Canadian military to purge its classroom materials of sexist cartoons

Toronto, July 12 (ANI): The Canadian military has kicked off an initiative to cleanse its classroom materials of numerous offensive cartoons - some featuring women in degrading sexual situations - used in courses for troops headed to war-torn Afghanistan.

The sketches were part of presentations provided to instructors at the Canadian Defence Academy in Kingston.

One cartoon, meant to serve as an example of reading body language, depicts a woman at a bar piled with empty glasses engaged in a sexual act with a man on a barstool. The caption reads: "How to tell when you don't have to buy her any more drinks. ..."

Another cartoon features a senior male officer suggesting to a female sergeant that she become a "bargaining chip" in arms talks - a reference to her submission to a sexual act.

Some cartoons also make light of the detainee controversy.

One shows a detainee sprawled in a beach chair, being fed grapes and fanned by soldiers - a satire on rules requiring humane treatment of captured enemy.

These and other illustrations are sprinkled through Canadian Forces training materials.

However, Lieutenant-Colonel Lloyd Gillam said these cartoons appeared only in draft versions of the training materials and never reached the classroom, where there are male and female students.

"To the best of my knowledge, there are no cartoons of that nature in our training package right now," The Globe and Mail quoted Col. Gillam, as saying.

He added: "We are taking an extra step now to go through our files on everything to search out that stuff, so just to ensure that this kind of mistake doesn't occur again." (ANI)