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Strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces through Diversity and Inclusion

Strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces through Diversity and Inclusion

Edited by Alistair Edgar, Rupinder Mangat and Bessma Momani

Published by: University of Toronto Press

Series: UTP Insights

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

25 b&w tables

Digital download
9781487518219
Published: November 2019

Digital download
9781487518226
Published: November 2019

Description
Contents
Authors

The Canadian Armed Forces has not always embraced diversity and inclusion, but its future depends on it. As the country’s demographic makeup changes, its military must adapt to a new multicultural reality and diminishing pools of people from which it can recruit. Canada’s population is increasingly urbanized, immigrant, and not necessarily Christian, white, or bilingual. To attract and retain CAF personnel, the military will have to embrace and champion diversity while demonstrating that it is inclusive.

Using a number of cases to highlight both challenges and opportunities, Strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces through Diversity and Inclusion provides a timely look at an established Canadian institution in a rapidly changing world. The editors explore how Canadian Muslim youth, LGBTQ+ individuals, women, racialized minorities, Indigenous communities, and people of non-Christian faiths see their experiences in the CAF. While diversity is a reality, inclusion is still a work in progress for the Canadian Armed Forces, as it is for society at large.

1. Unpacking Diversity and Inclusion
Rupinder Mangat, Wilfrid Laurier University, Bessma Momani, University of Waterloo, and Alistair Edgar, Wilfrid Laurier University

2. Demographic Imperatives for Diversity
Christian Leuprecht, Flinders University of South Australia

3. Negotiating Gender Inclusion
Karen D. Davis, Defence Research and Development Canada

4. Coming Out in Uniform: A Personal Reflection
Jacqueline Lopour, Alphabet’s Google, and Nick Deshpande, Canadian Forces (Army)

5. The North’s Canadian Rangers
P. Whitney Lackenbauer, St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo

6. Diversifying the Canadian Armed Forces’ Chaplaincy
Bianca Romagnoli, University of Toronto

7. Francophone Inclusion and Bilingualism in the Canadian Armed Forces
Stéphanie Chouinard, Royal Military College Kingston

8. Race and Belonging
Tammy George, York University

9. Canadian Muslim Youth and Military Service
Melissa Finn, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Bessma Momani, University of Waterloo

10. Introspection on Diversity in the Canadian Armed Forces
Alan Okros, Royal Military College of Canada

Notes
Contributors
Index

Alistair Edgar is the Associate Dean of the School of International Policy and Governance and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science in the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Rupinder Mangat has recently completed her PhD in Global Governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University.