All matters Canadian / Canada

[031-Bacon,RG]

RJ - Integration didn't end the regimental system; the three regular army regiments are the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infanftry, The Royal Canadian Regiment, and the Royal 22nd Regiment (Van-Doos).

[Culpeper]

They must have gotten the story wrong - an excess of recruits actually choosing infantry, in the midst of a shooting war?

"I am 1,600 infantrymen over my establishment," Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said Thursday, adding that the high numbers of recruits who want to "serve at the tip of the spear . . . completely refuted" any notion that there were problems getting people to serve in a wartime army.

Somebody must have made a mistake, since everything I've been told (over and over and over) is that Canadians are peace-loving and unwarlike friends to everyone, who aspire to nothing more than to don the blue beret and go stand with an empty rifle as an alternative target between warring factions. I mean, at some point someone must have told these recruits that the role of infantry is to close with and destroy the enemy, right?

"I find myself in a unique position in comparison to most of my fellow army commanders across NATO," Lt.-Gen. Leslie said. "I have more volunteers every tour than I have positions. To come to Afghanistan is a competitive process."

Go figure. Teach 'em to read and think, and then they wanna go and extend the same opportunities to others. They must not have got enough hugs as children - the whole lot of them.


http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2215490

The Canadians rock-n-roll in today's fight.

[milnews.ca]

This summary of a paper just out at Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC):

This paper reports on the research conducted in the first year of a three-year study on the psychological well-being of snipers. This research began with an interview-based study of 19 snipers who had served in Afghanistan and who were still serving as snipers in Canadian army units. The results of this study show that the snipers had elevated scores on a generalized measure of psychological stress, but their scores were not as high as those of a sample of nonsnipers (from another study) who had served in Afghanistan. This finding suggests that the snipers were coping as well or better than regular soldiers. When asked about specific combat experiences, the differences were more dramatic, however. Snipers experienced more combat than the non-sniper group and expressed more concern over their combat experiences than the non-snipers. In contrast to these findings, the snipers also expressed high levels of satisfaction with their careers and stated that being a sniper had been a positive influence in their lives. Given the inconsistency of these findings, it is proposed that this research be expanded to include more standardized measures of possible outcomes and a larger sample during the second and third years of the project.

J. Peter Bradley (Department of Military Psychology and Leadership, Royal Military College of Canada), "An Exploratory Study on Sniper Well-Being: Report on the First Year of Sniper Well-Being Research (FY 2008-2009)," DRDC, July 2010 (link to 37 page study at Scribd.com)

[jps2]

Looking at a special function requiring specific training and high percentage of dismiss /reject is a little skewed for such study between well-being after deployment.
I will not be surprised if NCO and specialists resilience to stress fight is the same as snipers.

It could be interesting to find out that nature of character (psychological orientations) are less fight-stress relevant.

Last point, 19 is not a big enough sample from a statistical point of view. Furthermore, the candidates were chosen by their staff, polluting the sample.

[120mm]

I have always been very skeptical of the preconception that killing is unnatural and stressful.

If anything, modern man is bothered most by the discovery that they LIKE to kill, which runs counter to societies myth of peaceful mankind, which can cause long term coping issues.

[AdamG]

Neglected topic.

from October 2017 (and I suspect, incomplete),

A list of Canada’s terror incidents and attacks

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...d-attacks.html

[AdamG]

When compared to the weekend body counts coming out of Chicago, enjoy some Pearl Clutching.

Rattled by string of violent attacks, Toronto wonders if city is unraveling

As residents grapple with the latest attack to hit the city in recent months, some are asking whether it was becoming less safe

Detectives in Canada are still seeking a motive for a mass shooting which left three dead – including the gunman – and injured more than a dozen others, as residents of Toronto grapple with the latest in a string of violent incidents to hit Canada’s biggest city in recent months.

Federal officials said on Tuesday that there was no terror link to Sunday’s attack in which the lone gunman opened fire along a bustling avenue in the city, seemingly shooting at random at pedestrians and into shops and restaurants.

“At this time, there is no national security nexus to the investigation,” said a spokesperson for the ministry of public safety.

Authorities have not yet publicly speculated on the motive of the gunman, Faisal Hussain, or explained how he obtained the handgun used in the attack.

In a statement, his family cited his lifelong struggle with depression and psychosis, noting that professional help, medication and therapy had failed to help him*.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ity-unraveling

* Note: Being a psychotic and a terrorist are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and the latter might be a prerequisite to the former.