Private recruit Poirier, come here.
Yes Sergeant.
Place yourself here, and close your eyes.
Are you batting your eyelids? Relax.
It's a test.
Do you trust me?
Yes Sergeant.
Close your eyes, open your mouth.
Could you tell me what it is?
Cheese curds from Farnham.
Is it the best cheese in the region?
Yes Sergeant.
The Canadian Armed Forces community is very
welcoming of women. I am talking about my personal experience,
even though all our instructors are all men
they were always very attentive to the needs of the women in
my platoon. At this moment we are a dozen. When we started the course we were more
girls but they are very attentive to our needs of women, they
advocate gender equality but they also have an understanding
of certain dimensions of what means to be a woman. They really
demonstrate a welcoming, open minded spirit.
I would say it's the thing...
I would say it's the thing I'm most proud of in all of my life. There is so much that
I am proud of. I am proud of my career as a journalist, I am proud to have
forged professional ties during the four years I spent as a journalist, I am
proud of my physical progress. When I started physical
training and one of my coaches told me: The first time I saw you go in
I was sure that you would never come back.
I managed to hang on then,
and that confidence, it seems that it is what pushed me to always want more,
always want to take on more challenges.
Eventually, it's what made me want to joing the Canadian Armed
Forces. And even in difficult moments our
instructors told us all the time : be proud, be proud of what you've done
Even when you make a mistake. Don't let it show on your face.
Be proud. It's those words that I have retained, it's the pride of wearing
this uniform, you're proud to have graduated with these people, you're proud of having
suffered, laughed, cried with them. Three months later on we get out of there and
we're like my god I got through all of that. It's something really intense
and demanding. I can't imagine my life without the military, without the institution, without
wearing my uniform. Once you get a taste of it, you think to yourself: My god, I want to make my place
I want to pass this course. It will take what it will take. The
recruit course is about holding on, when you're feeling bad, the days where
everything goes wrong
It's about holding on to the positive. It's the hardest thing that I have done in my entire
life. It's the thing, one of the things, that I am the most
proud of because I had true conviction that I would be very proud
Of my military career in general but the recruit course is a
very unique experience. It's hard when you are on it.
You have tunnel vision, you're really in it. Then, once It's finished
You're like … actually a little nostalgic.
I will never forget the people that I met here, whether it's the members
of my platoon, but I will especially never forget my instructors.
If I became the person, I became a soldier, it's because of them. It was them
who always pushed me, who always got me to give the best of myself
even on days when it didn't go well. Because they are good people and
they are very professional even If you see them yelling at us
and all that. They did all of that for us to succeed. One phrase that Stays with me was said
during the week that I was sick, that I had missed my weapons handling
courses, that I felt like my world was unravelling and that I would have to
be deferred to different course. The deputy commandant of my platoon, Sergeant Lucas,
looked at me and said: Ventura, we are fighting for you. It
really touched me. It's the phrase, one of the phrases that I
repeated on a loop in my mind when we are in the mud doing
pushups, when I am doing drill and I
turn left instead of right. It's phrases like that,
important phrases. I was lucky to find such
wonderful people, without them I would not have passed this course. And without the members of my platoon,
without those who supported me, without those who cared about me, who cared about
my well-being, without my team, without the members of my section, without
my section commander, without my partner, my partner
who pushes me to become better even when I am miserable.
It's really a team. You realize that you are an individual but you are supported by
a team and as long as you show good will, when you show
respect for this team, people will support. There is no one in the
Canadian Armed Forces who likes to see a colleague struggling, a colleague to
crash. Nobody likes that. On the recruit course, you see very
quickly, the people that have difficulty, of course the other people
will help them, and this help is precious.
It was often said that the platoon in which I am, that I was in the
most severe squad of all the school of recruits, but I did not see that, I saw people
That were demanding, the military personnel, they wanted us to be alert, to have
a sense of urgency, that we would demonstrate
It's for our own benefit, and we already see where those lessons are
leading us. All these things in addition to what they make
us do ... I can never have enough thanks that life place me in this
platoon. The staff of the recruit school, in its civilian-military entirety,
are exceptional people, they are passionate people.
With your strengths and your weaknesses,
we formed a group. Today, I am as proud as you are. You earned it, you graduated.
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