I. Introduction
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The Individual Training and Education (IT&E) system that is the object of this audit supports the Canadian Forces (CF) operational mandate and helps the CF meet its international commitments abroad. The IT&E system trains men and women in more than 150 military occupations to ensure that they are competent to do their jobs. It touches every military member not only upon entry into the CF but also throughout their careers as they progress in their chosen fields.
The IT&E system places a large burden of responsibility on the CF by ensuring that it trains everyone to the highest degree possible. The system also places responsibility on students, who must achieve high standards in their chosen fields. As well, the CF must undertake training with the utmost respect for individual rights and aspirations and with respect for language-of-work rights, as stipulated in the Official Languages Act. Careers are at stake and, as we saw on numerous occasions during this audit, emotions can run high when things go wrong. We have repeated many times in this report that, if an individual’s official languages rights are not respected during the first years of training, an individual’s language of work rights and opportunities for advancement could be affected for the rest of his or her career.
During this audit we met more than 600 people of which 250 were students. As a result, we had many opportunities to examine individual cases. We learned of many stories of hard work and success and also stories of difficulty and hardship. While we did not visit the 24 training establishments to hear individual complaints, complaints did surface, which raised our awareness about individual rights as they pertain to language of instruction. We have highlighted individual comments and suggestions as quotations throughout this audit report while maintaining the anonymity of the individuals involved. Others, such as the National Defence Ombudsman, have also identified problems concerning language of instruction. We have met with officials from the Ombudsman’s office on official languages matters identified during their own investigations. We kept these in mind during our visits.
Our visits were also an opportunity to learn from those involved directly in IT&E on how best to resolve issues from an official languages point of view that have plagued the CF. This was our main goal: to understand the workings of IT&E from a systems and process point of view and propose recommendations to improve these systems from an official languages point of view. Our aim was to ensure lasting results, thereby achieving the Commissioner’s strategic objective to influence the behaviour of institutions.
Many good ideas flowed from our discussions with CF officials and we thank all who gave their time and energy. We found that there is a strong desire among all ranks to find solutions and be innovative, an example being the recent initiatives to transform the official languages program within National Defence. This initiative covers a large array of official languages matters and is intended to take place over a five-year period.
We understand that correcting the problems identified in this audit will not happen overnight, especially considering the magnitude and complexity of IT&E. However, we were impressed by the CF’s commitment to this process. From the outset, the CF was extremely cooperative and expressed a desire to participate fully in the audit, which is seen as an instrument of change in the delivery of this very important training system in both official languages. It is in this spirit that the 20 recommendations emanating from this audit, as well as the resulting action plan that accompanies this final report, are formulated.
