M’CHIGEENG–In his remarks to the 348 Manitoulin Royal Sea Cadets Corps, reviewing officer Thomas Auliger had high praise for the national Sea Cadets program and the Manitoulin cadre of Cadets while he also gently criticized the Department of National Defence for not being more financially supportive.
The occasion, on Saturday, May 31 at the Manitoulin Secondary School gymnasium, was the 21st annual parade and review of the Manitoulin Corps.
This is the event, marking the end of the Cadets weekly meetings (which are paused until September) where the young people demonstrate the drills and skills they have mastered and where they are turned out in spit-and-polish Cadet dress.
This event is also when individual cadets are recognized with awards for their achievements during the past nine months. Several awards also recognize character and leadership.
Mr. Auliger, fairly recently retired to Manitoulin, introduced himself to the Cadets as someone who is “wearing the uniform of someone in Canada’s Merchant Marine,” noting that there has traditionally been a rivalry among merchant sailors and those who are part of national naval organizations (such as Canada’s Royal Canadian Navy,) “so to be asked by you today to be your reviewing officer is a very special honour for me, and I thank you for the privilege.”
Mr. Auliger offered the Cadets, and their officers and civilian instructors and their friends and families on hand for the event, an interesting and detailed history of what is now the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps that dates from the 1895 establishment of a cadet program called the Boys Naval Brigades. “That program was aimed at encouraging young men and women to consider a seafaring career and to provide basic training in citizen and seamanship… and that is still a large part of your aims today!”
Mr. Auliger dobserved that the origins of what are now Sea Cadets was not military but grew out of a Merchant Marine initiative.
Mr. Auliger mentioned that Canada’s oldest Sea Cadet Corps, Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps Illustrious, was in 1994 placed into financial trusteeship and its assets sold.
Mr. Auliger observed that, theoretically because of its relationship with the Department of National Defence, “it should not be possible for a Sea Cadet Corps to go into trusteeship for financial mismanagement.”
He explained that, “since 1942, the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets are supposed to be administered and funded by the Department of National Defence.” The role of local sponsors, he explained, like the Manitoulin Navy League, “now only acts as civilian partner and is asked to provide local community support.” (“Illustrious” carries on, in name, as in 1997 the Brampton Sea Cadet Corps adopted this historic name.)
Amplifying this relationship here on Manitoulin Island, Mr. Auginger reinforced that, “the continued success of your program here is anchored within the support of the local community, the local Navy League and the local Royal Canadian Legion… and kudos to all of you here for doing so.”
Addressing the Cadets directly, Mr. Auliger commended them for the important role they play in many community events, that they “stay out of trouble with the police and that you always seem to go in the right direction on your life’s journey.”
Mr. Auliger also put in a plug for Cadets to consider careers on ships, explaining that a recent report calls for Canada’s marine sector to require an additional 8,900 new employees by 2029 and, “at your age, you are in a perfect position for these high-paying and rewarding employment opportunities. I can assure you that, in the end, everyone likes hiring Sea Cadets!”
EDITOR’S NOTE—Mr. Auliger can speak to Canada’s seafaring staff requirements with some authority for part of his career was spent in Owen Sound as director of Georgian College’s renowned Centre for Marine Training and Research.
