A woman who says the Canadian Navy made her choose between her child and her career is taking her fight to the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC).
Laura Nash says she’s hoping her story will ensure no other parent will be forced to make such a difficult decision.
Nash says she was based in Esquimalt in 2013 when she was told that if she wanted to continue her career, she needed to decide what her priority was: work or motherhood.
She chose her child.
Ultimatum
Nash says she joined the Navy in 2010, was posted to Esquimalt, and got pregnant not long after.
After giving birth to her son, she lived with him for about a year until her marriage broke up and her mother in Ontario took on partial caregiving duties.
Nash says she continued her training until she was pulled aside in 2013 for a meeting.
“They made the decision ‘you have too many family matters to deal with, we’re kicking you off the course,’” she said.
“That’s when I started to write memos and tried to switch occupations to anything. The Army, the Air Force, they advertised that there are hundreds of occupations for people who want to join the military, and I would have taken any of them.”
Nash says despite her attempts to transfer, the military offered no flexibility.
“I eventually got called back to the school by the same woman who stopped my training and she told me that I had to get rid of my kid or I would be fired,” she said.
“It’s 2017”
After that threat, Nash says she began to write harassment complaints and grievances and started contemplating the possibility of quitting.
“It’s 2017,” Nash said.
“If the military is recruiting women so hard, but then not bracing for when they have babies, then there’s a disconnect. And I think that that’s what I want to change.”
She said she’s hoping the case, if accepted, will help make Canadian Forces more welcoming to women.
“To make the military policies more open to the fact that women do give birth, and that priorities are going to change, and that we just can’t give our kids up for adoption if our husbands leave us.”
Even if the Human Rights Commission agrees to hear her case, Nash says her time in the military is done.
She is scheduled to be discharged this year.
There is no firm timeline for when the CHRC will decide on whether it takes the case.
In an email, a spokesperson for National Defence said, “The care and wellbeing of our members is of the utmost importance and is at the core of Strong, Secure, Engaged, our new defence policy. While we cannot discuss specifics of an individual’s case due to privacy, the institution will continue to provide its members with the support and tools they need throughout their careers and after.”
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