New inquiry met with skepticism, weariness
• “A disappointment,” “frustrating” and “cruel” were just some of the comments levelled at Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s announcement Thursday of yet another review into sexual misconduct in the Canadian military. Flanked by senior Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces officials, Sajjan announced that the government was tapping former Supreme
Court justice and United Nations human rights czar Louise Arbour to lead a new review of the military handling of sexual misconduct at large. The move comes six years after former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps tabled an explosive report on the same issue.
“Announcements don’t make change. Our actions do,” Sajjan said Thursday.
But his announcement was met with blistering comments from analysts — and one victim of sexual assault in the military — who said it was six years too late.
Michel Drapeau, a military law expert who has represented dozens of CAF members in sexual misconduct cases, said Sajjan does not have the moral authority to stay on as defence minister.
“This was a major, major, major disappointment. It could not be any more major than that. It’s been a failure upon failure. Deschamps’ report was exhaustive and precise, with significant recommendation, and DND failed to act on it,” he said. “We’ve known about these issues for 30 years, and I think we’re worse off now.”
Carleton University assistant professor Leah West, herself a victim of sexual assault in the military, said on social media that Sajjan has “no credibility” on this issue after “he ignored complaints of misconduct about those previously responsible for implementing change in the CAF.”
In a later interview, she said the steps announced by Sajjan are good news coming well too late. “Obviously, this needs to happen. But it needed to happen five years ago. It should have happened at the time of the Deschamps report, and it didn’t. And now it’s happening at a time when this issue has been elevated to a level of political scandal,” she said.
“I find that quite frustrating, because failing to act after the Deschamps report sends a signal to those in the Canadian Armed Forces that leadership didn’t think this was an issue, which further exacerbates the problem.”
National security expert and Carleton associate professor Stephanie Carvin was seething after the announcement, saying the government’s plan was “mind-boggling” and “makes things worse” by ordering another review so shortly after the Deschamps report.
“This just seems to be a way of kicking the can down the road and for the minister to avoid not only responsibility, but trying to make the issue go away. And that’s very cruel to the women, and in some cases, the men, who’ve been through this,” she said.
Arbour’s job will be to deliver an “independent external comprehensive review of current policies, procedures, programs, practices and culture within the CAF and the DND” in order to “shed light on the causes for the continued presence of harassment and sexual misconduct,” read the review’s terms of reference. She is also tasked with recommending how to set up a misconduct reporting system independent of the chain of command, with reviewing the military justice system and with determining how to transform the culture at DND and CAF.
In many ways, Arbour’s job will be to figure out how to implement some of the recommendations made by Deschamps, whose 2015 review concluded there needed to be an independent centre to hold the military to account.
In a statement sent to multiple media, Deschamps said she welcomes Arbour’s nomination. “From what I read, her mandate appears to be broader than the one I was given. This would not be a mere repetition of what I did,” she said.
The announcement comes amid 21/2 months of controversy for the Trudeau government and Sajjan, who have been repeatedly accused of mishandling a sexual misconduct allegation targeting Canada’s former top soldier Jonathan Vance since 2018.
During the press conference, the defence minister said he was “truly sorry” to all members of CAF and every employee at DND who have not felt supported by their employer after being a victim of sexual harassment and violence.
“It is clear, we have not lived up to our responsibility to protect members from misconduct,” said Sajjan. “We know we must transform the culture of the defence team to one of dignity and respect. And we need to put in place an external reporting outside of the chain of command to begin rebuilding confidence.”
DND and CAF leadership also announced Lt.-gen. Jennie Carignan would head a new organization within the chain of command tasked with “creating the conditions for cultural transformation” and co-ordinating reform efforts throughout the military.