Royal Military College promotional video uses rap song about fellatio

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A new promotional video for the Royal Military College uses a song by Kayne West who raps about fellatio and sexual relations and compares himself to sexual abusers.

The short video on Instagram and other social media platforms highlighting the university’s military skills team in Kingston is accompanied by the chorus of West’s recent release. Carnival.

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As the RMC students practice their physical fitness, the chorus of the song plays which includes the lyrics: “so good head, she is an honor role. She rides the cock like in a carnival”, in the background.

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In his chart-topping song, West, now called Ye, compares himself to Bill Cosby, convicted of sexual assault, and R. Kelly, convicted of sex crimes against children.

Several readers highlighted this newspaper’s use of the song and complained that it illustrates what they called a deeply ingrained culture in the Canadian Forces that continues to objectify women.

This newspaper requested comment from the Chief of the Defense Staff, General Wayne Eyre, but he did not respond.

Shortly after this newspaper asked questions about the video, it was removed from social media.

“The song lyrics used in this video are inappropriate and offensive, and do not reflect the values ​​of the Canadian Armed Forces.” This was pointed out by the spokesperson for National Defense, Andrée-Anne Poulin, in statements to this newspaper. “The video was removed from social media and the team that created the content regretted this oversight.”

“Additional training will take place immediately, where all parties responsible for managing RMC informal accounts affiliated with the College will be reminded of the expectations of posting content in accordance with CAF policies, directives and values ​​when representing any component of the CAF,” Poulin added. .

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The Canadian Forces have been embroiled in allegations of sexual assault and harassment over the past decade. Some of that misconduct has focused on military educational institutions, the Royal Military Colleges in Kingston and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.

In her May 2022 examination of the ongoing sexual misconduct crisis in the military, former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor called for changes at universities. The “continued prevalence of sexual misconduct at military colleges is well documented,” she said at the time.

In December 2023, Defense Minister Bill Blair announced the names of a panel that will review military schools.

A Statistics Canada report found that in 2019, 68 per cent of military college students witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behavior and 40 per cent witnessed or experienced discriminatory behavior, almost always from other students.

The report also found that 28 percent of female students were sexually assaulted during their time at military school, far higher than the 15 percent of female students who reported being sexually assaulted at other post-secondary institutions.

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But defense experts say there is a sense in some areas of the Canadian Forces that sexual misconduct scandals are largely a thing of the past, as media coverage has waned and a number of cases High-profile legal proceedings have failed or ended in the deaths of high-ranking officers. Found not guilty.

This newspaper reported last year that top brass in the Canadian military were told that the sexual misconduct crisis was a battle for public opinion and that those raising concerns were akin to foreign enemies. In a series of documents prepared for then-acting defense chief Gen. Eyre and other senior leaders, advisers highlighted the need to push for more positive views on how the Canadian Forces were handling the ongoing sexual misconduct crisis.

The documents were obtained by this newspaper using the Access to Information law.

Eyre has said military culture must change to address concerns about sexual misconduct. He has also acknowledged that the various allegations and incidents have hurt recruiting efforts. Eyre and the Canadian Forces have introduced a number of initiatives to try to address sexual assault and misconduct.

New figures released in December 2023 showed that during Eyre’s tenure, the number of reported sexual assaults doubled over a one-year period.

(With files from The Canadian Press)

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