Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor has scrutinized the culture of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and she concludes that when it comes to handling complaints of sexual misconduct, salvation lies outside the military. In 2015, his colleague judge Marie Deschamps came to exactly the same conclusion, and called for the treatment of civil complaints, outside of martial law. Now is the time to act.
The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, in power since 2015, has not yet activated this key recommendation, even if it had everything in hand to judge the importance of finding a real independent process, outside the martial justice. He must now make every effort to promote this change and bring the army into modernity.
Louise Arbor’s words are incisive. In 400 pages of a devastating report which falls like a second mass on the inaction of the army, it draws up painful observations: the FAC did not follow the evolution of society; they remained immured in an “impenetrable hierarchical structure” with misogynistic overtones. “Women should no longer feel like passing guests,” she notes, urging the authorities to take the major step necessary to end a cycle of misconduct, microaggressions, rape, harassment and abuse. other rights violations.
Despite a desire to have some 25% women in their ranks, the Forces are still stagnating at a meager 16.3%. These women land in a culture of hypersexualization and masculinity catalyzed by an ideology centered on the importance of hierarchy and blind obedience. Justice Arbor also notes that despite high-level rhetoric based on values such as bravery, loyalty and courage, the reality on the ground offers a spectacular discrepancy, where the nobility of these values is eroded by a pernicious culture. .
Shaken by the conclusions of Judge Deschamps, in 2015, the CAF had launched the operation Honor, which, alas, only served to push through structural changes without examining or changing the unhealthy culture within the ranks. So it did nothing. The facts speak for themselves: sex scandals involving senior members of the chain of command have swept over the past few years, tainting even the speed of reaction of the Ministry of Defence. Serious fact: the victims no longer have confidence in the system and do not denounce, for fear of reprisals. It is a resounding failure.
It is therefore not surprising that the Arbor report argues for a call for air from outside. Let the Armed Forces focus on their expertise, she asks, and call on external arms for justice, education and even human resources. The treatment of criminal offenses of a sexual nature that target a member of the CAF must therefore be dealt with exclusively — and not in parallel — by the civil justice system, as was the case before 1998.
Federal Defense Minister Anita Anand says she wants to implement a third of Justice Arbour’s 48 recommendations, including the removal of such complaints from the martial justice system. The rest is welcomed with openness, without guarantee of action. The examination of the evidence is nevertheless solid; all that is missing is the courage to act.