Military police watchdog to probe how case against Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin was handled | 24CA News
The navy police watchdog is launching a probe into how investigators dealt with a historic sexual-assault allegation in opposition to a senior officer who was a central determine in Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
A Quebec courtroom acquitted Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin final December of 1 depend of sexual assault, after the navy police investigated the allegation from 1988 after which handed the case alongside to provincial prosecutors.
Fortin claims he has been the sufferer of a biased investigation and that he was charged on the idea of inadequate proof.
The Military Police Complaints Commission is now wanting into how the navy police dealt with the case, saying Fortin’s claims about senior navy officers being concerned make it a matter of public curiosity.
The fee wrote a letter to Fortin, which it posted on-line, that notes it had sought the navy police’s full investigation file in late January. The letter stated the navy solely responded two months later with a synopsis doc “a few pages long, that contains only a summary of the investigation.”
In a written assertion delivered by means of his lawyer, Fortin stated that call was “outrageous and unacceptable” and that he welcomes the fee’s determination to evaluation the case.
Fortin had been main the federal authorities’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout in May 2021 when he was faraway from the function pending an investigation.
A Quebec civilian decide acquitted him, saying the complainant was probably sexually assaulted however the Crown had not confirmed Fortin was the assailant, and the Canadian Armed Forces subsequently cleared him of misconduct.
Fortin has accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and different senior members of the federal government of getting turfed him for purely political causes at a time when the Liberals have been accused of not doing sufficient to handle sexual misconduct within the navy.
He has demanded the navy restore him to an equal place.
The complaints fee says its investigation will contact on whether or not “sexual assault investigations were to become, consciously or unconsciously, tainted by biases against victims or suspects” because of public and media scrutiny.
As of April 20, the fee was nonetheless ready for the complete case file of the investigation.
When requested whether or not the file has since been offered, the Canadian navy acknowledged an e mail Tuesday and stated it could attempt to present a response.
The sexual assault allegation stemmed from Fortin’s time on the navy school in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., which the complainant additionally attended.
A Crown prosecutor advised courtroom in September that the complainant, whose id is protected by a publication ban, waited till 2021 to convey the incident to mild as a result of she had retired and now not feared profession repercussions.
The decide stated the complainant had credible causes to not report the incident for thus many many years, given shortfalls in how the navy has dealt with such allegations.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
