The military has to be seen as acting as one. A body of men and women has to act as one. Everything from basic drill to a more complex ceremony is written down, so that a pace is always 30 inches, cadence of march for quick march or for slow march doesn't change, and people have to be dressed the same, so we achieve the common look people expect of us. Necessarily, everything is written down, and traditions date back from the British Army and the Royal Navy.
Our Manual of Drill and Ceremonial covers everything from basic standing at attention and standing at ease to battalion ceremonial guards, sentries, escorts, freedom of the city, retreats, tattoos, sunset ceremonies, and street lining. This manual is about an inch and a half thick and it's in English and French. Right now it's in English and French in side-by-side columns, so we can't post it on the Internet. We have to separate out the English and the French and have graphics for each version, so we can put the English-only version on the English website and the French-only version on the French website. That's in progress.
This manual doesn't change very much. It will change when we change weapons, because the weapons drill we do is based on the safe handling of the weapons we currently use. When we change weapons, there will be some minor modifications to the weapons-handling aspects.
The other manual on heritage covers things that don't change very much—flags, colours. Badges and mottos will change to limited extents. Things like flag protocol and forms of address and royal and vice-royal dignitaries and heads of state come from Canadian Heritage. They don't change very much. This is another volume that is about an inch and a half thick.
The third volume is our dress manual, and it's a little less lengthy, but it changes a great deal, and every six months we have a meeting and there are changes that come out.
I hope that answers your question.