Recruitment Policy and Aboriginal Canadians in the Canadian Armed Forces: A Critical Review

Running head: CRITICAL ARTICLE REVIEW
Critical Article Review
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRITICAL ARTICLE REVIEW
Introduction
The following essay will be written in the argument form as the topic is on the
recruitment of the aboriginals in the military forces in Canada. The article that has to be
reviewed here is the “Of Pure European Descent and of the White Race”: Recruitment Policy
and Aboriginal Canadians, 1939–1945”.1 The author of the article is R. Scott Sheffield. The
article was written in the year 1996. The purpose of writing this article was to demonstrate how
the white skinned European persons were given more priority for the recruitment in the armed
forces and naval forces in Canada over the aboriginal people in the country.2
Thesis statement: R. Scott Sheffield has provided the readers with the proper analysis on the
recruitment policies in the armed forces and naval forces in Canada. The different policies
and ways the European people were recruited in the armed forces have been effectively
discussed here.
Topic Sentence: The people from the European descent were being given the edge over the
local aboriginal people in terms of recruitment.
1 Sheffield, R. Scott. "“Of Pure European Descent and of the White Race”: Recruitment Policy and Aboriginal
Canadians, 1939–1945." Canadian Military History 5, no. 1 (1996): 2.
2 Kitchen, Peter, Allison Williams, and James Chowhan. "Sense of community belonging and health in Canada: A
regional analysis." Social Indicators Research 107, no. 1 (2012): 103-126.

2CRITICAL ARTICLE REVIEW
The naval service in the country was a huge one but the employment of the First Nations
men in the forces was not much encouraged by the authorities. The recruitment of the aboriginal
people in the armed forces has been put aside in the recent times. The records have been stored
of the total number of the Status Indians serving the military forces. The Royal Canadian Navy
was in need of a huge force to secure the threats from the enemies. The racial discrimination was
maintained in the naval forces during the middle of the twentieth century. The conflict that
existed in the recruitment process can be divided into two segments. One is definitely the
operational side of it and the other one is the three sides like the social, economical and political
aspects of the whole matter.3 The different issues in the native military service had not been
disclosed in some of the books that were published during that time. The experts have argued on
this matter that the naval rating of the Canadian forces did not approve of the free mixing of the
Indians and the white skinned European people. The Army and RCAF recruitment policies
always questioned for the recruitment of the native people. This had been a very interesting thing
to notice amidst the conflicts based on the racial discrimination.4 In the naval forces, the
environment never went against the drinking of alcohol among the European people. Amidst this
condition, the inclusion if the Indians not all encouraged. This is why they were not recruited in
the army. Some experts have cited the example of the British Royal Navy that the various people
from China and Malta were being employed in the army but they were kept far away from their
3 Sheffield, R. Scott. "“Of Pure European Descent and of the White Race”: Recruitment Policy and Aboriginal
Canadians, 1939–1945." Canadian Military History 5, no. 1 (1996): 2.
4 Miller, James Rodger. Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Native-newcomer Relations in Canada.
University of Toronto Press, 2018.