Canada’s military, rocked by abuse crisis, loses power to investigate and prosecute sex misconduct cases

The decision was announced Thursday by newly appointed defense minister Anita Anand, a law professor who had been praised for managing Canada’s vaccine rollout. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal minority government was recently returned to power, had faced criticism for delays in setting up an independent system to adjudicate sexual misconduct allegations.

Anand’s move was based on preliminary recommendations from former Canadian Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, who is reviewing the military’s culture and policies, including how it handles sexual misconduct claims.

It came amid a series of allegations — involving some of the most high-ranking officials — that has rocked the Canadian Armed Forces to its core, prompted a parliamentary probe and raised questions about the feminist bona fides of Trudeau, who had pledged to root out harassment in the workplace.

Anand told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that it was “imprudent” to say when the interim recommendation would be implemented and declined to detail whether the policy would be made permanent.

“We will wait to see what Madame Arbour decides in her final recommendations,” the minister said. “If she chooses to make this a permanent solution, then of course, we will act on it.”

Thursday’s announcement was welcomed by survivors and legal advocates, including Arbour. While her final report isn’t set for release until next year, she had highlighted the importance of “immediate remedial action."

Others, however, called the announcement just “one of the first steps” in reforming the military’s culture and noted that many survivors also face difficulties having cases properly handled in the civilian justice system.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the investigative arm of the military police, looked into sexual misconduct allegations against Gen. Jonathan Vance, Canada’s former chief of the defense staff, the equivalent of the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who retired in January.

Trudeau, whose government has said that it is taking a “feminist approach” to the military, said that his office knew there was an allegation against Vance in 2018 but did not know the “substance” of it. Military police charged the general in July with obstruction of justice.

Vance’s successor, Adm. Art McDonald, stepped down just weeks after he was sworn in because of a separate sexual misconduct allegation. The military police did not charge him. He told the Globe and Mail newspaper that he was “exonerated” and would like to return to his duties. The government has not indicated whether it will allow him to.

Other top defense officials find themselves facing similar claims of wrongdoing or of improperly protecting subordinates accused of misconduct.

In one case, a top commander was reportedly appointed to oversee the military’s response to sexual misconduct reviews although he had written a positive character reference in 2017 for a soldier who was found guilty of sexual assault.

The military “still doesn’t get that survivors need to be at the center,” Trudeau said after news of that appointment broke.

This year’s high-profile cases drew fresh attention to the long-running issue and created headaches for Trudeau’s government. The new wave of allegations come years after a blistering report by another former Supreme Court justice, released in 2015, that found an “underlying sexualized culture” in the military “hostile” to women and LGBTQ service members.

Marie Deschamps, author of that report, also recommended that sexual misconduct allegations be dealt with outside the chain of command — a move survivors, analysts and advocates of sexual assault victims have long called for.

The Defense Department reported in 2019 that it had fully implemented two of Deschamps’s 10 recommendations — acknowledging the problem and simplifying some processes for complaints — and said that more needed to be done to achieve “enduring cultural change.”

Trudeau had faced pressure to fire then-defense minister Harjit Sajjan for his handling of the recent sexual misconduct crisis and for failing to do more to implement Deschamps’s recommendations

Coletta reported from Toronto.