Watchdog to look into how Fortin case was handled
Claims he was victim of biased investigation and was charged on the basis of insufficient evidence
The military police watchdog is launching a probe into how investigators handled a historical sexual-assault allegation against a senior officer who was a central figure in Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
A Quebec court acquitted Maj.Gen. Dany Fortin last December of one count of sexual assault, after the military police investigated the allegation from 1988 and then passed the case along to provincial prosecutors.
Fortin claims he has been the victim of a biased investigation and that he was charged on the basis of insufficient evidence.
The Military Police Complaints Commission is now looking into how the military police handled the case, saying Fortin’s claims about senior military officials being involved make it a matter of public interest.
The commission wrote a letter to Fortin, which it posted online, that notes it had sought the military police’s full investigation file in late January. The letter said the military only responded two months later with a synopsis document “a few pages long, that contains only a summary of the investigation.”
In a written statement delivered through his lawyer, Fortin said that decision was “outrageous and unacceptable” and that he welcomes the commission’s decision to review the case.
Fortin had been leading the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout in May 2021 when he was removed from the role pending an investigation.
A Quebec civilian judge acquitted him, saying the complainant was likely sexually assaulted, but the Crown had not proven Fortin was the assailant, and the Canadian Armed Forces subsequently cleared him of misconduct.
Fortin has accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other senior members of the government of having turfed him for purely political reasons at a time when the Liberals were accused of not doing enough to address sexual misconduct in the military.
He has demanded the military restore him to an equivalent position.
The complaints commission says its investigation will touch on whether “sexual assault investigations were to become, consciously or unconsciously, tainted by biases against victims or suspects” as a result of public and media scrutiny.
The sexual assault allegation stemmed from Fortin’s time at the military college in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.
Fortin has accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other senior members of the government of having turfed him for purely political reasons