100 Sisters on Security: Peace and the Canadian Armed Forces

Lest we forget, today is Remembrance Day, a day to remember all those who dedicate their lives every day to serve our country. Today is the day we honour those who gave their lives in the line of duty since the First World War. Today is the day we wear our poppies with gratitude and respect for those who served and continue to serve in armed conflicts and peacekeeping all around the globe and for those who have made sacrifices to keep our country safe.

We are living in extremely trying times, with the world being torn apart by armed conflict everywhere, and our loved ones suffering both near and far. Our thoughts never stray far from those in Ukraine and the Middle East, and we follow the news daily, hoping for some form of ceasefire, some form of reprieve, that may eventually lead to peace.

We are fortunate to have Eva Martinez with us on this edition of 100 Sisters on Security. Ms. Martinez is the recipient of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee medal for her contributions to the province of Nova Scotia. She has had a stellar career with the Royal Canadian Air Force, for which she was awarded the Canadian Forces’ Decoration Medal for twelve years of excellent conduct and service. She also represented Canada, the only woman, as a military observer to actively verify the ceasefire between the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit (URNG) and the Army of Guatemala and invited by Chilean Air Force Commander to discuss the integration of women into the Chilean Air Force.

"You know peacekeeping is a complex and multifaceted endeavor. Certainly from what we're seeing in the news these days with the Israeli-Hamas conflict, the road to peace is never linear or sequential and as we've seen over the decades there have been multiple efforts, with the best of intentions, that have just been plagued by so many factors, of course politics being one of them. So from my short time with the UN, one of the takeaways for me is the first basic principle of peacekeeping: consent of the parties. You need to have consent by the warring sides around topics like ceasefires and separation of forces and then welcoming peacekeepers into the area to do their work, so the parties need to be able to reach an agreement and as we continue to see from the news coverage, that simply isn't something that's happening in this particular conflict."

This year marks 75 years that Canada has been in the role of peacekeeper for the United Nations. While the world is currently in turmoil, it is unclear what role Canada can play. With conflicts within and between nations all around the globe, with unintended consequences bleeding into social and climate injustices, Canada has always been conflicted on whether or not we should become involved. We are very fortunate in that we have been relatively untouched by war within our borders, and many question the existence of our armed forces and military spending.

Many Canadians take pride in the country's role as peacekeepers, but many also feel that it is not Canada's role to interfere in the affairs of other nations. Although Canada has had a mercurial relationship with its military, at once grateful for those who have sacrificed so much in the line of duty, but also apprehensive about the country's role in armed conflict and spending on armaments, Ms. Martinez reminds viewers of the much more holistic role that the armed forces frequently play. Having spent many years working with a squadron whose main focus on search and rescue has saved numerous lives, she describes the civic duties that are also expected of the Canadian military.

"You know search and rescue is just one of the most compelling ways that the military supports Canada. We conducted hundreds of missions searching for people in distress or in danger over land or over water, or to recover them in unfortunate circumstances. The motto of search and rescue is ‘That Others May Live,’ so being a part of that Squadron was something that I definitely put my heart and soul into," she explains, "I think there are pockets of the population who struggle to get behind the idea of Canada needing an armed forces, and the whole notion of war fighting, but I think there's a different perception when it comes to search and rescue and the civic humanitarian efforts that the military is often called to do whether it's ice storms or flooding or wildfires."

The Canadian Armed Forces have had a questionable reputation when it comes to women for many years. With allegations of gender inequities and sexual misconduct, the military has not been considered as the safest place for women to pursue their careers. Very few speak of positive experiences in their military career, but Ms. Martinez paints an honest picture of both the challenges and rewards of serving her country as she describes her experiences from being an Air Cadet as a teenager to retiring as a Major in 2002. Speaking of her time in the military, Ms. Martinez says:

"I think there was a reluctance to open up about the things that we might be experiencing because it's such a highly competitive environment and you feel like there are going to be consequences and if we talk about these things we might be seen as weak or that we're not able to handle ourselves. We were kind of conditioned to keep a lot of things quiet for fear of what those consequences might be."

However, she feels that there is a different priority today.

"The UN is recognizing more and more that women in peacekeeping means more peace and they put a lot of effort into campaigns of that nature, trying to increase the involvement of women in order to have more effective peace operations around the world. In all fields of peacekeeping women have over time proven that they can perform the same roles to the same standards and under the same difficult conditions as their male counterparts. So it is absolutely an operational imperative that we continue to recruit and retain female peacekeepers."