The Canadian Armed Forces says military police have referred 93 cases of criminal sexual offences to civilian police forces since December 2021, 64 of which are under investigation.
Friday’s update came as the government works to implement an independent recommendation to remove jurisdiction over such cases from military police after a series of sexual misconduct scandals involving high-ranking officers.
Brig.-Gen. Simon Trudeau, the Canadian Forces provost marshal, said the other 29 cases referred to federal, provincial and municipal police had been declined.
He did not give a reason for those cases being dismissed, but some provinces including Ontario and British Columbia have called on Ottawa to fund the additional police resources needed to take on such investigations.
Trudeau said another 97 cases were not referred to civilian police, and cited “various reasons” as to why.
The victims in 20 of those cases, he said, preferred a military police investigation, while others chose not to proceed with a criminal investigation at all.
Defence Minister Anita Anand first directed military police and prosecutors to start handing cases to civilian authorities in November 2021, following a recommendation to that effect from retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.
Arbour made the recommendation while conducting a yearlong review into the Canadian Forces’ handling of sexual misconduct allegations. She said the move was necessary to address widespread mistrust and doubt in the military justice system.
The recommendation was included in her final report, released in May 2022, that described the military as a “broken system” out of sync with the values of Canadian society, and which poses a “liability” to the country.
The review was formally launched a year before that — in May 2021 — in response to exclusive reporting by Global News into allegations of sexual misconduct among the highest ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Global News first brought to light allegations in February 2021 of sexual misconduct against senior leaders in the Armed Forces — the first of dozens of exclusive reports into such allegations and the military’s handling of them over the past 18 months.
On Thursday, officials from the Defence Department and the Canadian Forces provided an update on their efforts to implement the 48 recommendations made in Arbour’s report.
Speaking to reporters, Minister Anand said a federal-provincial-territorial committee has been set up to facilitate conversations between deputy ministers about the transfer of cases of criminal sexual offences.
In the meantime, the Armed Forces have agreements in place with the RCMP, Surete du Quebec and now the Ontario Provincial Police to refer cases to police for investigation, officials said.
In her report, Arbour warned that Ottawa and the provinces could end up engaged in “interminable discussions” about the matter if the federal government did not formally make the change.
The NDP has called on the Liberals to introduce legislation to permanently remove such cases from the military’s jurisdiction.
Anand also said Thursday that the military’s independent sexual misconduct support and resource centre is creating a new fund to help victims pay for legal services.
— with files from Global’s Saba Aziz and The Canadian Press