1. Method: Surveillance and Anxiety

If you join the Army reserve in the National Capital Region, more likely than not, your Basic Military Qualification (BMQ) will run out of Connaught Ranges and Primary Training Centre (CRPTC). Here, candidates embark on a 10-week course that sets conditions for subsequent more trade specific training. As a training centre, CRPTC is enclosed by a fenced perimeter. As such, a strict spatial partitioning conveys a distance between the candidates and their previous lives. 

Within its gated perimeter, candidates are constantly under control. To begin, candidates adhere to a strict routine: at 5 am they wake; at 6:45 am they are inspected; at 11 pm they go to bed. During the day, order is kept by instructors and staff, while night routine sees the candidates acting as sentries to themselves through the stand-up of a constant ‘fire-picket’. As such, candidates are under ceaseless surveillance. If a candidate is observed not performing to the stipulated standard they will be given a ‘warning’. Infractions can be as small as not shaving during the time allotted in the course time table, or as grievous as discharging a firearm when not instructed to. In the end, the accumulation of one or more warning(s) (depending on severity) could see a candidate removed from the course or worse yet tried in a court of law. (National Defence)

In Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault discusses a similarly excess approach to surveillance when he describes the measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the plague at the end of the seventeenth century. There he writes:

“Inspection functions ceaselessly. The gaze is alert everywhere”: ‘A considerable body of militia, commanded by good officers and men of substance’ [...] ensure the prompt obedience of the people and the most absolute authority of magistrates”. (Foucault, 195-196) 

For Foucault, surveillance leads to order, and order was ultimately the people's best tool to stifle the chaos of the plague. Thus, the similarity between Foucault's example and the methods employed by the Canadian Forces (CF) can seem disconcerting as no life or death epidemic is overtly present during the conduct of BMQ. To this, BMQ is the introductory course for any and all trades within the CF. As the name would suggest, it teaches candidates the basic skills to succeed in a military environment. Obvious performance measures include weapon proficiency and physical fitness; both of these fit nicely into metrics of standardized testing as candidates either perform the skills to standard or do not. However, less concrete learning objectives, such as the 'DND and CF Code of Values and Ethics', can be more difficult to impress and assess. For example, how does one assess ‘Integrity’?

I will argue, that on BMQ, 'Values and expected behaviours of DND employees and CF members' are enforced and imparted through a system of ceaseless surveillance. Furthermore, such an approach is made evident by the uncharacteristic and sometimes unconventional use of furniture by candidates. Such behaviours stand as evidence that candidates are making a concerted effort to meet the expectations of their staff who are exemplars of the 'Values and expected behaviours of DND employees and CF members'. As such, surveillance begets order, and order is ultimately for the candidates’ own good as lasting members of the CF. 

To support my argument I will draw on the experiences of MCpl Bloggins, a section commander with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, who completed his BMQ at CRPTC in 2008. As a disclaimer, I have use a pseudonym and his responses have been altered for clarity. Additionally, the reader is forewarned that the interviewee uses language that may be inaproprite for younger audiences.

2. Context: Fatigue and Anxiety

Formalistically, the Webley Shacks, a grouping of 3 trailers (originally 4) at the centre of CRPTC, are nothing impressive. MCpl Bloggins puts it bluntly when he describes them as, “giant rectangles”, and his description is not wrong as there is not much to remark on them otherwise. Aside from a small window for each room, there is nothing else to define the exterior as the outer walls are clad in the same white non-descript aluminum siding. In this respect, the shacks become reminiscent of the ubiquitous Quonset Hut of the 1940s.(Decker)

Similarly to a Quonset Hut, the Webleys' intended purpose is purely functional. At 50 meters long by 10 meters wide they support accommodations for a maximum of 50 persons. Inside the same layout is employed in each shack: the interior is partitioned into 25 rooms, each housing 2 candidates each; and the entire building is bisected by a communal hall running the length of the structure in the centre. However, unlike a Quonset Hut, the Webleys feature a communal ablutions space at their centre. In the ablutions space, there are 6 sinks, 3 toilets, 2 urinals, and 4 showers. In essence, the candidates are provided with the essentials to sleep and prepare themselves between the day's affairs. However, I will argue that the function of the Shacks goes beyond the simplicity of shelter and bodily function. Despite the functional rhetoric of their exterior, The Webley Shacks are ultimately used and experienced by their occupants however they like. For example, in the summer candidates often redefine the Shacks as parasols.

When asked about his relationship with the Webley Shacks, MCpl Bloggins had this to say, “all my associations with Webley are fatigue and anxiety”. For him, the shacks were indeed home throughout training; yet, they served the secondary function as a performative space for anxiety. In the course of any given morning, candidates will wake at 5 am for physical training and return for ablutions no later than 6 am to be inspected at 6:45 am. Thus, in 45 minutes, all 50 candidates will be expected to: shower, shave, perform any bodily functions, clean, and prepare their kit for inspection by staff. 

Concerning inspection, everything is to be standard between all candidates. The standard may be different from course to course, but there is always a standard, and this is enforced by staff who physically walk from room to room inspecting candidates and recording any shortcomings. Something as small as the way a candidate's laces are passed through the gromets of their boots can be grounds enough for a ‘warning’.This attention to even the smallest minutia is remembered by MCpl Bloggins who said, “your bed had to have hospital corners with the folds measuring 8 inches each running at a 45-degree angle, I had to buy a ruler and protractor-- [instructors] were anal ”. Given the constraints of time and the degree of uniformity expected, the standard is never achieved. Still, this did not stop MCpl Bloggins and his peers from trying to meet this mandate. 

3. Ordinary History: Relaxation with Anxiety

Describing the contents of each room MCpl Bloggins said, “each person had their own bed and their own locker… and in the very middle… for two dudes, they would have one shitty desk and a plastic chair”. When asked which of the articles was his favourite he replied quickly and matter of factly, “the bed”. However, his disposition wavered into unease as he began to posit this relationship. To this he said:

“When you go to bed you're finally done and you can finally put your feet up for a little bit and relax, but you're new to the army, so you kinda always have that anxiety and fear that staff are gonna come fuck your shit up and start yelling at you… So ya... The bed means relaxation with anxiety”

MCpl Bloggins fear that his staff could come into the shacks at any moment was not irrational. Regardless of the time of day, there are always some staff in the vicinity of the candidates. This is a safety precaution as it provides a point of contact between candidates and the staff for any concerns. However, this has powerful ramifications for notions of surveillance.  

While not overtly seen, candidates know that staff move freely throughout the training centre. Isolated to the Webley Shacks and backlit by the interior lighting, each candidate is as Foucault describes “perfectly individualized and constantly visible”. (200) In this way, the staff become omniscient and unverifiable. Thus, candidates devise strategies and tactics to better adapt to the omniscient gaze of the staff. For example, MCpl Bloggins did not sleep in his bed in a conventional sense. Describing this he said:

“I slept in my bed maybe once or twice, maybe nearing the end of the course, when you kinda get to that point where you don't care anymore and you just want to sleep, and you don't care about whether the staff are gonna come jack you up, you just say, 'fuck this, I'm gonna sleep in my bed properly!' All other times before that, I think I slept, not even inside my sleeping bag, I think I slept on top of my immaculately made bed underneath my sleeping bag”

By doing this, MCpl Bloggins was able to quickly react to any impromptu visits by staff, and greatly reduced the amount of time it took for him to get ready for morning inspection. Yet, this begs the central question: why? 

4. Conclusion: Accepting Anxiety

Looking back on his Basic Military Qualification (BMQ) experience, MCpl Bloggins remembers an incident where an individual failed to clean the latrines. Beckoned into the washrooms by staff, the candidate was brought before one of the bathroom stalls. When berated with questions of, “What is that!” the member responded, “It's a turd, Sergeant”. What ensued was some yelling and some encouragement to rectify the matter; however, what came next surprised everyone. According to MCpl Bloggins, the candidate, panicked and looking to please the staff, plunged his bare hand into the toilet, removed the human waste, and deposited it into a trash receptacle. This anecdote is crass but illustrates the lengths to which some candidates will go to appease staff and achieve the standard. 

When asked if the standard really mattered, MCpl Bloggins said, imperfections like dirt on the floor were, in retrospect, non-issues. However, he did explain that standards were ultimately important in a “career sense”. For him, the standard, perched on its unreachable pedestal, was a lesson in liability, humility, and due diligence. To this, he said, “learning how to get jacked up and fail constantly is a really critical part of being in the military” as it “teaches you to accept responsibility on behalf of a team” and develops a moral framework of what needs to get done. In the case of the candidate who evacuated the “turd”, the waste may not have come from him, but he knew it was his duty to deal with it. 

In a Foucauldian sense, these strange and unconventional behaviours demonstrate how order and discipline are enmeshed within the system of a BMQ. As I have argued, these behaviours were not necessitated out of spite for the system of control, rather, they were employed out of respect for it. As such, ceaseless surveillance begets order, and order is ultimately for the candidates' own good as lasting members of the CF. 

A Final Disclaimer

The findings of this project are based on a single interview and do not reflect the experiences of all candidates past and present. In order to confirm my findings, a more diverse and extensive series of interviews would have to be conducted.

Bibliography

Bloggins, Master Corporal. Personal Interview. November 19th, 2019.

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA). “Archived - Construction of a New Accommodation & Training Facility at Connaught Range & Primary Training Centre (CRPTC).” CEAA, last modified 2012,
https://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/052/details-eng.cfm?pid=19938.

Decker, Julie, Chris Chiei, Anchorage Museum Association, Alaska Design Forum, SpringerLink (Online service), and the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Quonset Hut: Metal Living for a Modern Age. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), 195-210.

National Defence, "CAO 24-08 – Canadian Army IT & PME Policies and Procedures".

National Defence, “Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces Code of Values and Ethics.” DND, last modified 2019, https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/benefits-military/defence-ethics/policies-publications/code-value-ethics.html.