Secrecy over allegations unacceptable
Liberal Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s apparent secrecy over sexual misconduct allegations in the Canadian Forces is inexcusable. If there’s one thing we have learned from the child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the #Metoo movement, it’s that sexual impropriety hurts the victim and tarnishes the perpetrator’s reputation, but a coverup can damage an entire institution.
Unfortunately, the Liberal government has learned nothing from earlier scandals. On Wednesday, the former ombudsman for the military, Gary Walbourne, told the House of Commons defence committee that he had informed Sajjan about an informal complaint made against Gen. Jon Vance, then Canada’s chief of defence staff, but that the minister refused to even look at the evidence, and never took appropriate action.
“Yes, I did directly tell him about an allegation of inappropriate behaviour against the chief of defence staff,” Walbourne said. “I did tell the minister what the allegation was. I reached into my pocket to show him the evidence I was holding. He pushed back from the table and said, ‘no.’ ”
This directly contradicts what Sajjan told CTV’S Question Period over the weekend, when he said: “When we learn of something, we take immediate and strong action.”
The former ombudsman went on to explain that because the complaint was made informally, he could not launch an investigation, and was seeking the minister’s advice on how to proceed. The committee has heard that Sajjan has the power under the National Defence Act to launch a board of inquiry to look into such matters.
Walbourne also said he requested that the information be kept confidential, in order to protect the identity of the accuser, but that he was summoned by the Privy Council Office (PCO) the next day and asked questions about the source of the accusations. “I was absolutely shocked they knew about it,” he told the committee. The Globe and Mail has reported that the Prime Minister’s Office was also made aware of concerns about Vance around this time.
In the end, there was no board of inquiry, the PCO took no further action and Sajjan refused to meet with the ombudsman again to discuss the matter further. The whole affair appeared to have been successfully swept under the rug. But Global News broke the story at the beginning of February that Vance had been having a relationship with a subordinate and had been accused of making an inappropriate comment to another. Military police subsequently launched an investigation.
As for the specific allegation, it reportedly pertains to a 2012 email sent to a female corporal, in which Vance allegedly invited her to go to what Global describes as a “clothing-optional vacation destination.” The exchange, which Vance claims to have no recollection of, occurred before he took over as chief of defence staff and does not rise to the level of a serious crime. But even in 2012, he should have known that making sexual innuendoes to female subordinates was inappropriate.
Nor has anyone suggested that the relationship Vance was involved in was not consensual. But his accuser says the fact that he outranked her made it hard for her to say no to him. This can be a problem in any workplace, but is especially problematic in the military where strict discipline and a strong chain of command make power imbalances much more pronounced.
Which is why the minister should have launched an open and transparent investigation when he first heard the allegation. If Walbourne’s testimony is true, Sajjan — a former Vancouver police detective who works for a self-described “feminist” prime minister — learned this information at the height of the #Metoo movement. There can be no excuse to not at least looking at the evidence.
The culture of secrecy within the federal government is obvious. From contracts with vaccine manufacturers that other countries have made public, to the caterers supplying food to the quarantine hotels, this government’s default stance seems to be to keep even the most trivial matters from public view.
Not knowing who’s cooking the chicken for returning travellers is not the most burning issue of our time, but uncovering the culture of abuse within our Armed Forces is a very big deal, one we would think a government that cares about women’s issues, and workplace harassment more generally, would care about. And what we have learned about our military over the past month certainly points to a culture in which sexual abuse and misconduct are not only tolerated, but actively covered up.
After the Vance story broke, the woman he was involved with, Maj. Kellie Brennan, began speaking out about another service member who allegedly raped her and was never disciplined, as well as other incidents of workplace discrimination. Then came news that Vance’s replacement, Admiral Art Mcdonald, had temporarily stepped aside pending an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct with a female officer.
And we’ve likely only scratched the surface. We know this because a 2015 report on sexual misconduct and harassment in the Armed Forces found it to be rampant. Vance was brought in to clean up the situation, and although he claimed to be taking action, he clearly didn’t do very much about it. Nor did his boss, who was apparently presented with evidence that Vance was complicit in the military’s sexualized culture, but did nothing.
This is a situation that clearly needs to change, but it’s never going to if those at the highest echelons of power are either engaging in questionable behaviour themselves, or turning a blind eye to it.
THE CULTURE OF SECRECY WITHIN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS OBVIOUS.