Amid the growing fallout from the #MeToo movement in Ottawa, Canada’s defence minister is defending the Trudeau government’s record on preventing sexual assault and harassment in the armed forces.
Harjit Sajjan said he won’t address an ongoing lawsuit against the Canadian military in which complainants allege sexual harassment, assault and discrimination.
But speaking in Vancouver on Friday, Sajjan said the government is taking a “feminist approach” to the military.
“Our defence policy itself didn’t have a gender-based analysis, it was done after the defense policy was written,” Sajjan said.
“It was actually done as we were actually developing the policy. We are actually committed to increasing more the number of women in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).”
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Sajjan went on to say that the government wants women to feel confident coming forward with allegations.
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Meanwhile, Rajinder Sahota, a lawyer for three former service members suing the federal government, said Ottawa has taken anything but a feminist approach in legal arguments to have the case quashed.
One of those arguments maintains that the federal government doesn’t “owe a private law duty of care to individual members within the CAF to provide a safe and harassment-free work environment, or to create policies to prevent sexual harassment or sexual assault,” she said.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he’d asked the federal justice minister to speak with the government’s lawyers and ensure they weren’t making arguments inconsistent with the government’s philosophy.
“Obviously the lawyers’ argument does not align with my beliefs or what this government believes,” Trudeau said.
- With files from the Canadian Press