A Canadian Civil Defence Corps

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/03/05/Canada-Needs-New-Civil-Defence-Corps/

This article appeared in the Tyee yesterday, suggesting a Canadian Civil Defence Corps based partly on the Swedish model.

The practical suggestions in it, built around training, community preparedness and personal responsibility:

• Universal civil defence training: Every Canadian should receive basic training in first aid, emergency preparedness and cybersecurity. This would be mandatory for Grade 12 students and newcomers, with local, in-person and online options for all adults.

• Optional defence skills track: Similar to the Swedish approach, tens of thousands of Canadians could receive additional firearms training, tactical first aid, search-and-rescue skills and survival techniques — not to militarize society, but to ensure that we can take care of ourselves.

• Reserve forces expansion: We must add at least 20,000 reservists to ensure we have a force ready to respond to crises — military or otherwise — aligning us more closely with NATO norms and attainable given our population.

• Cyber-resilience training: Every Canadian should be able to recognize and defend against cyberthreats, disinformation campaigns and economic coercion. Germany has invested in tackling disinformation by training its population in media literacy, foreign influence detection and digital resilience — Canada must do the same.

• National youth service program: The existing Canadian Service Corps is far too limited with only a few thousand young Canadians participating each year. We should dramatically expand national service opportunities, offering paid programs in trades, emergency management and infrastructure resilience, allowing young Canadians to develop valuable skills and experience other parts of the country while actively contributing to national security.

• Arctic protection and Indigenous leadership: As global powers eye the Arctic, Canada must train more Indigenous rangers and local defence units to safeguard the North. Inuit and other Indigenous communities must be at the centre of Arctic security planning, ensuring they have the resources to defend their land and way of life.

I was thinking about this very thing last night. Some very good suggestions here.

The optional “defence skills track” potentially gives us the capability of an effective insurgent resistance, similar to other countries’ militia-based defence programs (e.g. Yugoslavia once upon a time, Switzerland historically (https://archive.org/details/total-resistance-swiss-army-guide-to-guerilla-warfare-1965) and the idea has been advanced by socialist and anarchist groups (e.g. https://libcom.org/article/towards-citizens-militia-anarchist-alternatives-nato-and-warsaw-pact )) though it would necessarily be urban due to how the population is distributed and the unforgiving rural climate. I’ve done a bit of studying about that….

The Reserves have to be drastically expanded, counter to the regular pattern with countries our reserves have been smaller than the regular forces for a long time and I can’t think why except for reasons of economy. However, the Reserves cannot simply be retasked with civil defence duties… back in the 1950s they tried this, it was called “National Survival” or something like that and recruitment plummeted.

This, or something like this, can definitely be done and it would not take long to stand up parts of it. After 2017, Sweden realized there would be no ongoing “peace dividend”: they reinstated limited conscription, got serious about fortifying their infrastructure and pushed the concept of total participation in civil protection and resilience. (One example is the excellent brochure “In Case of Crisis or War” which was published in many languages including English, download link is here: https://www.msb.se/en/advice-for-individuals/the-brochure-in-case-of-crisis-or-war/download-and-order-the-brochure-in-case-of-crisis-or-war/ )

However, other parts of it would take longer to stand up, because I think our sense of community and civic contribution has been drastically eroded over the years… except in times of crisis, when we are as generous and helpful and practical as any but we have to think and prepare in advance of crises… and there will be many of them, many and varied. I’ll be the first to admit that among our faults are distraction and complacency, they are quite common to humanity after all.

One of the comments to the article above, in response to someone making the obvious and hyperbolic comment “you can’t snap your fingers and have a million trained soldiers appear” and carping about the cost and time, was the motto “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now.”

I’d like to see this happen, even some of it… because half a loaf is better than the crumbly wet cracker we might be left with by events.