CANSOFCOM Command Culture Statement

We are Canada’s agile, immediate response force conducting special operations at home and abroad. We are an operationally focused organization, always ready to respond to any emerging crisis whenever our nation calls. We exist to serve Canada and to protect Canadians.

Our motto

“We will find a way” is an expression of our determination to excel in an ethical, moral and legal way. We, the CANSOFCOM members, have the duty to ensure that our culture always remains honourable and serves as our moral compass, uniting us and creating our critical collective resilience. We live our ethos and values to their fullest extent, in a manner that we can be proud of, now, and into the future.

Our mission

CANSOFCOM provides the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) and supported Commanders agile, high readiness Special Operations Forces optimized to prevail on operations both at home and abroad.

Our values

We are CAF members. We are invested in our CAF ethical principles and live our CAF military values of loyalty, integrity, courage, excellence, inclusion, and accountability. We espouse our CAF professional expectations of duty, unlimited liability, fighting spirit, leadership, discipline, teamwork, readiness, and stewardship.

We rely on the diverse experience, expertise, and knowledge of our military and civilian members as active contributors to CANSOFCOM’s unified culture. Together, we embrace SOF specific values while serving our nation: the relentless pursuit of excellence, shared responsibility, determination, creativity, and humility.

• We relentlessly pursue excellence. We adopt an uncompromising, persistent effort to excel at everything we do. We adapt, innovate, learn, and attain the highest possible standards of personal, tactical, and operational proficiency, regardless of the challenge.
• We share responsibility. We accept that neither rank, nor appointment, defines responsibility for collective success. We are empowered to exercise professional military judgement and disciplined initiative to achieve the Commander’s intent.
• We are determined. We have an unconquerable desire to fight and win, accepting risk, with a mindset that no challenge is too great.
• We are creative. We exercise agility of thought and action. We excel in unconventional solutions to complex problems responding to chaotic environments. We address ambiguity and uncertainty through innovation and ingenuity.
• We are humble. We are quiet professionals, putting aside self-interest and ego, ensuring our actions are guided by what is best for the mission, the CAF, and Canada. We aspire to the highest professional and personal standards of conduct. We are always at the service of our country and Canadians.

Our people

We reside in units that each have their own unique missions and responsibilities; each with absolute purpose and value to the Command. When regrouped in Special Operations Task Forces, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  It is the Units’ very unique specialties that create the diversity of thought and of ideas that together make up the SOF culture and mindset. Our people are the heart of our Command. We work together, innovate, and solve complex problems. Our culture relies on selecting the right people and empowering them with trust; ultimately making CANSOFCOM successful on behalf of the CAF, Canada, and Canadians.