Canadian Forces Banned from Schools - Part I

Coalition of Students, Teachers Believes Canadian Forces Target Underprivileged, Withhold Truth

Military recruiters are no longer welcome in Quebec's schools, says a coalition of teachers' and student's unions. In February of 2009 the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ,) Quebec's largest teacher's union, received representatives from the anti-recruitment group Operation Objection. This fall, as a result of that meeting the union has launched a campaign to keep the military out of the province's schools. Letters from the union have been sent to the Education Ministry, to school boards, to colleges and parents committees informing these recipients that schools are not the appropriate place for military recruitment.

Military Recruiting in High Schools and CEGEPs: Targeting Vulnerable Young People?

After reading some recent news articles I was left with the impression that the issue at hand was whether the military was recruiting in schools where students are underage (i.e. high schools and CEGEPs) and whether military recruiters were telling the whole truth when they set up information kiosks. After listening to a CBC radio interview with the union's special counsel Alain Pelissier, and after looking at through information published by the Campagne d'opposition au recrutement and Operation Objection, it seems that these people will be happy with nothing less than the total elimination of any hint of the military from our schools - right down to not even allowing the local cadet unit to hold its meetings in the school gym after hours.

Although on the surface the issue would seem to be the targeting of a vulnerable segment of our society, this does not appear to be the real motivation behind the campaign. The first argument put forth by the teacher's union is that the new recruitment policies adopted by the military aim to "seduce" sixteen year olds. The coalition accuses recruiters of going out to high schools with contract in hand, proposing to enroll high school students on the spot at an age when they are not yet old enough to vote or to purchase alcohol and tobacco. ("Campagne de la CSQ contre le recrutement militaire dans les écoles")