REPORT: MISCONDUCT STILL TAINTS CANADA’S MILITARY
Several of Canada’s top military officers have been accused of sexual harassment, and the former top commander pleaded guilty this year to criminal charges related to accusations that he committed sexual misconduct when leading the nation’s armed forces.
About one-quarter of the women serving in the Canadian military said they had been sexually assaulted during their military careers, according to a government census. And the government has set aside nearly $800 million to settle class-action lawsuits by current and former military members involving sexual misconduct.
The cascade of sexual abuse scandals has shaken confidence in the military in Canada, where Monday the government released an independent review by a former Supreme Court justice aimed at addressing what critics say is a pervasive and systemic problem that has persisted despite past promises of reform.
It will be the fourth report to focus on sexual abuse in Canada’s military, where victims say that abuse permeates all levels of the forces and that they are frequently punished for speaking out.
The extent of the problem was laid out in a scathing 2015 report, which found that Canada’s military had “an underlying sexualized culture” that was hostile to women and LGBTQ members.
In the report released Monday, Louise Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice who was also the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights and who conducted the review, found that attempts to reform the military following the earlier report had failed.
The military, she wrote, “was not ready to fully embrace the paradigm shift required to produce these changes.”
She added: “They now need to adapt to a new reality — the women warriors are here to stay. And they will stay on their terms, seeking the substantive equality to which they are entitled.”
Arbour’s review lays out 48 recommendations including the hiring of an external monitor to oversee their implementation and make regular public reports on the military’s progress.