Government ordering review of military colleges in response to report on sexual misconduct | 24CA News
The federal authorities is ordering a evaluate of Canada’s navy faculties that would end in sweeping modifications on the two colleges, a brand new report says.
The report — tabled in Parliament by Defence Minister Anita Anand on Tuesday — is the federal government’s reply to former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour’s report calling for sweeping modifications to Canada’s navy in response to a collection of sexual misconduct scandals in recent times.
The authorities has accepted all 48 of Arbour’s suggestions and ordered the navy to maneuver ahead on their implementation, the federal government’s report mentioned. One of these suggestions referred to as for a evaluate of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., and in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.
In her report, launched in May, Arbour referred to as for widespread cultural change on the faculties. The “continued prevalence of sexual misconduct at the military colleges is well documented,” she mentioned at a press convention after releasing the report.
While she did not name for the universities to be scrapped altogether, Arbour did recommend that the colleges be assessed to find out whether or not they need to stick with it of their present kind.
“The military colleges appear as institutions from a different era, with an outdated and problematic leadership model,” Arbour wrote in her report.
The report launched by Anand says that by ordering a evaluate of the universities, the federal authorities “strongly affirms that the culture in these institutions must change significantly.”
A evaluate board led by an schooling specialist can be established to guage the universities in 2023, the report says. It doesn’t point out a timeline for finishing the work.
Tuesday’s report additionally says the federal government will proceed shifting towards having the civilian justice system examine and prosecute all instances of sexual offences within the Canadian Armed Forces.
The navy was granted jurisdiction over its personal sexual assault instances in 1988. Acting on Arbour’s interim report, Anand began transferring such instances to the civilian system final yr.
Tuesday’s report says Anand has requested the Armed Forces to current her with choices to completely switch jurisdiction over such instances to the civilian legal justice system.
The navy had bother transferring sexual misconduct investigations to civilian police our bodies over the previous yr.
The Canadian Armed Forces has transferred 57 investigations to civilian police providers since final December, Col. Vanessa Hanrahan, deputy commander of Canada’s navy police, mentioned Monday.
But one other 40 instances have been declined by civilian police for quite a lot of causes, together with jurisdictional and useful resource considerations, she mentioned.
Military police are attempting to handle these considerations by working with civilian police investigators and giving them entry to navy police information, Hanrahan mentioned.
