Recurring sexual misconduct among cadets is an issue youth program has been sluggish to address
Critics claim youth program being overlooked
The stalking began, as it often does, via text.
Ryan Hammermeister, a former corporal in the Canadian Forces, was 28. The girl was 13.
Hammermeister had been deployed twice to Afghanistan. His close friend was killed by a roadside bomb and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He suffered from flashbacks and started drinking heavily.
Resigning from the Forces in 2012, he became a plumber, but volunteered as an equipment manager with an Edmonton chapter of Cadets Canada.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Hammermeister began communicating with a female cadet in 2013 using text messages, instant messaging and email.
He ramped up pressure on the girl to engage in sex acts. He asked her to send pictures of her breasts.
When she told him to wait, he insisted, “No, right now.” Eventually, they had sex.
According to court documents, the girl believed she was in a romantic relationship. It ended when her father discovered the messages on her phone and called police.
In December, an Alberta provincial court judge jailed Hammermeister for two years after he pleaded guilty to sexual interference and Internet luring.
At his sentencing hearing, the girl filed a handwritten victim impact statement.
“I just tend to hide myself,” she wrote.
“I also have a very hard time with opening up to people. I notice that I have a very hard time trusting men in authority ... I tend to get angry a lot of times.”
While Hammermeister had no direct authority over the girl, the judge found his military past gave him an “enhanced position of respect.”
In addition, her “immaturity” and “lack of sophistication” shone through her statement, the judge found. “That she is a child in every sense, and not a young adult, is obvious.”
The Canadian Forces have come under scrutiny in the past year after a damning report from retired Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps uncovered a highly sexualized culture, with numerous sexual assaults and incidents of sexual harassment going unreported.
But critics say part of the problem has largely been overlooked: recurring sexual misconduct in the cadet program for 12- to 18-year-olds.
Data provided to the National Post by military police show 27 per cent of all sexual misconduct cases in the Forces in 2015 (44 out of 162) involved cadets, a higher proportion than in any of the previous nine years, when the average was 17 per cent.
In 2006-15, there were 245 cases of sexual misconduct involving cadets. While most of the perpetrators were other cadets, some were adult instructors or reserve officers. And the alleged problems go back much further.
“This is an organization that has yet to fully come to grips with its responsibilities as a youth-serving organization,” said Will Hiscock, a St. John’s, N.L.-based lawyer. He is representing two former cadets who allege they were sexually abused while cadets in the 1960s and 1970s in the Atlantic provinces.
They claim there was a failure in screening employees, creating an environment that “encouraged or fostered silence and obedience” when abuse happened.
“I’m sure the people that are currently there are well-intentioned and want to make sure this is a safe environment for children” Hiscock said. “My ultimate concern … is that I don’t think they’ve ever had to live up to or truly face the mistakes of the past.”
With a $250-million annual budget, the Canadian Cadet Organizations — informally known as Cadets Canada for air, army and sea cadets — boasts more than 50,000 members. While it gets most of its funding from the Department of National Defence and exposes young people to different facets of the Forces, it’s not intended to be a pipeline for military recruits. Instead, the emphasis is on developing leadership and life skills, physical fitness and self-discipline.
The program does take measures to protect its young charges.
Brig.-Gen. Kelly Woiden, commander responsible for the cadet program, says the protection and safety of cadets are his top priority, which is why he ordered a review last year of all training to ensure it addresses inappropriate sexual behaviour.
“I will not tolerate inappropriate behaviour involving cadets, their instructors or anyone involved in the cadet program. There’s no grace period,” Woiden said in an interview.
He believes the increase in misconduct cases last year was likely the result of higher visibility of the issue and greater emphasis on reporting misbehaviour. Complaints are also handled through a more “centralized control and command” structure.
All cadet instructors must undergo background checks.
In the 1990s, a mandatory Cadet Harassment and Abuse Prevention program was introduced for cadets and instructors that included videos.
The training guide was updated several years ago and renamed “Positive Social Relations for Youth.”
Cadets are taught to identify harassment or criminal behaviour and where to go for help. Instructors are taught how to manage conflicts and told to never be alone with cadets and to avoid touching them.
“If you have to touch, ask the cadet if it is OK first and restrict touching to ‘safe’ areas of the body,” the manual says.
Despite these efforts, critics say more systemic changes are needed.
Robert Gibbens, a Vancouver lawyer, filed a classaction lawsuit more than a decade ago for a group of former sea cadets who said they suffered sexual abuse and misconduct in 1964-80 at the HMCS Discovery naval base.
In a 2006 settlement, Ottawa agreed to pay $8 million to 35 former sea cadets and another $1.8 million to victims who had not yet come forward.
Gibbens said expert opinion at the time suggested programs such as the cadets attract abusers because they brought them closer to children. The command-andcontrol structure — having to obey commanding officers — also allowed the problem to persist.
“Finally, the collegial nature of the (program) seemed to foster an inability for any whistleblower to emerge.”
In Australia, a royal commission is due to begin hearings next month into allegations of widespread abuse of cadets by officers in the Australian Defence Force since the 1960s.
“I absolutely think an inquiry into sexual misconduct is required for the cadet movement (in Canada),” said Hiscock. “These cases have been coming forward for years, and yet in case after case the government denied liability.” (Ottawa denies it was negligent in the cases of Hiscock clients, and their allegations have not been proved in court,)