The number of claims in the military sexual misconduct class action lawsuit has nearly doubled over the last four months, soaring to more than 13,000 as the deadline for new claimants nears.
With three weeks left until the deadline, the number of claims now sits at 13,522 — an increase of 6,176 from the 7,346 claims that had been submitted as of July 14, 2021.
“We’ve seen a consistent increase throughout the fall, especially in October. I think likely most of it is driven by the fact that the claims period is coming to an end,” said Andrew Astritis, part of the legal team at Raven Law representing claimants in the suit.
He urged anyone who needs help filling out their claims to reach out, and said the most important thing for anyone considering making a claim is to get that in before the deadline on Nov. 24.
“If people can’t complete their narrative or if people can’t get all the documents that they need to get in order before then, we can help them with that,” he said.
“We have a team of lawyers here who are available to give people that assistance.”
The $900-million class action lawsuit was settled in 2019 and opened to claims from survivors and victims of military sexual misconduct on May 25, 2020. The class action provides claimants with financial compensation for the harms they experienced, allocated at specific amounts, as well as the option to participate in restorative engagement.
It had received 2,729 claims by late December 2020, which jumped to more than 7,000 by July.
That increase came in the midst of what experts have described as an institutional “crisis” for the Canadian Forces following multiple allegations of high-level sexual misconduct, and a national spotlight fixed firmly on the longstanding problem of sexual misconduct within the military.
“I think there’s been a lot of hard work amongst the advocacy groups in the community to increase the attention and information base around the class action lawsuit, and I think that has been a really important factor in those increased numbers,” said Linna Tam-Seto, a research associate studying military sexual trauma at the Trauma and Recovery Lab of McMaster University.
“There’s been this increased attention as well as everything else that’s been happening and been really covered heavily by the media, as well as internationally. People are really looking at Canada to say, ‘Hey, how are the Canadians going to deal with this?’”
Astritis said anyone considering coming forward now should know three things: the process is confidential from the military chain of command, all claims are being independently evaluated, and that the process is set up with the assumption that claimants are being honest.
“So class members don’t need to worry about people questioning them about what happened or doubting what they’re putting forward,” he said.
Sam Samplonius works with the group It’s Not Just 700, which advocates for changes that will better support military members and veterans who have experienced sexual misconduct. She said the process of filing a claim can be anxiety-inducing and emotional, but that there are resources in place to help.
“We set up a subgroup within our group, another private that nobody could see, and we encouraged everybody to go there to ask their questions,” she said, adding strategies like planning an outline and filling out the paperwork bit by bit were helpful for some.
“We found that was really helpful for a lot of people. So that may be why that there’s been a sudden doubling, pretty much, of the numbers of people claiming.”
She added the topic of whether to push for extending the deadline has come up, but that it raises difficult questions for many survivors.
“We did talk about it as a group and there’s some people that are concerned with doing that because of course, if we extend the deadline, then that means that the people that did put forth the effort to have their stuff in on time, then they have to wait even longer,” she explained.
“So that doesn’t really seem fair, either.”
Global News reached out to Defence Minister Anita Anand’s office asking whether officials were looking into whether to extend the deadline. A spokesperson said the settlement terms have been approved by all parties, and directed further questions to the Department of National Defence.
The claims process is open to current and serving members of the Canadian Forces, as well as current or former employees of the Department of National Defence.
It covers a broad range of experiences including sexual assault, sexual harassment and gender discrimination, said Astritis.
“If people have any questions, I would just encourage them to call us so that we can help them put together a claim,” he added. “There’s more than enough time.
“People, like I said, they should feel really free and welcome to reach out to us.”
With files from Global National’s Abigail Bimman.