International Women’s Day: Captain Julie Pagé, CD

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. IWD has occurred for well over a century, and IWD is not country, group or organization specific. It is also a good time to pause, reflect and learn more about the distinguished service of women who have served or continue to serve in The Royal Montreal Regiment (RMR). In honour of IWD, the RMR Foundation is publishing profiles of service of some of the women who have served (and continue to serve) in our ranks.

Westmount, Quebec – 08 March 2022: Captain Julie Pagé, CD joined the Fusiliers Mont-Royal in 1992 and was posted to serve with the RMR as part of an exchange program established in the late 1990’s by the RMR’s then Commanding Officer, Colonel George Petrolekas, MSM, CD. She served in the RMR as the Operations Officer from September 2000 to August 2001. The Fusiliers Mont-Royal being one of the three regiments who founded the RMR in 1914, of course. When asked what she liked the most about her short time serving in the RMR, she stated emphatically “It’s been 20 years and I am still considered family.”

Raised in Montreal and currently residing in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, she has enjoyed a long, successful, and varied military career. Starting off by being one of the very first few women in Canada who were qualified as Infantry Officers in the early 1990’s, she worked for a number of years in the civilian world at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) where she used her time to complete her bachelor’s degree and then later obtained her MBA. She subsequently changed trades in 2013 and has been working full-time as an Army Public Affairs Officer (PAO) ever since, specifically with the 2 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group (2nd CRPG)since 2017. The 2nd CRPG is responsible for the area of Northern Quebec, James Bay and the Lower North Shore and occasionally provides patrols for national security and public safety missions in remote, isolated and sparsely populated northern areas of Quebec. 

Her favourite memory of serving with the Regiment was how welcoming all ranks were to her, and she recalls that probably the coolest thing she has done was representing the Army was as part of the 100th Anniversary of the R22eR’s founding in 2014 where she got to travel to the United Kingdom with the Van Doo company that performed the ceremonial guard duties at Buckingham Palace, and Captain Pagé got to meet the Queen! Upon further contemplation she reflected that “surviving Phase 3 Infantry, Ice Breaking drill, shooting (anything!), and learning to lead” were the most important things she has experienced thus far.

When asked what she likes the least about serving in the RMR, Captain Pagé charmingly said that it was “too short of a stay!”. Her advice to young soldiers in the Regiment is “Be professional, be a team player, help others, report injustice and any inappropriate behavior, whatever their nature.”