Tackling military misconduct a challenge for next government
Inside the parties’ plans for addressing ongoing issue in Armed Forces
The news this week that Maj.Gen. Dany Fortin, the former head of the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, was charged with sexual assault forced the party leaders on the campaign trail to address what no government has yet succeeded in doing: How do you stamp out the systemic and destructive problem of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces?
The challenge for all the party leaders is to gain trust on an issue that isn’t easy to fix and that no party has adequately tackled, experts and political strategists say.
“Trust has to be earned here and nobody has a free pass on trust on this issue,” said Tim Powers, chairman of Summa Strategies and a Conservative strategist, who is not advising any campaign.
While sexual misconduct in the military might not be top of mind for many voters, it does speak to a broader problem of the pervasiveness of sexual violence that the general public wants to see addressed, Powers said.
“It’s one of a number of stories at the moment about societal unrest, societal disappointment, that is part of a bigger discussion that people are having,” he said.
“I think there are cohorts of voters for whom it is important because it talks about a party’s values.”
The Armed Forces have been rocked by a sexual misconduct crisis this year, as current and former leaders have been placed under investigation for alleged inappropriate behaviour. The crisis has caused a leadership vacuum and plummeting morale among service members.
So what do the parties plan to do about it?
The Conservatives say they would launch a “public inquiry into harassment and discrimination” in the military, order an independent investigation into sexual misconduct, ensure that future sexual misconduct complaints are made to an independent body, and work on “proactive, targeted recruitment” of women, Indigenous peoples and racialized individuals.
The NDP says it would also focus on recruitment and retention and immediately enact all the recommendations from a 2015 external review launched by the Conservatives on sexual misconduct, which the Liberal government has not fully implemented. This includes establishing “independent oversight and accountability” for sexual misconduct in the military.
The Liberals, which have not yet released a platform, launched another independent review in April on military sexual misconduct, led by retired Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour. They also created a new position — chief of professional conduct and culture — to coordinate culture change efforts in the military.
(The Conservatives told the Star that if elected, they would allow the work of the Arbour review to continue.)
The ideas presented are generally good, but none are particularly innovative or groundbreaking, said military sexual misconduct expert Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, who said that one thing that is definitely not needed are even more studies and probes.
She said it would be good to have seen a commitment to revamp the military justice system in line with recommendations from a recent review, noting that Canadian governments have tended to be laid back when it comes to defence issues.
“I truly believe that what we’re seeing today with sexual misconduct is more a product of a problem of civilian-military relations, rather than a problem with any party,” said DuvalLantoine, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. “It’s a problem of governance overall.”