When I did my Qualification Level-4 Intelligence Operator course, it was held at CFSIS at CFB Borden in 1992 or 1993. I was an infantry master corporal, and thus to simplify life, the course staff simply appointed me to be responsible for the general appearance of the barracks; they didn't want to bother with inspections, etc. This was on the very first day of the course. We were the only course being run at the time, so we students had the entire H-block to ourselves (both floors). I didn't mind this responsibility, even though I was technically a student on the course; consequently, I shone my shoes, and I even polished the brass kick-plate on my door, and I made my bed as per the requirements. I set the standard and the other students followed my lead, at least to a reasonable degree. I didn't expect anyone else to polish their kick plates, and being a peer, I wasn't going to enforce anything either. Consequently, I did only cursory inspections and there really was no need: we were all soldiers, and no one wanted to be seen as not doing their job.

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Now, almost everyone on the course either was completing an undergraduate degree (like myself) or had already completed one, and thus, we were a reasonably enlightened lot, which led to a serious problem. When the base administrative staff assigned rooms, they simply assumed everyone was male and put all students in the male barracks, and there were two women and two men in one of the four-person rooms. At first, we were surprised, but we just assumed that the Canadian Forces was finally moving into the 20th century. Consequently, we dealt with it: When the women changed, the men left their room and vice versa. When the women used the open-concept wash rooms and showers, two men stood guard out front (facing out, of course) to make sure no one else went in until both women were finished. It worked great, and as a bonus, we got to study together.

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However, the Canadian Forces, it turns out, were not so enlightened as we were led to believe. After one full week on course, one of the course sergeants finally decided to inspect the barracks. He walked past the one door, looked at the names of the four students in that room, and in his own words, he did a "double take." At this point, apparently, the entire base lit up: this was completely unacceptable, and the course staff was likely embarrassed, as this demonstrated that they had not inspected the barracks for the first full week of the course. Oddly enough, I was never asked about this, and neither were any of the other students.

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Anyway, what followed was a tragedy in B-flat minor. The women were assigned other barracks, and unfortunately, they were now half-way across the base, so they couldn't easily study with us anymore. Not only that, but a Military Police (MP) course was starting that day they were being moved, so this MP Warrant Officer, who was all too much full of himself, would not even let the women back into their rooms to retrieve their belongings--even though they had slept there for the last seven nights. Consequently, we, their male peers, had to collect their belongings and take them outside. I suspect that was likely much more embarrassing for those two women than it would have been for them to walk into the barracks for ten minutes to collect their belongings. The world did not end in the past week, and it wouldn't end if they stepped foot into the men's barracks one last time.

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But, meatheads will be meatheads and Befehl ist Befehl.