Military overstated progress: assessment
None of the 10 recommendations from 2015 report have been fully implemented
The Canadian Armed Forces’ progress on implementing sexual misconduct recommendations was not as far along as it had “previously reported,” according to a “critical” assessment completed in June by the Department of National Defence.
Documents obtained by the Star also suggest that the deputy defence minister’s office was scrambling earlier this year to find out the implementation status of those recommendations as the military became engulfed in a sexual misconduct crisis — pointing to what experts say was a lack of civilian oversight of the military.
The armed forces have been rocked by a sexual misconduct crisis this year, as current and former senior leaders face charges or are under investigation.
Documents obtained through an access to information request, covering the period of January to June, provide further insight into a military that was largely left to its own devices to implement recommendations from a landmark 2015 review on sexual misconduct by retired Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps.
The documents include an assessment completed in June by the Defence Department’s office of the assistant deputy minister (review services), which found that none of the 10 recommendations from the 2015 report had been fully implemented.
It also found that the seven recommendations from a 2018 auditor general’s report into sexual misconduct had not been fully implemented.
“While the Defence Team has made some progress in addressing the recommendations stemming from the Deschamps 2015 external review and the 2018 OAG report, further work is required to achieve full implementation across all actions,” says the assessment.
The assessment looked at the military’s response to each of the recommendations, and found in some instances “a lower level of implementation than previously reported and self-assessed by management.”
This was just two months after the head of professional military conduct, Brig.-Gen. Andrew Atherton, told a parliamentary committee that the CAF had “achieved” all of the recommendations.
Retired general Jonathan Vance, the former chief of the defence staff who is now facing an obstruction of justice charge as part of an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour, essentially said the same to Deschamps herself in a letter prior to his retirement last winter.
During his tenure as chief of the defence staff, Vance wrote in a letter dated Jan. 12. that the Canadian Armed Forces “has worked diligently to implement all 10 of your recommendations.”
Deschamps had found that sexual misconduct was “endemic” in the military, and recommended that an independent body handle sexual misconduct complaints, among other things.
Six of her recommendations were considered by the June assessment to be “substantially implemented,” and four were marked “preparing for implementation” — including the recommendation to create an independent investigative body.
An expert on military sexual misconduct called the June assessment “scathing,” and said it highlights the problem with giving the military too much leeway when it came to deciding how to implement the Deschamps recommendations.
“It says a lot about the military not listening to Deschamps, and that the military thought they knew better than Deschamps on this,” said Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
A communication plan drafted as a result of the assessment called it “critical” and noted that the “review, in many cases, indicates that implementation is not as advanced as previously reported.”
“Many of the findings contradict previous assessments or opinions that the (Canadian Armed Forces) has put forward in progress reports, media materials and parliamentary appearances/reports,” says the document.
It noted that the military had been issuing “self-assessments” of its progress on the Deschamps recommendations since 2015.
The June assessment is now with the departmental audit committee for approval, with a final report expected to be made public within the next two to four months.
The military’s current sexual misconduct crisis began in February when Global News reported allegations that Vance had had an ongoing relationship with a CAF member whom he significantly outranked, and that he made a sexual comment to a another much younger soldier in 2012, before he was appointed chief of the defence staff.
That led to a probe into military sexual misconduct by the House of Commons’ standing committee on national defence. Former defence minister Harjit Sajjan faced intense criticism throughout the year over his handling of military sexual misconduct, and was censured in June by the House of Commons. Defence Minister Anita Anand has said tackling the problem is her top priority.