# Sharp Weekend



## Brent Cross (17 Mar 2004)

Hello all:  can anyone drop a short note explaining "Sharp" training.  It is coming up this weekend and I just wanted to be prepared.

Best regards


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## Righty (17 Mar 2004)

Prepared.... bring a pillow and catch up on some sleep. It‘s basically 8 hours of why it‘s not right to harass people, be sexist, racist, etc......But watch out cause theres a test at the end thats really hard (wink wink)


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## Canadian Patriot (17 Mar 2004)

Sexual
Harassment
And
Racism
Prevention


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## mglasspo (17 Mar 2004)

And for those of you who don‘t know how to do any of these, it‘s an amusing way to learn   

BTW: The Agony, it‘s actually

Sexual
Harassment
Abuse 
and
Racism Prevention

  they had the throw the abuse of authority section in at the last second.


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## spacelord (17 Mar 2004)

They told me it was Standards Harassment And Racism Prevention


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## Marauder (17 Mar 2004)

No matter what the acronym de jour is, it boils down to don‘t make fun of the weak and stupid, particularly if they are female or a visible minority, as that will get you turfed. 
The unspoken message is you can be physically weak and mentally feeble and still pass BMQ, but God help you if you don‘t live to obey the PC police.
Basically, if you‘ve been immersed in today‘s public school system, you‘ve already been indoctrinated to the PC Bible chapter and verse, and you‘ll know the rules about playing nicely with others and prasing everybody as being great, wonderful, equal, yada yada.


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## Bulvyn (17 Mar 2004)

Sharp stands for:

Standards for
Harassment 
And
Racism 
Prevention

The primary objective is to deal with harassment and racism by:

Eliminating attitudes that contribute to harassment and racist conduct which, in turn, threaten:

-the well-being and the moral of DND members; and

-the cohesion and efficiency of the organisation as a whole.

Objectives of the 8 hours of dull lecture is to teach you:

-what harassment is and what it is not;
-what racism and racist conduct are;
-how your words and actions may affect others;
-what DND policy says about harassment and racist conduct;
-supervisor‘s role in the pervention of harassment;
-role of each and every one of us in the prevention of harassment;
-means of recourse if you are a victim; and
-the consequences of harassing someone.


Basically it‘s a long drawn out lecture that says play nice or your going to get into lots of trouble.


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## Jeff Boomhouwer (17 Mar 2004)

I wonder if your going to get the X‘s and O‘s video. Its a cartoon. After you see it you will laugh your head off at the fact DND payed someone way too much money so you can learn to treat people the way you would like to be treated or else.


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## 1feral1 (17 Mar 2004)

We have the same thing all tucked into an OHS envelope, security assessment, fraud awareness, etc. Its 2 days of very dry lessons, with some visual enhancement on a gaint screen. Usually a BFA (PT test) and WTSS (FATS) also. Twice yearly, all for AIRN (Army Individual Readiness Notice) which supposed to tell us we are 30 days deployable.

However in the evening, its a sausage sizzle, with of course the traditional 2 beer, per man, per day, perhaps. In fine traduiional Aussie Digger fashion.

Cheers,

Wes


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## Michael Dorosh (17 Mar 2004)

> Originally posted by Marauder:
> [qb] No matter what the acronym de jour is, it boils down to don‘t make fun of the weak and stupid, particularly if they are female or a visible minority, as that will get you turfed.
> The unspoken message is you can be physically weak and mentally feeble and still pass BMQ, but God help you if you don‘t live to obey the PC police.
> Basically, if you‘ve been immersed in today‘s public school system, you‘ve already been indoctrinated to the PC Bible chapter and verse, and you‘ll know the rules about playing nicely with others and prasing everybody as being great, wonderful, equal, yada yada. [/qb]


All things being equal, it‘s also not on to make fun of the stupid and overbearing...


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## Marauder (18 Mar 2004)

Mike, if you want to insult me, at least show me a little respect and come up with something far less WEAK.
I‘m sorry if I denigrated your favourite Army program, and I hope I didn‘t hurt your feelings or make you feel put down. <snort>


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## Brent Cross (18 Mar 2004)

Thanks for all the info.  I will make the best of the weekend however dull it might be!  Hopefully our instructors will break things up a bit with some drill (we could use the practice)!!!


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## Fusaki (18 Mar 2004)

Best line from the SHARP video:

"What the ****?!?! The Sgt can‘t be a ***!!! He‘s an Indian!!!"

SHARP is mildly funny at best, mind numbingly boring at worst.  :skull:


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## Thompson_JM (18 Mar 2004)

> Originally posted by Ghostwalk:
> [qb] Best line from the SHARP video:
> 
> "What the ****?!?! The Sgt can‘t be a ***!!! He‘s an Indian!!!"
> ...


      YES!!     

that is definatley the best line... probabbly one of the only ones i remember.. its just so dumb! thanks for reminding me, and giving me a laugh on this, the day of the green beer hangovers..


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## big_castor (18 Mar 2004)

That line is even better in French !!!

We did the SHARP "self-training" when it came out.  Frankly, after a couple of beers, you actually start to enjoy those videos...


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## Michael Dorosh (19 Mar 2004)

> Originally posted by Marauder:
> [qb] Mike, if you want to insult me, at least show me a little respect and come up with something far less WEAK.
> I‘m sorry if I denigrated your favourite Army program, and I hope I didn‘t hurt your feelings or make you feel put down. <snort> [/qb]


I have no need to insult you, just making a statement of fact.  The whole program pretty much comes down to the eye of the beholder.  I thought your comment was a good illustration of that; my comment only served to amplify your point.

It‘s not my favourite 8 hours of my military career, but I see no reason to piss on the program either.  Hopefully anyone going through it has learned the lessons it is supposed to teach already, but it doesn‘t hurt to confirm these things.  I mean, on my basic training we were taught how to brush our teeth, wash our feet, and not clean our hands after we went to the bathroom.  It‘s not like they‘re dragging people in after hours to do this on their personal time, or anything.  Sit back and enjoy, and hey, maybe one or two troops will even learn something.


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## Fishbone Jones (19 Mar 2004)

They could‘ve saved the military thousands, if not millions, of dollars. All they would‘ve had to do was buy the rights from Jim Hanson for the video. I‘m sure everyone has seen Kermit the Frog singing "It‘s Not Easy Being Green". Encompasses everything the military spends all that SHARP time and resources on, in one short song made for children.


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## Marauder (19 Mar 2004)

Well then Micheal, we kinda half agree, sorta. Tell you what, next time I‘m out in Calgary to visit my buddy and his bride to be, you can buy me a pint of Guiness to ease my hurt feelings and bruised ego.


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## Michael Dorosh (19 Mar 2004)

Just one, Marauder?

We can laugh about the videos and Xs and Os all we want (and Jim Henson, recceguy), and yeah, the training videos were not Shakespearean.  However, given a choice between loopy videos and, say, standing on the parade square having a crusty warrant officer read the lesson to us as we stood at attention...

Besides, I think the point some of you are missing is that the humour - intentional or not - does allow for easy discussion of the subject matter, which is the real point of the training, at least if it is done correctly.

I‘ll confess, I was a bit bored with it.  When the major in charge of our training related a story about a soldier who hadn‘t ironed his epaullettes and had them ripped off his uniform in front of his unit and verbally assaulted.   After telling this story, there was a long silence with no discussion, as intended, so I chimed in with "so why didn‘t he iron his slip ons, then?"   It got a good laugh, especially from the NCOs, and the major seemed none too pleased and changed the subject quickly.        But again, the humour and the goofy quality of some of the visual aids may even be a deliberate attempt to soften the material and make it more palatable.  

Picture the Xs and Os video without the Xs or Os, and say - nothing but David Colonette‘s talking head on the screen for 30 or 40 minutes reading out the CFAOs on harrassment.  It could be a looooooooooooooooooooot worse, now couldn‘t it!


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## Jarnhamar (19 Mar 2004)

Do you think some of the material covered gives people the wrong conceptions of the army?

Do you guys think were actually over doing it with all this hold up a red card if your stressed please dont swear near me, please take down the canadian flag from our room because i find it offensive,  kindler gentler stuff?

Im all for talking opposed to yelling if it gets the point across but if someone can‘t handle basic training will they be able to handle the real world?  What happens when they cant throw their notebooks on the floor take a fit and leave the classroom. 

Obviously there has to be a happy medium or balance but are we leaning towards being too gentle?


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## Colin Parkinson (19 Mar 2004)

We get the same stuff in the Coast Guard. The Instructor advised us as supervisors, that we needed to say â Å“Can I touch youâ ? before giving someone a pat on the back for good work. My female assistant was horrified and said to the instructor â Å“Are you crazy! Hearing that statement is far creepier than being patted on the backâ ? All of our female assistants criticized the program and thought it was totally bogus.

After doing a employee survey, DFO was given scathing review about management harassment, so it's off to another harassment course (3 in one year for everybody!). I enjoyed relating to our Instructor of Indo-Canadian descent how racist, I thought the over 30 (years) Indo-Canadian community was (my wife is Indo-Malay and they don't like seeing us together). Apparently my view of racism doesn't fit the official view that it can only come from white Anglo-Saxons! But then of course I also believe that someone that speaks Cantonese and English is bilingual, but not the government.


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## Brian McMillan (20 Mar 2004)

So lets see if I‘ve got this straight:  They teach you how to be sensitive, and once that‘s done you learn how to tear a second a--hole into someone with a bayonet.  I might be wrong, but I sense a contradiction in there somewhere.


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## portcullisguy (20 Mar 2004)

linear Rosa, to quote Neil Young: "It‘s a kinder, gentler machine gun hand."


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## Michael Dorosh (21 Mar 2004)

> Originally posted by linear Rosa:
> [qb] So lets see if I‘ve got this straight:  They teach you how to be sensitive, and once that‘s done you learn how to tear a second a--hole into someone with a bayonet.  I might be wrong, but I sense a contradiction in there somewhere. [/qb]


I should have thought it intuitive that one sticks a bayonet into enemy soldiers while sensitivity training relates to how you treat friendly soldiers.    

Which part don‘t you understand?


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## Brian McMillan (22 Mar 2004)

Intuitive to stick a bayonet into someone...  Hmmm...sure, sport.  Who was your ethics professor, Caligula? I love your self-aggrandized reply to an innocuous comment.  Go push your papers.


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## btk_joker (22 Mar 2004)

Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee


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## Michael Dorosh (22 Mar 2004)

> Originally posted by linear Rosa:
> [qb] Intuitive to stick a bayonet into someone...  Hmmm...sure, sport.  Who was your ethics professor, Caligula? I love your self-aggrandized reply to an innocuous comment.  Go push your papers. [/qb]


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## Michael Dorosh (22 Mar 2004)

> Originally posted by linear Rosa:
> [qb] Intuitive to stick a bayonet into someone...  Hmmm...sure, sport.  Who was your ethics professor, Caligula? I love your self-aggrandized reply to an innocuous comment.  Go push your papers. [/qb]


Well, Mister Civilian, training is aimed at inculcating intuitive behaviour, so, yes, that would include killing people.  Sorry if that bothers you.  For what it is worth, bayonets have never been a major contributor to battlefield fatalities, even going back to the US Civil War, studies show less than 1 percent of casualties - fatal and non-fatal - can be attributed to bayonet wounds.  This applies equally to Canadian soldiers involved in full intensity conflict - war - in South Africa, World War I, World War II, and Korea.  By the time it comes to cold steel, most mortal human beings would prefer to surrender than go hand to hand.  

As for my self-aggrandizing comment, I equally liked your uninformed and, in retrospect, kind of stupid comment which you are now trying to backtrack from.  Pretend you were joking all you want, I suspect you still haven‘t demonstrated that you know the difference between how you treat your enemies and how you treat your own troops.  I reckon a year or two with the RCR, PPCLI or R22eR ought to do you a bit of good.  Push papers?  That‘s what they pay me to do, sweetheart, and I‘m quite good at it.  As for you - Go sign up.  Then run off at the mouth about what should be and shouldn‘t be on our syllabus.


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## Jarnhamar (24 Mar 2004)

Man i hate people who cut down people for their trade.
Go push your papers.
This mentality is usually found in soldiers who screw up "YOUR NAME HERE" on forms


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## Danjanou (24 Mar 2004)

Oh yeah that‘s a smart move. Tick off the guy who deals with your pay. Welcome to the military there rosa darling.

Not that Michael would screw with this wannabes pay if he had the opportunity of course.


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## stukirkpatrick (24 Mar 2004)

I, on the other hand, have great respect for the clerks, having recently struggled my way through my first income tax form, while barely keeping my hair in one peace.

...Bless you oh wonderful distributers of pay, who have helped to make me a happier person, because of the bountiful return I will be receiving as a result of the Queen‘s Service...amen   

Related to the topic, I find that although over-obvious at some times, SHARP has its uses, with regards to how the Canadian Public views us.  We are supposed to represent Canada, so it helps our image to just by haveing sensitivity training, given what has happened in the past, like Oka and Somalia.


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## btk_joker (24 Mar 2004)

Amen indeed


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## Engineer Corporal (24 Mar 2004)

Uhh not sure what the canadian military did that was so "wrong" at oka. I think the program is good for members serving in the military. But when it comes to basic training their is a certain level of getting blasts of ****, that should be expected. I mean were not in the business of training babies. Holding up a red card because your "stressed" isn‘t gonna do much good for you when someone has a AK-47 pointed at you. Getting yelled at by your superiors because you messed up isn‘t harassment. It‘s getting yelled at by your superiors because you messed up that‘s all. It‘s the army, everyone has gotten yelled at before. I like the sharp program it‘s a good start. But using it as a shield to protect you on courses is bullshit. IF you can‘t take it then get out and save yourself alot of trouble and hopefully you won‘t get someone killed. A medium is needed people do take it too far.


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## John Long (1 Apr 2004)

Most of you sound as if you would fit in quite nicely at a gay pride parade.  This would probably explain your interest in the military.  All of those husky men!  I bet you guys can‘t wait to head for the showers at the end of a long day of "training", eh?


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## John Long (1 Apr 2004)

Hahahahah, Michael, I‘ve just had a look at your picture.  All dressed up like a soldier boy.  Wow, I honestly didn‘t know that grown men played dress-up anymore.  What else do you dress-up on besides the army clothes?  Your mothers?  Probably.  I wouldn‘t be surprised of you lead a double life.  A soldier during the day, and drag-queen at night.  Do you and your mother have dress-up sessions at her house?  I bet you do, naughty boy.  Go push your papers.


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## Spr.Earl (1 Apr 2004)

"Most of you sound as if you would fit in quite nicely at a gay pride parade. This would probably explain your interest in the military. All of those husky men! I bet you guys can‘t wait to head for the showers at the end of a long day of "training", eh?"

Hey I resemble that remark!
I think you need SHARP training,you hurt my widdle little heart.WAH!!  :crybaby:


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## Infanteer (1 Apr 2004)

Bye-bye, troll.


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## Jarnhamar (1 Apr 2004)

I bet this guy buys army clothes at army surplus stores and runs around the woods playing soldier. Its sad when a wanna be like this can‘t even hack the canadian army.

Go get me a coffee boy.


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