Proudly She Sails: Celebrating the Women of HMCS Winnipeg

October 23, 2020 - Defence Stories
Author: Captain Chelsea Dubeau

It’s Sunday, October 4^th, day 63 of HMCS Winnipeg’s deployment, and a really exciting thing is planned for that afternoon: a Replenishment at Sea (RAS). But not just any RAS, which is usually driven by the ship’s Commanding Officer, Commander Mike Stefanson. Nope. Today, Lieutenant Commander Amber Comisso, the ship’s Executive Officer, is driving the evolution.

Once upon a time, a woman Executive Officer would have been unthinkable. Today, HMCS Winnipeg is proud of its roster of women leaders that would have been unimaginable years ago.

Four other women officers on board also fill key positions including that of Navigating Officer, Operations Officer, Operations Room Officer, and Above Water Warfare Officer. Winnipeg also boasts six women Non-Commissioned Officers onboard, who are formidable in their presence amongst the Chiefs and Petty Officers, as well as a host of energetic and talented women who help make up the junior ranks mess (so numerous they are, in fact, that they were moved in to a larger mess given the high numbers onboard). Each of them fill critical, mission-essential roles on Winnipeg. They are operators and naval communicators; supply, marine, medical, and imagery technicians; administrators, aircrew, cooks, and stewards.

So why mention them at all? Well, it happens to be Women’s History Month.

“It is important to celebrate women’s achievements so that our grandmothers who did not have the same opportunities can see how far we’ve come,” says Lt(N) Kass O’Rourke, Above Water Warfare Officer on board Winnipeg. “It is a celebration of the opportunities we have seized and continue to fight for.”

The women of Winnipeg are sailors and leaders. And they are all warriors. But the story isn’t complete without understanding from whence we came, and it’s not just the Navy’s story either – it’s a story that belongs to all women.

If change is a numbers game, let’s break it down: On October 18, 1929, women in Canada were finally granted Personhood. However, we must never forget that many Indigenous women, women of colour and women with dissabilities continued to face discrimination regarding political participation in Canada. That’s only 91 years ago, or 33,215 days. Just one lifetime. The women of today know that they stand on the shoulders of the giantesses who came before. We know that without the struggles and sacrifices of those who broke the mould, behaved badly, and dared to do the impossible, we would not be where we are today and we know that the changes we fight for today, will lead to a better future tomorrow, for all women. This is the crux of Women’s History Month, and why we celebrate it each year. And this year is especially poignant.

As our nation – and our Canadian Armed Forces – struggles through the COVID pandemic, we realize the disproportionate impact it is having on women, both in and out of uniform. This is a year of reckoning, too, as the collective continues to wake up to historical oppression in all of its forms and now has to learn to cope, together. To learn, to live and do better, together. We also said goodbye to one of our strongest voices in this realm – Ruth Bader Ginsburg – an ally whose nationality remains to all of us as, simply, United.

We are watching the world change before our very eyes, as old systems break apart and break down. We’re clamouring to help each other kick down these relics of a past we’re so over before turning right around, rolling up our sleeves, and getting to work building newer, stronger houses into which we can come to rest and dream and do, better.

But that’s not where the work stops.

We cannot rest until all women, and this includes transgender women and women of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, around the world are empowered to do the same. As Canadians we are fortunate to come from a nation that has implemented a feminist foreign policy. A nation which recognizes the absolutely critical importance – no, necessity – of initiatives like United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security, which reaffirms – among many things – the role that women play in conflict resolution and global security. UNSCR1325 turns 20 years old on October 31, 2020, and is yet another reason to celebrate this month.

How fitting then, that during such a portentous year the many women of HMCS Winnipeg find themselves deployed on Operation NEON, Canada’s contribution to a coordinated multinational effort to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed against North Korea. These UN sanctions, imposed between 2006 and 2017, aim to pressure North Korea to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs and respond to North Korean nuclear weapon tests and ballistic missile launches.

Op NEON’s diplomatic and economic pressure represents the desire to find a peaceful, negotiated solution to the security threats posed by that country’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s exactly the sort of mission that helps proves the concept of UNSCR1325, just as a ship crewed by a record number of women proves the concept of what a free, inclusive and open society can accomplish: anything it sets its mind to.

On HMCS Winnipeg, where we are caught up in the here-and-now and the mission at hand, we forget that we are, in fact, making history. Each day that passes represents yet another page in the story of Canada’s serving and fighting women, women like the 31 on board HMCS Winnipeg, who are actively working and fighting to create a more stable, more secure world through missions like Operation NEON.

But there is still work to be done. One day, the number of women on board Winnipeg will hopefully be considered normal, not novel.

“We will be a more operationally effective Navy when we more accurately reflect the Canadian workforce which is almost 50% women,” says LCdr Comisso. “While some progress has been made towards diversity in the Canadian Armed Forces, there is still much work to be done to achieve a critical mass of women that can make an impact.”

The afternoon’s RAS is a success and, as Winnipeg breaks away, the song chosen for the occasion starts to play: High Hopes by Panic! At the Disco, as chosen by LCdr Comisso, the Canadian Navy Lady (@Cdnnavylady) as she is known on Twitter.

And hopes are high.

“For women especially, seeing is believing,” says LCdr Comisso. “So featuring women’s achievements this month empowers future generations to know that this career choice is a worthwhile option.”