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And now, here we go again, with what were full-time recruiting detachments being turned into “remote processing offices,” which, at least for the next year, will be open only between two and four days a month.

Now, applying online and via social media — the rationalization for these latest changes is modernization and a move away from bricks and mortar — very likely will be the future for the military.

Online has changed the rules for everything for almost everybody, and there’s no reason to imagine the CF is immune.

The problem is that the CF was so bad at recruiting in the old-school way that it’s difficult to make the leap of faith that it will be any better at it on social media. It is not enough, as newspapers and countless other organizations have learned, simply to open a website, plop up some “content” and wait for the money or people to come rolling in.

What’s more, what the documents reveal is an unhealthy, almost prime ministerial, obsession with controlling the message, soft-pedalling the facts, and spinning the press.

There are “media response lines” that emphasize that what the CF Recruiting Group is doing is “consolidating manpower” and “redistributing resources.”

Again and again, the documents say “the detachments will not be closed; rather, they will be intermittently staffed.”

As one puts it, “A key element is clearly communicating that the detachments are not being closed. The strategy must focus on clearly communicating that the detachments will not be closing…”