The Canadian Armed Forces has backtracked on controversial dress code changes two years after implementing them.
The CAF announced the dress code changes this week, reversing some of the guidelines that relaxed many of the military’s long-held grooming standards to the objection of many current and former Canadian Armed Forces members.
The new guidelines will require CAF members to groom their beards regularly, keep facial hair under 2.5 cm in length, and tie back hair. Long hair is still permitted, but the volume of one’s hair must at least allow for a headdress and protective equipment to be appropriately worn while the face remains visible.
Many dress code changes from the 2022 overhaul are still permitted, such as coloured hair, religious attire and face tattoos, as long as the tattoos are not linked to criminal organizations or hate groups.
According to Canadian veteran Tom Marazzo the changes are a relief, but there’s room for improvement.
“I think that going back to the original standards is the right move. I’m just regretful that it ever changed, to begin with,” Marazzo told True North in an interview.
“There’s a very good reason why soldiers and every branch of the military wear uniforms. It is to signify many different attributes. You’re part of a team, and the team is only as good as the weakest link.”
He said the changes, which focus on CAF members’ individual expression, diminish the purposeful uniformity that is the standard among militaries worldwide.
“The team can only be strong if all the members focus on the entire team instead of focusing on being an individual,” he said. “When you relax these dress codes, what you’re saying is, ‘me as an individual and my personal appearance is more important than being a member of this team.’”
He said that the “backbone” of any military is the ability for soldiers to trust that each person serving side by side together has each other’s backs.
“If you feel like those people are individuals before they’re team members, then the team itself is actually going to fail,” Marazzo said.
Aside from what he called “obvious” safety concerns of having pink hair in a situation that requires camouflage, his objection to different-coloured hair still being permitted was again the overemphasis on individuality and the embarrassment he felt it brought to the public and fellow service members.
“I think it directly affects the reputation of the Canadian military. People want to be on a winning team,” he said. “I talk to veterans all the time. And they say, ‘Thank God, I’m not in the military anymore. It would be really embarrassing for me to walk around beside people who disrespect their uniform in that way.’”
According to a survey of current CAF members that the CBC acquired about the 2022 dress code changes, almost half of the serving armed forces were against relaxing the standards.
“It creates a leadership challenge for people that are in positions of authority,” Marazzo said. “What we call dress and deportment is how we communicate our level of professionalism.”
He said perceiving other members as sloppy if they don’t adhere to the same standards as everyone else could have a detrimental effect on morale and, consequently, combat readiness.
He noted that dress and deportment standards are directly linked to how the rest of the world perceives the Canadian military.
“Foreign governments look at Canadians and think, ‘I wouldn’t have any problems fighting these guys. They’re all a bunch of individuals and don’t take care of themselves,” he said.
Marazzo mentioned obesity as an example of previous dress and deportment standards being relaxed and how that relates to lowered levels of recruitment and retention in the military.
According to the CAF’s current guidelines on dress and deportment, the appearance of all members “shall on all occasions reflect credit on the CAF and the individual.”
According to a survey from Statistics Canada in 2019, over a quarter of the regular forces were reported to be obese.
“When you’re 200 pounds overweight, how can you do the job of soldiering? The public is not very impressed. It doesn’t look professional, and the reason that is is because it’s not.”