Military sexual misconduct cases will be handled by civilian officials, Defence Minister Anita Anand says

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This article was published 03/11/2021 (1149 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sexual misconduct cases in the Canadian military will be handled by civilian authorities, Defence Minister Anita Anand announced Thursday.

The move was hailed as a major step in fighting the military’s long-running sexual misconduct crisis, which the Liberal government has come under fire for failing to tackle during its six years in power.

It’s also the first significant decision announced by new Defence Minister Anita Anand since being sworn in last week, taking over from Harjit Sajjan who was censured by the House of Commons in June over his handling of the sexual misconduct file.

Experts say the question now is when and how the transfer to outside police forces will be implemented, and whether those law enforcement agencies and civilian courts will be able to better investigate and prosecute the offences.

“No justice system is set up to handle sexual misconduct perfectly and we know in the civilian system you still have a pattern where victims are not believed,” said Megan MacKenzie, an expert on military sexual misconduct at Simon Fraser University.

“But what you don’t have in the civilian justice system is this serious conflict of interest where service members that went to the academy together, or served on deployments together, or live on the same base, are investigating one another.

“And that’s a major difference from the civilian system.”

In making her decision, Anand was responding to interim recommendations from retired Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour, who is currently undertaking an independent review of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces.

In an Oct. 20 letter sent to Sajjan — just days before he was shuffled out of Defence — Arbour said the number of historical sexual misconduct allegations made against senior leaders and the related military police investigations “have led me to conclude that immediate remedial actions are necessary to start restoring trust in the CAF.”

The military has been rocked by a sexual misconduct crisis this year, with a number of current and former senior leaders under investigation or facing charges.

Arbour said the government must immediately implement the recommendation made this year by retired Supreme Court Justice Morris Fish in his independent review of the military justice system. The recommendation called for all sexual offences allegedly committed by military members to be transferred to civilian authorities.

Arbour said the provost marshal — the head of the military police — should transfer all allegations, including those currently under investigation, to civilian authorities “starting immediately” unless the probes are nearing completion.

On Thursday, Anand tweeted that she “accepted in full” Arbour’s recommendations. Anand told Arbour in a Nov. 3 letter that military officials “are working quickly” to implement the recommendations and engaging federal, provincial, and territorial counterparts.

“I share your concerns and agree that it is necessary to establish a process that will facilitate the handling of allegations of sexual offences in an independent and transparent way outside the CAF and the military justice system,” Anand wrote to Arbour in her letter.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “must immediately tell our brave men and women in uniform and all Canadians when and how today’s policy will be implemented,” said Conservative MP James Bezan.

The department of defence said Thursday that “work is ongoing on this matter with more detail to come.”

Arbour wrote in October that she had heard criticism over having civilians probe military sexual misconduct cases, including that they “do not have the appropriate level of understanding and knowledge of the military.”

But she said she also heard “significant skepticism,” including from survivors, regarding the independence and competence of the military police. She said the perception was “pervasive” in the military and defence department.

“It has created serious mistrust in the military justice system and, in particular, the investigative phase,” Arbour wrote.

While Thursday’s announcement is positive, the military is facing a “complex issue” that will not be entirely solved by moving sexual misconduct cases out of the armed forces, said Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a military sexual misconduct expert and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

“It doesn’t address the problem of culture, and what leads to reporting being difficult, investigations being difficult, and prosecutions being difficult,” she said.

Duval-Lantoine said the investigations into sexual misconduct cases may have more legitimacy once handled externally, but the effectiveness of the probes remains to be seen, pointing out the RCMP has had its own problems with sexual misconduct.

“Even provincial and municipal and territorial law enforcement agencies don’t have the best record,” she said.

Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant