DAA said:
You're asking some pretty tough questions but I'll try my best and is probably a repeat of what Jarnhamar has already mentioned.
Sometimes the exact same information, repeated differently helps.
First off, Food Svcs (ie; Mess Hall/Kitchen) at any location aren't equipped or trained, let alone funded, to be able to provide halal or kosher meals. So the possibility of being accommodated isn't in your favour. It has been looked at before but the costs were just too prohibitive and so were the risks.
Okay, I understand and respect that. I will make do as I can.
As far as the beard is concerned, that just might be a choice they allow you to make for yourself. But be forewarned, the purpose of Basic Military Training, is to teach you to be able to work as a "group/team", not as an "individual" and be able to follow direction. BMQ/BMOQ and initial occupation training, is not really the time or place to make yourself "stand out" in the crowd. Every successful applicant to the CAF arrives at Basic Training as an individual but when they leave, they have hopefully gained a sense of team work, belonging and made some life long friends.
If I should shave for basic, that is not a tough choice for me I just will. The Canadian forces already allows me to keep one, if it is more realistic to shave for training thats fine. There is an established need, that I have found being the gas mask training. But if I dont have to, then I likely wont, have others gone through basic training with a beard? My neck does bend, I know the CF allows me to keep a beard, but I am not so rigid that I can not adapt.
If you are successful and do receive an offer of employment, you'll have some difficult decisions to make. Good luck!
PS - Here's some lite reading for you.
http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vol15/no1/page34-eng.asp
http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/about-policies-standards-defence-admin-orders-directives-5000/5516-3.page
Light reading it is, I will have to really read it. From my quick skimming the CF will make 'reasonable' allowances etc..
Any rate, should I fire an email off to the recruiter about this once I have a letter stating it's importance? Should I wait for the interview or BMQ? From what Jarnhamar and you both said, apparently I will be asked my dietary needs at bmq, but if they are not equipped then that is likely to late anyways...
Thinking out loud. The only tough choice for me would be if the CF would not let me have a beard at all and not try at all to offer me food options... but since they do. The rest is easy, it is just about how, get the allowance to have a beard, but shave for bmq and grow it later.. will i be vegetarian and missing a lot of food for a bunch of days or will halal food exist... this is just all small potatoes
![Wink ;) ;)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png)
hell they still need to be silly enough to hire me
Abdullah
Ps my beard is for religious reasons, not medical. So I wonder how much that plays into it regarding bmq too. Since I dont medically 'need' a beard... ugh, i will read the linked articles then come back to it. Thanks again guys.