The much-anticipated report on sexual misconduct in the Candian military was released on Monday, and it includes 48 recommendations.
Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour oversaw the report and presented its findings along with Defense Minister Anita Annad at a presentation in Ottawa.
Arguably the most impactful recommendation calls for sexual assault cases to be handled permanently by regular police and civilian courts.
“As challenging as it is, this organization must demonstrate enough humility to accept external help and open itself to the outside world,” Arbour wrote in her report.
Civilian courts and police have been handling sexual assault cases that involve military personnel for the past year after it was enabled by Minister Annad who did so in response to an earlier recommendation from Arbour.
The report now calls for that change to be made permanent.
During the presentation of the report, which Minister Anand attended she indicated some of its implementations are already underway, “We are moving forward “We are moving forward expeditiously with the first 17 recommendations and we will move forward with the remainder once I’m presented for a plan for their implementation,”.
The report comes after over two years of hard work after Arbour was tasked in April 2020 with conducting an external review to examine sexual misconduct in the military.
It was commissioned in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations being made against high-ranking military officials.
Also speaking at the report presentation Arbour stressed that its success will be determined by political willpower. “In my previous life, I spoke in court orders, not recommendations, so I have to adjust to an environment where we can do all this work that shows a clear view forward but I can’t force it on anyone so I hope the analysis in the report will persuade those to take action,”.
Arbour also says the government needs to be forthright about their use of the report and she is calling for them to indicate which recommendations they intend to pursue by the end of the year.
