Since our 30 June statement<\/a>, we have received nearly a hundred messages from individual alums, from classes and branches expressing their views on the Arbour report<\/a>, particularly on the recommendations relating to the Canadian Military Colleges.<\/p>\n The main thrust of most responses has been offers of advice and assistance. Some responses shared personal experiences with us, including painful experiences. \u00a0We are grateful for all of the responses we have received, including those that critiqued us for not being more forceful.<\/p>\n We recognize that there have been many reviews of the Canadian Military Colleges through their history. This upcoming review will be different.<\/p>\n The Canadian Military Colleges alumni network is an incredibly powerful source of talent, experience and expertise for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), for Canada, and globally.\u00a0 We will be engaging with our network in the coming weeks and months leading up to the review to explore some key questions, including:<\/p>\n We continue to welcome your feedback and your perspectives.\u00a0 You can reach our Arbour response team at: rmcaa.aacmr.iecr.response@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n Statement by the Royal Military Colleges of Canada Alumni Association Inc. (RMCAA) on the Report of the Independent External Comprehensive Review (Arbour Report) of the Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF)<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Over the past weeks since the Arbour Report was published, the board of directors of the RMCAA have read the report, and we continue to reflect on it.\u00a0 We share a deep concern about the situation it describes.\u00a0 We recognize that systemic and cultural failings enabled abuse to occur and persist.<\/p>\n To the survivors who have been let down by the system, this should not have happened.\u00a0 It has taken courage for you to come forward and discuss what happened.\u00a0 We make a commitment to you to work diligently with the Colleges, the CAF and DND to advance cultural and systemic change so this does not happen again.<\/p>\n Since the report was published, we have heard and read a wide spectrum of opinions.\u00a0 There may be alumni who did not experience the trauma described in the Arbour Report and may have difficulty digesting it.\u00a0 They may ask why incidents were not reported and investigated, and why disciplinary action or administrative responses were inadequate.\u00a0 The answers are varied and complicated, and range from shame, guilt and embarrassment to confidentiality concerns, to \u201cfear of not being believed\u201d and other reasons.\u00a0 We ask all alumni to take a moment and reflect on \u201cwhat if one of the survivors was your daughter or son, niece or nephew, granddaughter or grandson or close personal friend\u201d?\u00a0 Suffice to say, there are significant problems in the system that need to be fixed.<\/p>\n While we acknowledge the concerns identified in the Arbour Report, we continue to believe strongly in the value of the military colleges at Kingston and Saint-Jean for undergraduate, postgraduate and distance learning. Unlike civilian universities, these colleges require demonstrated capability in academics, leadership, physical fitness, and bilingualism to graduate.\u00a0 They draw students from all provinces and territories of Canada, allowing these young people to learn about the country they have sworn to serve.\u00a0 The Alumni Association will work diligently to advance the cause of military colleges in Canada, and to explain the value to Canada of retaining them.<\/p>\n We know that many proud alumni of the Colleges are distressed to hear criticism of their alma mater and are keen to come to its defence.\u00a0 We ask that all alumni put their energy into finding ways to make the Colleges better in the future, rather than arguing over how good or bad they were in the past.\u00a0 We have assembled an Arbour Report response group within the RMCAA under the leadership of Scott Stevenson, a board director and graduate of Royal Roads Military College Class of 1988.\u00a0 He can be reached at rmcaa.aacmr.iecr.response@gmail.com<\/a>, and he welcomes your input.\u00a0 This statement marks the beginning of the RMCAA\u2019s response.\u00a0 We will have more to say in the coming months.<\/p>\n Truth Duty Valour,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Update on Royal Military Colleges of Canada Alumni Association activities in response to the Arbour Report Since our 30 June statement, we have received nearly a hundred messages from individual alums, from classes and branches expressing their views on the Arbour report, particularly on the recommendations relating to the Canadian Military Colleges. The main thrust…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[458],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-responding-to-the-cmc-review-towards-renewal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35276,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32468\/revisions\/35276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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