethos – Trusted to Serve.”

The new CAF ethos was released in July 2023. It states that “diversity, equity and inclusion are so critical to CAF effectiveness that they are set as professional virtues and a key part of our military ethos.”

While the DEI ideology has recently become a cornerstone of the CAF, and is also pervasive throughout the federal government, there’s been a growing backlash against it in the corporate world. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is the latest large corporation to indicate it is slashing its DEI programs, following the likes of McDonald’s, Toyota, and Walmart.

Meta said it would evaluate people as individuals and not based on characteristics such as race and gender, rolling back hiring quotas and policies meant to favour vendors based on racial or gender criteria.

DEI in the military could also face headwinds if a Conservative government takes power. Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre, who leads in the polls by a large margin, has repeatedly said he will replace the “woke culture” of the military with a “warrior culture.”

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.