The Canadian Armed Forces fosters a hostile culture that is “disrespectful and demeaning to women,” says an independent report on sexual harassment and misconduct in the organization, released today.

“Ultimately, there was a broad perception among participants that the senior leadership of the CAF condones sexually inappropriate conduct,” wrote former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps in her scathing report after a year-long review. “One of the comments heard most frequently by the ERA [external review authority] was that addressing inappropriate sexual conduct is not a priority for CAF leaders. Senior leaders are perceived as ‘burying the issues’ and as being ‘desensitized.’”

Outgoing Chief of Defence Staff Tom Lawson ordered the external review last year when Maclean’s reported that there were approximately 178 incidents of sexual misconduct within the military investigated every year. The House Defence Committee questioned him about it at the time, but he said he needed more information.

Ms. Deschamps was appointed to lead the review, with a mandate to look into “the extent to which Canadian Armed Forces members report alleged incidents of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment and if applicable, any reasons why reporting may not occur, including the role of military culture and the chain of command as it relates to the reporting of incidents.”

Mr. Lawson released the report at a press conference with Ms. Deschamps, Chief Warrant Officer Kevin West and Major-General Chris Whitecross.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra, B.C.) called the report “very disturbing.”

“This has obviously been going on a for a long time. It’s a systemic culture of misogyny according to this former judge. It’s a hostile, sexualized environment. I find that deeply concerning and very concerning that it took investigative journalists writing pieces in weekly papers for the government to actually accept that there’s a problem,” she said, adding that there is “real work” that needs to be done and the government has not made resources available. “The government has actually had this report for more than two months and yet there wasn’t a dime in the budget to show that they are serious about taking action on this completely unacceptable situation.”

In her report, Ms. Deschamps said that sexual harassment and assault begins as early as basic training, where inappropriate language is used, “dubious” encounters between trainers and trainees occur and rape is prevalent. In these incidents, female trainees are reluctant to report the behaviour “for fear of negative repercussions,” resulting in early silence which perpetuates the problem.

“The use of language that belittles women is commonplace,” Ms. Deschamps wrote. “Interviewees reported regularly being told of orders to ‘stop being pussies’ and to ‘leave your purses at home.’ Swear words and highly degrading expressions that reference women’s bodies are endemic. The use of the word ‘cunt,’ for example, is commonplace, and rape jokes are tolerated. In response, women feel pressure to accept the sexualized environment or risk social exclusion.”

Ms. Deschamps noted that women in higher ranks are not subjected as much to the “sexualized environment” but that’s because “members appear to internalize the prevailing sexualized culture” as they get promoted. “Women play a particular role in contributing to the maintenance and re-creation of masculine military culture,” she wrote. “The sexualized culture appears to be less evident among junior officers, perhaps because not all junior officers receive their training in a military college and therefore have not been in the CAF environment long enough to internalize the culture. However, the ERA found that too often junior officers turned a blind eye to the inappropriate conduct occurring around them.”

Through interviews with junior officers, Ms. Dechamps found some officers to be “in a state of denial or clearly were not being transparent about their knowledge of sexual incidents.”

In response to the report, Mr. Lawson said that the department has created a strategy “to deliver a decisive response, while allowing the organization to further understand and solve the more complex aspects of the problem and develop more comprehensive solutions.”

Mr. Lawson noted that “inappropriate sexual behaviour is utterly corrosive” before thanking Ms. Deschamps for her work.

“Exemplary conduct is part of Canadian Armed Forces members’ obligation to serve. We cannot accept anything less, and I will not accept anything less,” he said.

Ms. Deschamps made 10 recommendations, of which, the government said it supports the first two. The others will have to be taken under advisement, Mr. Lawson said.

Ms. Whitecross added: “Inappropriate sexual behaviour is a complex problem, and quick band-aid fixes are unlikely to solve the many dimensions of the problem. We need well-considered innovative change to arrive at a long-term and sustainable solution. The CAF action plan is a key step of the solution.”

The action plan includes: engaging with leadership at all levels to support required changes; examining who is responsible for prevention, training, support, research and reporting inappropriate sexual behaviour; encouraging victims to report abuse; conducting a comprehensive review of all sexual assault and harassment policies; and updating education and training curriculum.

“The existence of inappropriate sexual behaviour within the CAF threatens the essential principles on which the Canadian military culture stands. Such behaviour will not be tolerated within the CAF—all levels of leadership and all men and women of the CAF will be held accountable for upholding and embodying the military ethos and adhering to the highest standards of behaviour that the profession demands,” the action plan states. “The CAF has launched a series of activities that will enhance operational readiness by eliminating incidents and the resultant negative impacts of inappropriate sexual behaviour to the extent possible. The way ahead will be challenging and the level of effort significant. Nevertheless, a CAF that upholds a culture of dignity and respect with the highest standards of conduct justifies the level of effort.”

NDP MP Jack Harris (St. John’s East, Nfld.) said that the report is a “real shock” that the government is not taking seriously because it does not support the recommendation for an independent centre for accountability. “I think that that shows that they don’t really take it seriously,” he said. “They’ve had this report for over a month, so they’re clearly not interested in following through on these recommendations.  They’re just hoping that this will go away.”

In her report, Ms. Deschamps found that men hold negative attitudes about women in the military. For example, Ms. Deschamps wrote, “a commonly held attitude is that, rather than be a soldier, a sailor or an aviator, a woman will be labeled an ‘ice princess,’ a ‘bitch,’ or a ‘slut.’ Another saying is that women enter the CAF ‘to find a man, to leave a man, or to become a man.’ Men often greet a new woman in their unit with a comment such as, ‘fuck, I have a girl in my crew.’”

Ms. Deschamps noted that the “boy’s club” culture is still entrenched in the Armed Forces. There were 14.57 per cent female officers on Jan. 1, 2015, or 2,758 people. This is similar to the number of women on boards of directors of U.S. companies from 10 years ago, Ms. Deschamps said, recommending that a gender-based analysis on CAF policies and procedure will “help to ensure that policies do not implicitly lead to discriminatory practices.”

Ms. Deschamps said that while cultural change, improving female integration into senior levels, rebuilding trust and reducing sexual harassment and assault is not easy, it must be done. “Such goals require strong leadership and sustained commitment. But they are essential to the development of a modern military organization that not only embraces the principle of respect for human dignity, but is also able to optimize on the skills and talents of all its members,” she wrote. “The Canadian public expects it, and CAF members deserve it.”

 

Recommendations from the External Review into Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces

1. Acknowledge that inappropriate sexual conduct is a serious problem that exists in the CAF and undertake to address it.

2. Establish a strategy to effect cultural change to eliminate the sexualized environment and to better integrate women, including by conducting a gender-based analysis of CAF policies.

3. Create an independent center for accountability for sexual assault and  harassment outside of the CAF with the responsibility for receiving reports of inappropriate sexual conduct, as well as prevention, coordination and monitoring of training, victim support, monitoring of accountability, and research, and to act as a central authority for the collection of data.

4. Allow members to report incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault to the center for accountability for sexual assault and harassment, or simply to request support services without the obligation to trigger a formal complaint process.

5. With the participation of the center for accountability for sexual assault and harassment:

• Develop a simple, broad definition of sexual harassment that effectively captures all dimensions of the member’s relationship with the CAF.
• Develop a definition of adverse personal relationship that specifically addresses relationships between members of different rank, and creates a presumption of an adverse personal relationship where the individuals involved are of different rank, unless the relationship is properly disclosed.
• Define sexual assault in the policy as intentional, non-consensual touching of a sexual nature.
• Give guidance on the requirement for consent, including by addressing the impact on genuine consent of a number of factors, including intoxication, differences in rank, and the chain of command.

6. With the participation of the center for accountability for sexual assault and harassment, develop a unified policy approach to address inappropriate sexual conduct and include as many aspects as possible of inappropriate sexual conduct in a single policy using plain language.

7. Simplify the harassment process by:  Directing formal complaints to COs acting as adjudicators in a grievance; Reducing emphasis on ADR.

8. Allow victims of sexual assault to request, with the support of the center for accountability sexual assault and harassment, transfer of the complaint to civilian authorities; provide information explaining the reasons when transfer is not effected.

9. Assign responsibility for providing, coordinating and monitoring victim support to the center for accountability for sexual assault and harassment, including the responsibility for advocating on behalf of victims in the complaint and investigation processes.

10. Assign to the center for accountability for sexual assault and harassment, in coordination with other CAF subject matter experts, responsibility for the development of the training curriculum, and the primary responsibility for monitoring training on matters related to inappropriate sexual conduct.