Report gives military failing grade on equity

The Canadian Armed Forces is failing to attract and keep enough women, natives and visible minorities in its ranks, according to a new report presented Friday to Defence Minister Art Eggleton.

The Advisory Board on Canadian Forces Gender Integration and Employment Equity says the military is failing to meet recruitment targets, and that "indifference and ignorance" to the military's employment equity plans are behind the problem.

Between 1997 and 2000, women made up 11.1 per cent of the 65,000 people in the armed forces, according to the report. Visible minorities accounted for 2.5 per cent, and aboriginal Canadians only 1.8 per cent.

Women are also leaving the forces at rates two and three times higher than their male counterparts.

Between 1989 and 1999, the attrition rate for non-commissioned women was 30.4 per cent, compared to 9.2 per cent for non-commissioned men.

The military's goal is to include 28 per cent women, nine per cent visible minorities and three per cent aboriginals.

The report said that while the Canadian forces employment equity plan was laudable, the military had failed to implement it.

Former infantry captain Sandra Perron, who said she left the military in 1996 after years of ostracism by her male colleagues, led the report. In a 1992 training exercise, Perron was blindfolded, tied to a tree and subjected to a mock execution.

A photograph of the incident was widely publicized, embarrassing the military.

In an introduction to the report, chief of defence staff Gen. Maurice Baril says the forces remain committed to equality.