The primary role of a CIC officer (i.e. the supervision and training of cadets) is irrelevant to their status as officers in the CF. The fact is, CIC officers ARE officers - plain and simple. The hold the same Queen's Commission as any other officer in the CF (save Chaplains). This means they have the same responsibilities, privileges and liabilities as any other officer of the same rank. Are they qualified to lead an infantry platoon in battle? No, of course not, but neither is a MARS officer. However, if a MARS officer happens to be in Gagetown and sees a bunch of soldiers chewing bubble gum and standing around outside the Canex with their berets in their pockets, their shirts undone and making rude gestures at passing cars, would anyone think that MARS officer would be out of line or not allowed to speak to and correct them? In fact, he's obligated to do something, notwithstanding the fact that he is not in their chain of command, nor qualified in any way to direct them on operations.
The directives quoted above make no mention of any restriction on CIC officers leading Regular or Reserve Force personnel - because their isn't one. CIC officers lead Regular and Reserve Force personnel all the time. All the above-quoted directives do is clarify the CIC's role. This was necessary because of abuses where units were bringing personnel on strength who were too old to serve in the Regular or Reserve Force, putting a CIC badge on them and then employing them differently (e.g. take an ex-Reg Force officer who is 63 years old and employing him as a staff officer in a HQ doing something totally unrelated to cadets). In other words, there were cases where the CIC was being used/abused to get around the compulsory retirement rules. For the most part, the folks in this situation had likely never functioned as actual cadet officers. There were also cases where folks with civilian qualifications were misemployed based on these civilian qualifications as opposed to their military ones (e.g. civilian lawyers who happen to be Reserve infantry officers used as legal officers - this was not confined to the CIC).
This debate is getting tiresome folks. CIC officers are members of the CF and must be accorded all the respect due to them based on their rank in accordance with the regulations and customs of the service. Whether or not they should be commissioned or even members of the CF is an entirely different question. The decision on this, however, was made a long time ago. The fact is, they are CF members and they are officers - deal with it.
Dogger1936: I hear you; however, the issue in your case is that you've been stuck with what sounds like an exceptionally bad officer in charge of your unit. This is not unique to any component of the CF. There are bad officers (and petty officers and privates, etc) in the PRes and Reg Force too. You just have to deal with them as you would anyone else. Whether they're Regular, Reserve, CIC is irrelevant. They're just bad. You may have to address this by reporting the situation up the chain of command, but get your ducks in a row and be sure of your facts and all the relevant regulations and be prepared for an uphill fight. BUT claiming that CIC officers cannot or should not lead Regular or Reserve Force personnel is a losing argument that will kill you before you even get out of the gate.
