Executive Summary

On 26 November 2019, the Government of Canada (Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence) agreed to the Final Settlement Agreement (FSA) of the Heyder-Beattie Class Action. The settlement acknowledged that members of the Canadian Armed Forces, "experienced sexual harassment, sexual assault, and/or discrimination on the grounds of sex, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation in connection with their military service."^{Footnote 1} Some public service employees were also recognized as being survivors of sexual assault, harassment, and/or discrimination. The settlement agreement included, among other measures, a commitment for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to conduct Consultations for Gender Representation and Diversity (Schedule O).

This Executive Summary provides an overview of the outcome of the Schedule O consultation process: three recommendation reports from Subject Matter Experts that are intended to improve gender representation, diversity, and inclusion in the Canadian Armed Forces. The focus of these recommendations was based on a Needs Assessment conducted by the Consultation Group, and informed by the lived experiences of Class and Defence Team representatives. Subject Matter Experts also leveraged their expertise, industry best practices, and research to inform the recommendations developed.

The Needs Assessment of the consultations identified three themes of focus: Workplace Support, Leadership Accountability, and Education. These themes were addressed by the three Subject Matter Expert roadmaps calling for a redesign of the military workplace, critical appraisal of the CAF career cycle, and a standalone education program. These recommendations are mutually reinforcing; in order to assess and guide leadership to hone inclusive skills and traits, improved education is required. To assess and implement policies and programming that support equity-seeking groups, Canadian Armed Forces members and leadership must have improved knowledge and awareness of the ways in which biases and systemic barriers can impede personnel wellbeing and potentially impact various career milestones.

Early in the consultative process, the Consultation Group members agreed that the intent and scope of the recommendations were not explicitly to assess Employment Equity goals. Rather, the group agreed on the need to identify larger cultural challenges, and tangible recommendations that could be implemented to begin addressing the systemic and “legacy barriers” to culture change. In doing so, the Consultation Group agreed that recommendations should set the necessary conditions for a more equitable, inclusive, and enabling Canadian Armed Forces, rather than focusing on increasing the numerical representation through short-term initiatives. To this end, the following summarizes the focus areas of the three recommendation reports.^{Footnote 2}

Recommendation 1: Redesign the CAF workplace to enable culture change

The exceptional nature of military work has historically been exclusionary or discriminatory to members of the CAF that do not fit within the white, male majority. As a result, the military environment is designed around the male service member married to a civilian spouse, which has created systemic legacy barriers for women and others who fall outside the norm (including but not limited to LGBTQ2+, racialized, Indigenous, and persons with disabilities). The recommendations to improve workplace support provide ways to mitigate the exceptional nature of the military workplace that result in discriminatory behaviours and practices, in order to operationalize the CAF’s People First philosophy (People First, Mission Always). They are based on the premise that in order to improve gender and diversity representation in the military, we need to first create the conditions for a safe, equitable, inclusive, accountable, and enabling workplace. These recommendations are grouped within three lines of effort:

1. Acknowledge, identify, and address systemic biases and barriers;
2. Redesign the military workplace for greater inclusiveness and equity, and;
3. Improve accountability for transformative change.

Recommendation 2: Re-imagine CAF leadership accountability and organizational culture

This series of recommendations focuses on CAF leadership, promotion processes, and organizational culture. The proposal is based on the understanding that CAF members are socialized and indoctrinated into a military way of life through formal training and informal learning. This report focuses on informal learning (socialization) to demonstrate how members learn to conform to organizational norms that can be exclusionary. Newcomers (i.e. recruits and junior personnel) learn how to think and behave by observing and interacting with mid-and-senior leadership as they participate in the military organization, ultimately emulating and reproducing what can potentially be harmful views and perspectives regarding inclusion and gender norms.

As a result, the proposal provides recommendations that focus on equitable opportunity, access, and support throughout the CAF’s career progression and leadership systems. This requires cultural change with respect to military leadership values, practices, and policies, which question the privileging of the CAF’s ideal warrior narrative and the unearned privilege that some members gain over others. Tangible examples include, but are not limited to: a GBA Plus of the entire career progression system (including intake and recruitment); rethinking and broadening leadership values and skills through a GBA Plus lens; supporting a critical mass of women and diverse people in leadership positions; creating and valuing adaptive career paths; ensuring all CAF leadership engages with ‘critical acts’ and ensure associated resources; research and attention on resistance of middle-management and commanding officers; and reframing actions through a lens of equity.

Recommendation 3: Implement a career-long Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability (IDEA) education program to shape military behavior

To move forward and evolve as an organization, the CAF needs to develop and implement a new, comprehensive and career-long Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability (IDEA) educational program. This program would be mandatory for all Officers and Non-Commissioned Members (NCMs) and integrated over a member’s career starting from recruitment. The goal of developing the IDEA educational program is to implement real social change in the CAF, and provide new and existing military members the knowledge and understanding to inform their actions and decisions.

The program should be stand-alone, career-long, and corresponding to various rank levels, age, and level of understanding. Members must successfully complete the required program level as a career requirement, with assessment mechanisms to be determined. Key constructs and knowledge proposed include, but are not limited to: critical thinking; personal bias; harassment; discrimination; racism; bystander intervention; intersectionality; misconduct; LGBTQ2+ history in the Defence Team and gender-inclusive language; culture and organizational cultures; international commitments to gender equity; hegemonic masculinities and femininities; privilege; the application of GBA Plus; vulnerability; professionalism; willingness to learn; self-management; team building; and flexibility.

To coincide with the career program, IDEA days are proposed to promote continuous learning. Every CAF unit should participate in such programming, led by qualified professionals, to allow members to refresh their knowledge, acquire updates on legislation and policies, and engage in dynamic and meaningful discussions.

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Recommendation roadmap

The recommendation roadmap^{Footnote 3} summarizes the key recommendations to respond to and support organizational culture change in the Canadian Armed Forces, and proposed timelines for implementing recommendations between 2021 and 2023.

Figure 1: Recommendation roadmap

Way forward

From August 2020 to June 2021, the Consultation Group for Gender Representation and Diversity collaboratively conducted a Needs Assessment, supported the development of roadmap recommendations, and presented progress of these consultations to stakeholders across the Defence Team. The Consultation Group agreed upon three core areas of focus in support of culture change: education, leadership accountability, and workplace support. Subject Matter Experts thus created roadmap recommendations to respond to and support culture change in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Director Litigation Oversight is now responsible for the furtherance of these recommendations to senior leadership of the Canadian Armed forces for decision and implementation. Until such time that a coordinating responsible agent is identified by senior leadership, where possible, recommendations should be reviewed and implemented within commands. The successful consideration and implementation of these recommendations require a coordinated, collaborative, consolidated approach across the Defence Team.

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