Was Fortin favoured or sacrificed?
• Opposition parties say it’s “disturbing” that Canada’s current top soldier penned a glowing performance review for Maj.-gen. Dany Fortin when he had allegedly known for months that the latter was under investigation by military police.
“It’s another disturbing example of senior military leaders ignoring the importance of taking these allegations seriously,” NDP defence critic Randall Garrison said in an interview.
But one renown military law expert thinks that the government sacrificed the career of an “outstanding” military member in the name of “perceived political interests” all the while forgoing the presumption of innocence.
All were reacting to revelations by National Post on Thursday that acting Chief of Defence Staff Lt.-gen. Wayne Eyre had signed a rave performance review on May 11, 2021, of Fortin’s work all the while recommending he be promoted “now” and be given a command position.
According to court documents filed by Fortin last week in his lawsuit against the federal government, Eyre wrote the review all the while knowing for months that the Maj.-gen. was under investigation by military police regarding one allegation of sexual misconduct “over 30 years ago.”
The investigation has since been handed over to Quebec prosecutors, and no charges have been laid against Fortin to date.
Eyre has neither confirmed nor denied that he was made aware of the investigation last March, as claimed by Fortin in his lawsuit demanding the federal court reverse the government’s decision to suddenly remove him from his secondment as vice-president of operations at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on May 14.
“It’s a concern that if he did know about it, and he still wrote that kind of recommendation, then it’s another example of the failure to take things seriously” in Canada’s military when it comes to allegations of sexual misconduct, Garrison said.
His comments were later echoed by Conservative defence critic James Bezan.
“This is just another failure of this Liberal government when it comes to addressing sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. Five months ago, Conservatives put forward a plan to deal with the issue of sexual misconduct in the military, while the Liberals have yet to take action,” Bezan said in a statement.
Because the case is in front of the court, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan declined to say whether he felt it was appropriate for the CDS to recommend Fortin for a promotion back in May, or if he thought that Eyre’s glowing review just days before Fortin was removed from his post at PHAC show that it was politicians and not military command that ultimately decided Fortin’s fate.
The Department of National Defence equally declined to respond to similar questions for the same reason.
But military expert and renowned lawyer Michel Drapeau disagrees with the NDP and Conservatives, instead saying that Eyre was entirely right to base his review on known facts about Fortin’s work performance rather than a police investigation with an unknown conclusion.
“Operating under the accepted constitutional principle that one is assumed to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, it makes a lot of good sense for Lgen Eyre to have assessed Mgen Fortin’s previous year on-job performance to his true and well-earned value,” Drapeau wrote in an emailed analysis.
“To do otherwise, would mean that Lgen Eyre would have acted, at that moment, as judge and jury in the affair. Lgen Eyre acted most properly by giving due recognition to Maj Gen Fortin’s potential for further advancement and letting justice run its course. To have acted any other way would have been improper, unjust, unfair and contrary to procedural fairness.”
Rather, Drapeau says he is much more concerned about how Fortin’s firing from his secondment at PHAC was seemingly decided by Liberal politicians rather than the military chain of command.
That is also what Fortin alleges in his lawsuit against the federal government, further adding that the decision to fire him was presented as a “fait accompli” and with no opportunity for him to defend himself. He also says in his affidavit that he still does not know the reasons for his firing, two months later.
According to Drapeau, the way Fortin alleges he was dismissed goes completely contrary to Canadian military law that says that only the CDS has the authority to relieve Fortin from his duty, that a military member can only be removed in “exceptional circumstances” and that the member has a right to “a reasonable opportunity to make representations.”
But because Eyre is only acting CDS, Drapeau says he likely did not feel like he could resist pressures to fire Fortin from his political superiors.
“Bluntly put, Lgen Eyre is and was lacking in power, stature and authority to face and resist both political and high bureaucratic interference with his onerous duties and responsibilities. That is most troublesome and concerning,” Drapeau wrote. “It is my strong impression, that in the circumstances, the CDS was reduced to the role of passive observer, or a mere servant!”
Though Fortin is still a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, he says that he has not received a new assignment, believes that he has been “bypassed” for any promotions and that his career “appears to be over.”
“It clearly was the politicians not the military command that decided on Maj.gen. Fortin’s future. And this is most preoccupying,” Drapeau said. “We have sacrificed the career of an otherwise outstanding military officer to satisfy the perceived political interests of the moment. It is Canada’s loss.”