CAF Story | An honest and historical look back into the CAF
Video / February 18, 2022
Transcript
(SP) For me, it was a very interesting experience. I had never worked internationally, I didn’t have a lot of exposure to militaries of other countries. And certainly, many of the countries for which that had military police representation within the Force in Bosnia at the time, in some cases, had never seen… they didn’t have women in their military, period, and certainly not a senior officer in the military.
I’m Shelley Peters, and I was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. My father, Walter Peters, was born in Litchfield, Nova Scotia, and joined the military at a young age after graduating from university. My father was Canada’s first black fighter pilot. In 1963, he received his wings, which, at the time, he didn’t recognize what an accomplishment that was. And he faced outright prejudice and discrimination, and… and many individuals who suggested that he wouldn’t be able to succeed. So, being raised in a military household, it certainly gave me an example that I wanted to follow. It was not really an option for me to do anything else. And I’ve had the opportunity to do that in serving 5 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and I then switched to the Canadian Forces, and I spent 22 years in the Canadian Forces, retired at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Currently, I’m working at the Privy Council Office.
Within Canada, we’ve had women in the military for quite a long period of time, and have had various women promoted up to and including… hum... well, I think we’re up 2 or 3 star generals now. So it was just a way of life, and it was much more accepted in the Canadian Forces. In some of those other militaries, that wasn’t the case. And I’m not… I’m not saying that that’s perfect, but that… it was… it was possible within the Canadian Forces to have a very full career as a female. As the Director of Human Rights and Diversity, one of my responsibilities is to… was to ensure that, when we were creating policies for the Canadian Forces, it was really to understand what those barriers and obstacles might be, and why was it that people within… particular communities or groups were not drawn to military service.
The 2 and a half years that I spent with Human Rights and Diversity really for me was an eye-opener, because I had always thought that Canada had done a pretty good job. There was still a lot of work to… a lot of work to do. And even, you know, talk about things like maternity uniforms, which, in a Force that’s all men, you don’t have to worry about, but a Force with women, yes. And, you know, when I had my children, we didn’t have maternity uniforms in the Canadian Forces. Once your uniform didn’t fit you anymore, then you wore civilian clothes. And that’s fine, except that I was extremely proud of my military uniform. But a small thing like introducing a maternity uniform so that a female serving member can continue to wear her uniform, she’s still a member of the Canadian Forces and still performing a very vital role, is key.
The Canadian Forces is an institution, and it… but it’s comprised of individuals, who have their own stories and their own experiences. And where there needs to be, in my opinion, my very humble opinion, some improvement, is listening to those stories and supporting individuals who have had experiences that haven’t necessarily been as positive as they should be. And… and which in turn impacts on their ability to be able to be the very best that they can be. They have that right to… to do that without barriers, to do that without discrimination. Everybody should be treated as an individual and be able to advance to their… to their… their highest level, without those obstacles and barriers.
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