Military touts progress after misconduct review
But author of report told Commons panel that she’s seen little change
The Canadian armed forces has “achieved” all of the recommendations from a landmark review on sexual misconduct, a senior military officer said Thursday — despite that review’s author stating recently that little action has been taken on her report.
Brig.-Gen. Andrew Atherton, director general of professional military conduct, was testifying before the House of Commons standing committee on the status of women, which is probing sexual misconduct in the military.
Atherton’s office is responsible for co-ordinating the efforts to tackle sexual misconduct in the armed forces. The military has been left reeling after two former chiefs of the defence staff became subjects of military police investigations this year over allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
In her 2015 external review, retired Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps found that sexual misconduct in the military is “endemic,” and she produced 10 recommendations.
“From our perspective, we believe we have achieved all 10 of those recommendations,” Atherton told the committee Thursday. “However, that is our opinion, and we still require our audit committee to look at that and confirm our understanding of it.”
The statement was met with confusion from some committee members, given the fact that Deschamps herself testified before the committee last month — as well as before the national defence committee in February — and stated that some of her report’s major recommendations have never been acted on.
Deschamps, who doesn’t comment to the media on her report, told the defence committee in February: “I have the impression that very little has changed.”
Chief among her recommendations was the creation of an independent body that would receive reports of sexual misconduct, something that has actually never been created.
Such a body would also act as the central authority for the collection of data pertaining to sexual misconduct, Deschamps had recommended. What the military has instead is a patchwork of agencies collecting data, but no centralized database.
“I find … this disconnect, because we heard directly from Madame Deschamps just a few weeks ago, and she stated clearly that she didn’t feel that those recommendations had been met,” NDP MP Lindsay Mathyssen told Atherton.
He responded that the military worked with external groups and experts on its strategy to combat sexual misconduct, known as the Path to Dignity
and Respect, and also implemented changes based on their feedback.
“So now it comes out to an external organization, our defence audit committee, who will look at that and really determine from an external perspective, from an audit perspective, whether in fact we as a department, as an armed forces, have actually achieved those 10 recommendations,” Atherton said.
“Again, it’s our perspective … that yes, we have done the 10 recommendations, but to be valid and to be accurate, we need an external piece that will look at it.”
Mathyssen said she hopes it’s taken into account that “the author of the report doesn’t necessarily believe that (the recommendations) have been met.”
What was created instead in the wake of the Deschamps report is the civilian-run sexual misconduct response centre, which is outside of the chain of command but reports to the deputy defence minister.
The centre provides support to complainants, but does not probe allegations of sexual misconduct. And while it has the mandate to monitor the military’s progress on dealing with sexual misconduct, it cannot direct the armed forces to do anything.
“That is an area where we perhaps do not have the authority that Madame Deschamps envisioned in making her recommendation,” the centre’s executive director, Denise Preston, told the Star in a previous interview.
She also spoke of how the military’s current data collection system hinders her centre’s ability to monitor sexual misconduct in the military.
“We do not have a good understanding of who is doing it, why they’re doing it, who they’re doing it to, and under what circumstances” Preston told the status of women committee on Thursday.
“And that is critical to being able to design better prevention programs, and response programs as well.”
Military left reeling after two former chiefs of the defence staff became subjects of investigations