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Protect home interests of reservists
Aug. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
For many Canadians it still comes as something of a shock to find out that their soldiers are or have been engaged in actual armed combat in places like Afghanistan and the tattered remnants of what used to be Yugoslavia.
It comes as a double shock to those people to find out that many of the men and women who are doing the killing and dying are not professional full-time soldiers but reservists, who hold down regular jobs as automobile mechanics or government clerks and learn their soldiering at weekend drills and at summer camp.
For Montrealers, that reality was brought home all too literally this month when the remains of Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren of the city's own Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada were shipped home in a flag-draped coffin after he and a comrade were killed by a suicide bomber in Kandahar.
Nor was Warren the only reservist to have given his life in the service of his country in the current Afghanistan campaign. Bombardier Myles Mansell of Victoria and Lt. William Turner of Edmonton — both killed in a bomb explosion — were also reservists.
In fact, Maclean's magazine says fully 13 per cent of the 2,300 soldiers serving in Afghanistan are reservists.
Given the Canadian government's reliance on reservists like Warren and Mansell and Turner, then it would be logical to presume that Ottawa has taken all the necessary steps to defend vigorously the home interests of reservists while they are overseas. But that, unfortunately, is not the case.
Employers — even government employers — are frequently not very enthusiastic about their workers' weekend soldiering, Maclean's reports, often making it difficult for reservists to get off the time they need for training and other activities.
And when employees volunteer for overseas deployment to a hot zone like Afghanistan, their bosses are less than co-operative in guarding their jobs for them. One soldier returned from a high-profile civilian outreach program in the villages around Kabul to discover that he no longer had a job with the Ontario government.
Reserve soldiers in other countries have far better protection and support than their Canadian counterparts. U.S. law, for example, requires employers to protect reservists' jobs. Britain compensates employers whose workers volunteer for active duty.
All Canadian reservists have is a law that requires employers to protect their jobs if they are called up for compulsory service, something that hasn't happened since World War II. There is no legislated protection for reservists who volunteer for overseas service.
Canada should do better. The government continues to find new work for our overstretched armed forces, which is bound to create a need for even more reservists to enter active duty.
Both the government and employers should work together to make sure our men and women in uniform have the same kind of job security that mothers on maternity leave have, for some of the same reasons.
Both mothers and soldiers, after all, are performing a vital and volunteer service for the nation.
Just wondering if anyone out there has faced any problems with their civvy employers? I haven't had to ask yet, but I will have to very soon, and based on the CFLC (employer support of for the reserve force) briefing I attended, it appeared that we do have at least some support. How was the problem rectified? And was the CFLC effective in helping you obtain a leave of absence for training exercises?
Protect home interests of reservists
Aug. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
For many Canadians it still comes as something of a shock to find out that their soldiers are or have been engaged in actual armed combat in places like Afghanistan and the tattered remnants of what used to be Yugoslavia.
It comes as a double shock to those people to find out that many of the men and women who are doing the killing and dying are not professional full-time soldiers but reservists, who hold down regular jobs as automobile mechanics or government clerks and learn their soldiering at weekend drills and at summer camp.
For Montrealers, that reality was brought home all too literally this month when the remains of Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren of the city's own Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada were shipped home in a flag-draped coffin after he and a comrade were killed by a suicide bomber in Kandahar.
Nor was Warren the only reservist to have given his life in the service of his country in the current Afghanistan campaign. Bombardier Myles Mansell of Victoria and Lt. William Turner of Edmonton — both killed in a bomb explosion — were also reservists.
In fact, Maclean's magazine says fully 13 per cent of the 2,300 soldiers serving in Afghanistan are reservists.
Given the Canadian government's reliance on reservists like Warren and Mansell and Turner, then it would be logical to presume that Ottawa has taken all the necessary steps to defend vigorously the home interests of reservists while they are overseas. But that, unfortunately, is not the case.
Employers — even government employers — are frequently not very enthusiastic about their workers' weekend soldiering, Maclean's reports, often making it difficult for reservists to get off the time they need for training and other activities.
And when employees volunteer for overseas deployment to a hot zone like Afghanistan, their bosses are less than co-operative in guarding their jobs for them. One soldier returned from a high-profile civilian outreach program in the villages around Kabul to discover that he no longer had a job with the Ontario government.
Reserve soldiers in other countries have far better protection and support than their Canadian counterparts. U.S. law, for example, requires employers to protect reservists' jobs. Britain compensates employers whose workers volunteer for active duty.
All Canadian reservists have is a law that requires employers to protect their jobs if they are called up for compulsory service, something that hasn't happened since World War II. There is no legislated protection for reservists who volunteer for overseas service.
Canada should do better. The government continues to find new work for our overstretched armed forces, which is bound to create a need for even more reservists to enter active duty.
Both the government and employers should work together to make sure our men and women in uniform have the same kind of job security that mothers on maternity leave have, for some of the same reasons.
Both mothers and soldiers, after all, are performing a vital and volunteer service for the nation.
Just wondering if anyone out there has faced any problems with their civvy employers? I haven't had to ask yet, but I will have to very soon, and based on the CFLC (employer support of for the reserve force) briefing I attended, it appeared that we do have at least some support. How was the problem rectified? And was the CFLC effective in helping you obtain a leave of absence for training exercises?
