LAY SUMMARY The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) continue to highlight the need to promote greater diversity and inclusion in its ranks. An increased representation of women in the Canadian military would enable greater capacity and capabilities to serve people, both domestically and abroad, and would contribute to a more diverse and inclusive military. To better understand how the CAF could increase the representation of women in the Canadian military, this article provides the key findings of three internal research studies on women’s perceptions of joining the military and women’s experiences as CAF members. These research studies examined the factors that influence women to join the military, the possible challenges impacting women’s decisions to join the military, and the improvements required for enabling a more effective military culture, including recruitment strategies that may help to increase the representation of women. Findings highlight specific factors and recommendations military leaders may consider to help promote greater capacity and capabilities through a more diverse and inclusive military.

The Workshop on Emergency Preparedness for Vulnerable Population Groups was held on 2 and 3 March 2009 in Ottawa, ON, Canada. The purpose of the workshop was to enhance communications within the emergency community response network and to identify the needs and gaps of emergency preparedness against chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives events for vulnerable population groups. The workshop was organised to enable extensive round-table discussions and provide a summary of key issues, considerations and recommendations for emergency response planners.

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Lay Summary The Canadian military’s recent mission in support of long-term-care homes in Ontario, and the alleged abuses reported, demonstrates the urgent need to address challenges associated with diversity and inclusion in defence emergency man-agement and preparedness during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This article reviews the social and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on diverse groups within the Canadian Defence Team and across Canada, with a particular focus on visible minorities, Indigenous people, women, older adults, persons with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and two-spirit communities. The review indicates that the pandemic widened the existing physical and mental health disparities and socio-economic inequities affecting these groups. To address these challenges, and to better understand the needs of diverse groups in the pandemic context, several recommendations for the Defence Team are proposed to incorporate into daily encounters with diverse groups and communities affected by COVID-19. The recommendations are designed to enable the Defence Team to establish positive and sustainable relations with diverse communities and to increase community resilience and defence emer-gency operational readiness.

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