Just as the Somalia mission has caused an examination of the relationship between military and civil authority, so too has it afforded a review of the relationship between the military and Canadian society at large. Such a review is important at this time, given the impact of the Somalia deployment on the reputation of the Canadian Forces and on the esteem in which Canadians have traditionally held the military.

We take as a given that Canada, as a sovereign nation, will continue to need a professional armed force to ensure its security. The purpose of this chapter is to review the place of the military in Canadian society. In doing so, it examines factors affecting the armed forces in Canada, military characteristics and values, public affairs and public relations, the purpose of the armed forces and their training, matters such as aggressivity and discipline, respect for law, rights and obligations, and, finally, the core values of Canada's armed forces.

Nothing distinguishes the soldier from the civilian more strikingly than the acceptance that one of the basic rights that may have to be forgone in the national interest is the right to life. This requirement to give up one's life for one's country is spoken of in the military literature as "the clause of unlimited liability". This is the essential defining or differentiating characteristic separating soldiers from their fellow citizens.

This remarkable quality depends for its existence on two conditions. The first is discipline, which begins with the example of self-discipline that leaders impart. The leaders must be the first, in terms of readiness, to sacrifice themselves for their troops. In response, soldiers undertake to do their duty willingly, offering their lives if need be. The second is respect for the military ethos, with its emphasis on the core values of integrity, courage, loyalty, selflessness, and self-discipline. Every military operation from Vimy to Dieppe, Ortona to Caen, Kapyong to the former Yugoslavia has reaffirmed the need for such an ethos.

Some contend that there is a danger that the ethos of the Canadian Forces is weakening. Recent trends toward more civilian- and business-oriented practices, although of assistance in the management of DND, are seen by some within the military as having a negative impact on the Canadian Forces. Their belief is that, as military members attempt to accommodate not only the practices but also the characteristics and values underlying those practices, essential military values are being put at risk.

In light of the Somalia experience, it may not prove sufficient simply to articulate an ethos and exhort soldiers to follow it. It would seem that a more fundamental need exists for a confirmatory and probative exercise to demonstrate that all soldiers, but particularly the senior officers, live by the military ethos and personify its core values. The military, led by its senior officers, needs to reclaim the ethical high ground.

We urge the senior leaders of the Canadian Forces to redefine the characteristics and values of the Canadian military and to establish the capability to monitor itself on an ongoing basis. In that process it will be critical to confirm those core values without which the health of the military profession in Canada cannot be restored. In the process of this reassessment, the CF leadership should be guided by the imperative that they must be prepared to conduct operations in peace and war in accordance with Canadian standards, values, laws, and ethics.

Soldiers wear the official uniform of Canada. They display the Canadian flag on those uniforms when on missions out of the country. Society's expectations of the nation's flag-bearers are indeed higher than for the average citizen. Those expectations include the notion that soldiers serve as a symbol of the national character.

An enlightened public, we believe, will accept that its modern military, even as it strives to be sensitive to changes in society, cannot shift away from its core values. A failure of military values lies at the heart of the Somalia experience. It is to be hoped that the public, led by politicians and the media, will support the military in its endeavour once again to occupy in the public imagination its special position as a repository of the nation's values.