# National Post article



## dano (6 Nov 2004)

The National Post has posted a almost full page article on 557 Lorne Scots this Saturday in the Review and Books sections of the newspaper.
The article is not accessible on-line unless you have a subscription to the National Post. However I'm looking for ways to get the article here.
For those that may read the news paper in its physical form please read the article and post comments, questions, queries or concerns. 

Here is a selection of the article for those that do not have a subscription, 
http://www.canada.com/national/nati....html?id=9dde5f6f-8758-4ada-a9ee-8a5435e2c19a
If you are subscribed, you can read the full article from that link.

When I read the selection from nationalpost.com, I was not pleased on how it seemed to reflect my Corp. Though I know the National post picked that selection for a reason, gets peoples attention. Surly got mine. Anywho, the full article is great but I won't go in-depth in this post... Read it for yourselves.


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## qjdb (8 Nov 2004)

found it.  gotta love the parental reactions, eh? 

Quentin

At first glance, Jamie Warren and Alissa MacDonald, both 12, in messy pony tails and hip-hugging pants, do not look much like military material. The girls stare at their feet, shift back and forth and giggle a lot when speaking to adults. One wears a thick chain necklace in deference to her rap-star crush; the other has covered her arms in gummy bracelets. 

Yet here they are on a Wednesday evening after school, having just signed up to join the army cadets -- not because their parents told them to -- but because "everyone is doing it," they explain. 

"Lots of kids from our school are here," Jamie says, who until now, undertook activities no more structured than playing on the soccer and basketball teams at her public middle school. "More than five I think." 

After facing rock-bottom enrolment during the 1980s and '90s and the closure of such long-serving units as Upper Canada College's Cadet Battalion, the Canadian Forces' after-school training program for 12- to 18-year-olds is making a comeback, on the eve of its 125th anniversary. Seven new units started up this year; one in Winnipeg, four in suburban British Columbia and two in small towns in Ontario. National enrolment stands at about 55,000 regular participants, an increase of almost 10,000 over the last decade. Numbers are still significantly below historic highs during the First and Second World Wars, but air, navy and army cadets remain the federal government's largest youth program. 

The three-decade-old Brampton, Ont., unit the girls are joining, the 557 Royal Canadian Cadet Corps, sponsored by the Lorne Scots Regiment, is expected to reach 200 participants by the end of this year, up from from 27 two years ago. So many signed up in September the 557 Corps grew from four platoons to six and is looking to move their Wednesday evening sessions from the dingy First World War-era Brampton Armory, where the Canadian flags cadets use in their drills are stored in a tiny broom closet, to a larger and more modern building. 

Growth is largely the result of word of mouth recommendations, since the cash-strapped Department of National Defence does little advertising. Students who join are drawn less by the drills and pageantry than the opportunity to get out of the suburbs and cities where they live to camp, sail, canoe and rock climb during occasional weekend sessions at cadet training centres. Costs are covered by Ottawa and during the summer, cadets get a small stipend to spend six weeks doing more of the same. 

Diana Kennedy, mother of 12-year-old Kody Koczka, who just signed up with the Brampton unit, can't believe she bothered to scrounge $2,000 to send her son to a private camp in Muskoka last summer. "He doesn't want to go back," says Kennedy, a legal assistant. "He wants to go to cadets camp instead." 

But some parents admit their children's sudden interest in the military caught them off guard. 

"This is totally new to us," says Pearl Rajwanth, whose 13-year-old son, Jeremy, a soccer player and French immersion student, announced he was enrolling in the army cadets with a friend in September. 

Rajwanth and her husband, David, confessed they felt "a little intimidated" watching rows of boys and girls salute, step left, right and stamp their feet up and down in response to commands shouted by their superiors during the Wednesday night drill practice. "He's my baby. I don't want him to get hurt," Pearl Rajwanth says. 

But as they lingered in the doorway after dropping off their boy, they were clearly impressed by the perfect posture, crisp movements and pressed green uniforms of the rows of experienced cadets doing the drills. 

By contrast, their son was part of the "new arrivals" group. Still learning the basics and waiting for their uniforms to arrive (each is fitted individually and paid for by Ottawa), the new cadets stood in rows at the back of the room looking like regular teenagers, with untucked shirts, stringy hair and sneakers. At one point, Warrant Officer Nathanaelle Normand, 15, the highest-ranking woman in the unit, who recently supervised lower-ranking cadets at the National Marksmanship Championship in Iqaluit, took the girls to the bathroom to teach them how to twist their hair into smooth buns. 

The program long ago dropped its original mission of preparing boys for military service. Today's participants take courses in public speaking, stress management and how to deal with harassment, in addition to learning marching drills. 

Girls and boys make up equal numbers among the younger cadets, but girls tend to drop out after age 15. Representation of visible minorities depends on the community where the unit is located: Blacks, Chinese and southeast Asians make up 40% of Brampton's cadets. 

Advertising pamphlets touting the program's emphasis on leadership development and physical fitness resemble brochures for summer camp, with pictures of young men and women sailing, mountain biking and playing musical instruments. 

Firearms are only mentioned in association with marksmanship, which is described as a sport "based on Olympic-style competition with an emphasis on safe handling and care of firearms." 

Master Warrant Officer Raymond Ivanauskas, for example, got to spend six weeks at Alberta's Rocky Mountain Cadet Training Centre, climbing glaciers and kayaking as a result of his high placement on a leadership exam. The federal government paid for the camp. The 17-year-old from Brampton says he would never have been able to afford that kind of adventure program on his own. 

Still, activities requiring obedience and discipline will always earn scorn from some teenagers. "Lots of people say, 'That's so stupid, that's so totally dumb,' when I tell them about it," says Jessica Sop, a 14-year-old Grade 9 student who earned the rank of Master Corporal after one year of cadet training. 

"I tell them, 'I go camping, I know first aid, I know all this cool stuff.' I tell them they should come and check it out." 

Master Corp Sop says her parents love the program. The stress management courses taught her to control her temper and better manage her school work; and she finally has started saving money, thanks to her stipend from summer camp and money from babysitting. 

But no matter how much parents like aspects of cadets, the program evokes complicated emotions. 

Cadets are not members of the Canadian Forces and the program is no longer used as a recruitment tool. But participating exposes students to the option of a military career, which is the first thing Karen and Gord Rees thought about when their son joined four years ago. 

"I don't want my baby to go to war," Karen Rees says. 

Watching their son get promoted to the high rank of Master Warrant Officer last week, they acknowledged his stint with <cadets> has had significant benefits: William, 16, cooks, cleans, does the laundry and is generally more helpful at home than his two older sisters, thanks to his leadership and survival training. "He looks you in the eye when he speaks, he's incredibly polite and well-organized," his mother says. 

He also plans to apply to a technology program at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., next year. "I'm happy for him because it's what he wants," Rees says. "But you never completely forget about the worst-case scenarios."


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## 48Highlander (8 Nov 2004)

qjdb said:
			
		

> So many signed up in September the 557 Corps grew from four platoons to six and is looking to move their Wednesday evening sessions from the dingy First World War-era Brampton Armory, where the Canadian flags cadets use in their drills are stored in a tiny broom closet, to a larger and more modern building.



Now if we could only get numbers like that for the actual army...  :-\


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## britney18 (8 Nov 2004)

My names Britney, I adore the canadian army for the work they have done. The Men in my family have all been in the canadian army. My grandfather who is now on his death bed Made it out of korea in 1953. He was 17 when he went to war. He is a Green Beret, I adore my grandfather and I respect the army. I will always be a patriot for my country. I am willing to carry on the family tradition of being in the army and fighting for my country. Rememberance day is the day i think about all the men that died for our country. I adore all the persons in the canadian army. 
Thank you so much for fighting for our freedom.


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## condor888000 (8 Nov 2004)

Stress managemant classes? First I've heard of them...


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## Burrows (8 Nov 2004)

Same here....unless you count stress management as firing high calibre weapons with my corps on a shooting weekend stress management


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## sgt_mandal (8 Nov 2004)

: You don't have to rub in that we can only use the stupid daisy's lol


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## alan_li_13 (9 Nov 2004)

Hey, i know Rees. We were in the same company at camp.


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## condor888000 (9 Nov 2004)

F/Sgt_mandal said:
			
		

> : You don't have to rub in that we can only use the stupid daisy's lol



They shoot rifles, we go flying, seems like a fair deal to me!!!!!


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## sgt_mandal (9 Nov 2004)

true


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## Ward1859 (9 Nov 2004)

> the program is no longer used as a recruitment tool



I could of sworn one of the aims of the cadet movement is to "Promote interest in the Canadian Armed Forces". Maybe that's just me..


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## Burrows (9 Nov 2004)

condor888000 said:
			
		

> They shoot rifles, we go flying, seems like a fair deal to me!!!!!



Actually its just my corps that shoots high cal. weapons...its not a common occurance.


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## dano (9 Nov 2004)

C/Sgt Ward said:
			
		

> I could of sworn one of the aims of the cadet movement is to "Promote interest in the Canadian Armed Forces". Maybe that's just me..



Actually to stimulate interest in the CF. 

The word of mouth recommendation was truly the one that gave us a big jump in new Cadets. I think From the time M/Cpl Sop joined, as well with a few other females that are making good careers for themselves, is when more and more females began joining. Sop said she gets to do all these cool things. Well I can expect the general female population in elementry and Highschool Juniors to be shocked to find a girl in Army Cadets. Lets face it, the image they receive and perceive (which may come from any source) is dominantly male. The girls I'm sure loved what the female Army Cadets had to say about it. 
I see a new lifestyle in these females. A lifestyle a majority of girls would never have in their younger lives. It gives me some hope motivation to see these young girls go straight into the dirt, run and crawl through forests, sleep in the rain and dirt and still get up at 6 to clean and prepare so they can eat breakfest at 7 and go to classes shortly there after.

As well I've seen the RCAC poster posted on my schools board in the main hall.
Perhaps that same was done in other schools.


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## Sgt_McWatt (10 Nov 2004)

Burrows said:
			
		

> Actually its just my corps that shoots high cal. weapons...its not a common occurance.



Define high cal. weapons. I know lots of units that fire C7's and C8's so I don't understand what you mean.
Regards,


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## armygurl_557 (21 Dec 2004)

http://www.northpeel.com/br/news/story/2436040p-2819413c.html


Yet another Article about our Corps, Recieving the Col. Clarry Award, from Col. Clarry him self!


Fixed your link for you  
Kyle


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## armygurl_557 (21 Dec 2004)

It's been a good year for the 557 Lorne Scots Army Cadets. 

The Brampton corps was recently named the winner of the Colonel John H.C. Clarry Award, given each year to the top large army cadet corps in Ontario. The award, presented at the Brampton Armoury, is the first in the corps' 32-year history. It also marks the first time a corps from central Ontario has won the award in more than a decade. 

The corps also received Lord Strathcona awards for top marksmanship and for top large army corps in central Ontario. 

When Cpt. Jason Higgins took over as commanding officer of the 557 corps in September 2002, it had only 27 cadets. The corps now boasts just under 200 members. Higgins attributes the group's incredible growth and much of its success to changes he made to his staff. 

"I went in a different direction than the people who were running the unit before. Along with me, I brought in my wife and I recruited some new staff so we got more people involved, which was really what the issue was before. There were two or three people trying to do everything," he said. 

"As we started to get more people involved, we were able to do more things, and thus we were able to get more cadets to join. And once more start to join, it gets really big by word of mouth." 

While Higgins acknowledges the majority of cadets do not pursue a career in the Canadian forces, he says their time as cadets is instrumental in their personal development and in helping others in the community. 

The 557 cadets have achieved amazing success in team competitions over the last two years. Last year, the corps' biathlon team won the central Ontario championship in only its first year of competition. The group's orienteering team was also first in the region. 

A few weeks ago, the corps participated in an air rifle competition, where its two teams finished third and sixth out of 24 teams. The corps also had one cadet finish as the top junior cadet in the competition. 

Over the last month, in addition to team events, the 557 cadets have also been extremely busy with community service. This year for Remembrance Day, the corps had 40 cadets participate in the Brampton parade with members of Branch 609 of the Royal Canadian Legion, and about 100 cadets participate in city hall ceremonies with Legion Branch 15. The cadets also assisted with poppy sales for both branches. 

The corps also had 100 members participate in Brampton's annual Santa Claus Parade. The cadets carried banners for other groups and helped out wherever assistance was needed. The following day, 20 to 30 cadets were in the Shoppers World parade.


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## armygurl_557 (21 Dec 2004)

Two members of the 557 Lorne Scots Army Cadets, Cpt. Jason Higgins, middle, and CWO Murray Lafortune, accepted the Colonel John H.C. Clarry Award for the top large army cadet corps in the province from the man after whom it's named, Clarry himself.


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## cpl-cam (21 Dec 2004)

condor888000 said:
			
		

> They shoot rifles, we go flying, seems like a fair deal to me!!!!!


Anyone can go buy a lee enfield for $150 bucks but who can go buy a glider?


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## Fishbone Jones (21 Dec 2004)

You'll have an easier time getting your pilot's license than you will a PAL. It's also easier to buy a glider ;D


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