(Ottawa) The military police watchdog is launching an investigation into how investigators handled an allegation of sexual assault against a senior officer who played a central role in the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Canada.
Last December, the Court of Quebec acquitted Major-General Dany Fortin of one count of sexual assault, after military police investigated the 1988 allegation and then referred the case to provincial prosecutors.
Mr. Fortin claims that he was the victim of a biased investigation and that he was charged on the basis of insufficient evidence.
The Military Police Complaints Commission is now reviewing the military police’s handling of the case, saying Fortin’s claims about the involvement of senior military officials make it a matter of public interest.
The commission wrote a letter to Mr. Fortin, which it posted online, saying it had requested the full investigation file from the military police in late January. The letter says the army did not respond until two months later with a summary document “of a few pages, which contains only a summary of the investigation”.
In a written statement sent through his lawyer, Major-General Fortin said the decision was “scandalous and unacceptable” and that he welcomes the commission’s decision to review the case.
Mr. Fortin was leading the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout in May 2021 when he was removed from his position pending an investigation.
A Quebec civilian judge acquitted him, saying the complainant was likely sexually assaulted, but the Crown had failed to prove Mr. Fortin was the assailant, and the Canadian Armed Forces later exonerated him. of misconduct.
Fortin accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other senior government officials of ousting him for purely political reasons at a time when the Liberals were accused of not doing enough to address sexual misconduct in the army.
He demanded that the army restore him to an equivalent position.
The complaints commission said its inquiry would focus on whether “sexual assault investigations should become, consciously or unconsciously, biased against victims or suspects” as a result of public scrutiny and medias.
As of April 20, the commission was still awaiting the full investigation file.
Asked if the file had since been provided to it, the Canadian military acknowledged receipt of an email on Tuesday and said it would try to provide a response.
The sexual assault allegation stems from Mr. Fortin’s time at the military college in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, which the complainant also attended.
A Crown prosecutor told the court in September that the complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, had waited until 2021 to come to terms with the incident because she had retired and would not feared the repercussions on his career.
The judge said the complainant had credible reasons for not reporting the incident for so many decades, given shortcomings in how the military handled these allegations.