Government, military set to formally apologize to sexual misconduct victims
CBC
The country's acting top military commander and the deputy minister of National Defence are expected to deliver a formal apology to survivors of sexual misconduct in the armed forces as early as this week, CBC News has learned.
An internal briefing document intended for newly appointed Defence Minister Anita Anand, dated Oct. 19, 2021, said the apology would come in "mid-November."
The 37-page document, obtained by CBC News, maps out in detail the department's plan for extracting the military from its worst social, legal and political crisis in a generation.
The briefing includes a detailed breakdown of how much money the defence department plans to spend in the near term to address sexual misconduct and change the culture of an institution that has for decades resisted meaningful reforms related to gender equality.
As much as $77.7 million has been earmarked for supports to survivors, justice and accountability initiatives and culture change. The biggest portion of that sum — $22.1 million — has been set aside to expand services at the military's Sexual Misconduct Response Centres (SMRC) in five regions across the country.
The Liberal government promised earlier this year to bolster the SMRCs. The internal document said services will be expanded this month to cover former military members and those working on the civilian side for the defence department within the public service.
Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said that while the upcoming apology is significant, it would have more of an impact coming from the Government of Canada as a whole.
"There needs to be an acknowledgement that things were not done properly in the past 30, 40 years," she said. "Whether or not people buy into it will depend on what happens afterwards, if measures are going to be put in place and if there is transparency."
"[People] don't want their leaders to continuously apologize," Duval-Lantoine added. "They also want them to learn from the lessons and change their ways."
Daniel Minden, a spokesperson for Anand, said an apology was proposed as part of the settlement of the class action lawsuit involving survivors of sexual assault in the military.
He did not say when the apology will be delivered.
"While there is no quick fix that will solve this systemic problem overnight, the expansion of the SMRC reach and services and apology to victims and survivors of military sexual misconduct are clear steps forward in building a respectful, professional military culture," he said in an email.
Minden also noted the last federal budget committed $236 million overall to fighting sexual misconduct and gender-based violence in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Since early February, the military has been besieged by a series of sordid revelations and allegations of sexual misconduct involving some of its highest-ranking leaders, including current Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Art McDonald. Over a half dozen senior-ranking commanders have either been the subjects of complaints or have been sidelined over how they handled misconduct cases.
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