National Defence Committee on Feb. 26th, 2019

[Edward Lerat]

I think that's an excellent suggestion.

We in Saskatchewan have cadets in the various first nation communities. We're looking at our population statistics probably closing in on 50% of our 140,000 first nations, and most of our youth, being in the urban centres, in the cities, now. But at the same time, there are still some first nations—Beardy’s & Okemasis—who have started and gone through a reserve training and gotten their certificates. It worked well there because they're probably an hour from Saskatoon, where the parade squares are and the armouries and the units. So, it works well and I think it would work better in semi-isolated communities farther north. That's my response to that.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Do you mean if we put a reserve unit in La Loche, or some place like that?

[Edward Lerat]

Yes, absolutely, in La Loche, Stony Rapids, Black Lake, Fond du Lac. I could go on and on.

[LCol (Ret'd) David A. Quick]

Being a reserve officer, I'll say you're totally correct. The units are in populous areas. When I joined the reserves, the unit did its own recruiting. They have limits. In my battalion in London, we had to turn people away from joining because we only had so much money every year to hire—to enrol people and pay them. Other units had lots of money, but of course they wouldn't share, because that's not how we do things in the military—or at least in the army.

You need to have the units in the areas where people are. I remember there was a time—I don't know if it's still true—when reservists could actually get funding, travel money, to travel to their unit for training purposes during the normal training season. I don't know if that still exists now or not. But for people to travel maybe 50, 80 or 100 kilometres, to go training every week, one weekend a month, that cost starts adding up and your pay is now paying for you to travel for you to do your work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

That ends our formal questioning. I know MP Bezan passed his time over to colleagues. I want to give him an opportunity to ask a question.

James.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank all three of you for appearing today in front of our committee. I want to thank all three of you for your service to Canada.

Colonel Quick, I recall when you were commander of JPSU and your service there in working with our ill and injured. Thank you.

Ms. Pope, when Madam Gallant was speaking about how New Zealand was working with the Maori and the initiation process they had, bringing them into the warrior culture, you were nodding in agreement quite a bit. Would you suggest that those types of rites of passage would help with recruitment and retention of indigenous members in the Canadian Armed Forces?

[Tasina Pope]

Yes.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

What would you have in mind for a Canadian model?

[Tasina Pope]

I know at least one that's maybe diverse is a powwow. It's a cultural gathering. That's a first step, at least, to go in that direction.

Every culture is different across Canada, formerly called Kanata. I wouldn't want to generalize this to all nations. I don't want to upset a lot of elders across the nation here. I would suggest maybe finding a consensus with each of the units or the reserve units, and then with the surrounding indigenous communities that reside on the territory, to see what they would like to incorporate.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

You would have to incorporate that regionality, then, to be respectful. I get that.

[Tasina Pope]

Yes.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

You also mentioned—and I believe that Colonel Quick did as well—about the lack of understanding of the cultural and spiritual needs of our indigenous members, who can't even get sick time to go to do a healing lodge.

Do we need to do more work with our chaplain service and be able to provide that type of spiritual assistance to our indigenous members?

[Tasina Pope]

Yes.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

I'll go to Colonel Quick and then Mr. Lerat.

[LCol (Ret'd) David A. Quick]

Currently there is an aboriginal member who's assigned to the chaplain here in Ottawa, who's the aboriginal adviser on spiritual affairs. But that's only here in Ottawa, so it's at the highest level. How long will this position be there? We don't know.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

My understanding is that that individual is really there for HQ, to provide advice to the CDS and the vice-chief of the defence staff and—

[LCol (Ret'd) David A. Quick]

No, he's there for the chaplains.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

And for the chaplains as well....

[LCol (Ret'd) David A. Quick]

But he's a sergeant—

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Okay.

[LCol (Ret'd) David A. Quick]

The commander of the army has as a champion a master warrant officer, Master Warrant Officer Greyeyes— the last person who I remember was there.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Okay.

[LCol (Ret'd) David A. Quick]

He's the adviser to the commander of the army, and also the indigenous champion.

So there are people throughout, if the chain of command wants to establish a position for it. But it's like anything else: it takes resources. You take from Peter; you have to pay Paul.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Right.

Would it be better then for each local unit, wing, and naval base to be working with the local spiritual leaders of the communities in the region to provide that support to indigenous members?

[LCol (Ret'd) David A. Quick]

I totally agree with that. A local elder is the elder for the RMC ALOY. He's from that area. He is paid by RMC to be their elder. Excellent work is being done with him. That's a good model to follow.