Stop the foot-dragging

Four years ago, female and LGBTQ members of Canada’s military might have felt optimistic that their complaints about incessant sexual harassment and a high rate of assaults were being heard and acted on.

After all, Gen. Jonathan Vance made it clear at his swearingin ceremony as chief of the defence staff that he would not tolerate sexual misconduct. Shortly thereafter, he launched Operation Honour to seek out and eradicate sexually inappropriate behaviour in the forces.

Alarmingly, though, a new Statistics Canada report shows that any faith that was put in Operation Honour may have been misplaced.

It turns out there has been little change in the military’s endemic culture of sexual misconduct, despite the crackdown.

Indeed, StatsCan found 1.6 per cent of regular-force members reported sexual assaults over the previous 12 months compared to1.7 per cent in 2016. That rate, almost double that in the general population, means about 900 full-time military personnel were attacked, never mind the many more who were harassed.

It’s easy to blame this on resistance in the ranks to change. But it ultimately reflects a failure among top officials to act decisively.

As the vice-chief of the defence staff, Lt.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk, admitted: “We have made limited progress in eliminating it over the last two-and-a-half years.”

The reasons may be found in a study from the defence department in February on the status of Operation Honour.

It found officials had failed to implement seven of 10 recommendations aimed at stamping out sexual misconduct made in a landmark report by former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps. That’s despite the fact they committed to implementing all 10 back in 2015.

Not acting earlier was a mistake that has cost too many members of the military dearly. It must be corrected now.