'We've got to grow': Anand says CAF must recruit more troops amid heightened global uncertainty

Ottawa -

National Defence Minister Anita Anand says there is an urgent need to attract more Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel amid a “clear and present” danger to the rules based international order.

“We’ve got to grow this thing,” she said at an Ottawa-based defence conference on Friday. “And I’m going to do everything I can with General [Wayne] Eyre and the broader defence team to make sure that happens.”

The defence minister spoke about Russia’s ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and how the events of the past two weeks have triggered reflections about how Canada should re-envision its defence strategy.

“Time is of the essence in everything we do when so much is at stake for Canada and for the world. We are facing the greatest threat to international peace and stability since the end of the Second World War,” she told the crowd.

“What can a country like ours, an incredible country like ours, bring to the table?”

Bringing more to the table, though, requires a more expansive Armed Forces, Anand said. A significant component of this objective is recruitment.

“We’ve got to make sure that members of the Canadian public who are deciding how they’re going to spend their lives see the Canadian Armed Forces as a viable option for them,” she said.

“We have to have institutions where all Canadians see themselves as playing a part and that means having institutions where discrimination and sexual harassment and other forms of unfair treatment are not present.”

The Canadian military spent most of 2021 grappling with sexual misconduct investigations involving some of its highest-ranking members, deepening the call for a complete internal culture shift.

The revolving door of senior officers stepping down or stepping aside stirred up criticism not only of the leadership of the CAF, but also of the federal government for not taking action to protect victims.

In light of concerns of a tarnished reporting system, a second external review is currently underway to put forward “concrete recommendations” to establish a more independent structure. It’s not unlike the mandate of the review led by Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps in 2015.

In December, Anand, alongside deputy minister Jody Thomas and the chief of the defence staff, acknowledged successive governments had failed to protect those who willingly signed up to protect Canada.

Anand on Friday reiterated that one of her top priorities as defence minister is to build a durable CAF that won’t waver under new leadership.

“What I really think I must do is to put in place institutional change to ensure that those institutions have the longevity that survives changes in leadership,” she said.