Permanent Indian residents can now be part of Canadian military
Darpan News Desk IANS, 14 Nov, 2022 12:06 PM
Toronto, Nov 14 (IANS) The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has announced that permanent residents, which includes a large chunk of Indians, are now eligible to join the military.
The announcement came close to Remembrance Day, amidst reports that the Canadian military is struggling to recruit new members to fill thousands of vacant positions.
As of 2021, there were more than eight million immigrants with permanent residence living in Canada - roughly 21.5 per cent of the total Canadian population.
In the same year, nearly 100,000 Indians became permanent residents of Canada as the country admitted a record 405,000 new immigrants in its history.
As per data, Canada is likely to welcome more than a million new permanent residents between 2022 and 2024, which drastically widens the pool of candidates the military can choose from.
Permanent residents were previously only eligible under the Skilled Military Foreign Applicant (SMFA) entry programme, which was "open for individuals... that would reduce training costs or fill a special need... such as a trained pilot or a doctor," according to the Royal United Services Institute of Nova Scotia, a non-profit body.
The Department of National Defence (DND) is expected to make a formal announcement in the coming days regarding the change to the policy, the CIC News reported.
In March, Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand said that the CAF needs to grow amid the changing global geopolitical landscape triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In September, the CAF sounded the alarm over a severe shortage of recruits to fill thousands of vacant positions
The Toronto Star reported that Canada is about 12,000 regular force troops short of it's "full strength" of 100,000 regular force members.
Women make up 16.3 per cent of the Canadian military demographic; Indigenous peoples come in at 2.7 per cent; and visible minorities make up less than 12 per cent of the Canadian military. Three-quarters of its ranks are white men.
Recently, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced that they're changing their "outdated recruitment process" to allow permanent residents, who have lived in Canada for 10 years, to apply.
Immigration targets have shot up in Canada with nearly a quarter of the population aging out of the workforce by 2030.
The shortage is made more acute by the gradual rise in the number of deaths and the relatively low fertility levels in Canada.
In such a scenario, immigrants become prime candidates for the military as they typically arrive in Canada during their younger working-age years where they are likely to be more physically active, according to immigration experts.
Winds in the area are known to change constantly and their unpredictability has firefighters and emergency officials preparing for the worst, said Tim Roberts, the area's elected regional director. Much of wildfire was concentrated in steep, mountainous terrain on Friday, and was less threatening to Olalla's estimated 400 properties, but that could change, Roberts said.
Two men were leaving a nearby restaurant when they got into a physical fight with a third man, who was not known to them, in a parking lot. A knife was pulled during the incident. Via release, Mounties say two of the men allegedly involved in the fight fled the area in a vehicle that was boxed in by police near Kingsway and Sussex Avenue.
Justice Martha Devlin said because Todd died in October 2012 and didn't testify and wasn't able to be cross-examined at Aydin Coban's trial, the jury needs to be aware of the limitations of evidence given.
The change will last until a permanent freeze is passed in Parliament and comes into force. The government tabled gun control legislation in May that includes a national freeze on the importation, purchase, sale and transfer of handguns in Canada.
The orders and alerts were issued by the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen as the 42-square kilometre wildfire flared in what fire information officer Bryan Zandberg says is a "problematic corner" of the blaze.
Over a month ago, Mounties received the initial complaint about the man who is now 82. A total of 7 victims have come forward. Police believe there are additional victims, and are asking them to contact police.
