Toxic sexism in Canadian military in dire need of reform: Report
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Louise Arbour, a former prosecutor for the ICT, has laid down 48 recommendations to ameliorate the toxic environment in the Canadian military.
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Former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, right, and Minister of National Defence, Anita Anand, centre (The Canadian Press)
A report, released on Monday, suggested that the Canadian military has failed women in uniform and must hand over all prosecutions for sexual misconduct to civilian courts and rights tribunals.
This conclusion, which highlights the failure of the Canadian military in accommodating cases of violations against women, is among 48 recommendations by Louise Arbour, a former prosecutor for the ICT who has been handed a task to clean up the toxic culture of sexism in the Canadian military. In December, Ottawa apologized to Canadian soldiers for its incompetence.
On Monday, Defense Minister Anita Anand told a news conference that the government will implement 17 of the recommendations and will assess the rest of the recommendations after strategies on how to implement them are made clear.
"If we do not take this moment for what it is and implement the recommendations that identify deep areas of need for change in the Canadian Armed Forces and the defense team broadly, we run the risk of not being a fully effective military domestically and internationally," Anand said.
"We must grab the bull by the horns and make these changes now," she said.
Arbour, on her part, said the military is ill-equipped to handle the accusations of sexual assaults, rape, and harassment. According to her, no meaningful progress regarding past recommendations for military reform, which amount to hundreds, pulled through. The military "failed to adapt to the ever-changing progressive society in which we live."
"The handling of sexual offences by military court in the past 20 years has done very little to improve efficiency, discipline and morale," she said at the news conference with Anand. "If anything it has served to erode it."
"The CAF has to open up to outside civilian partners," Arbour said, referring to the Canadian Armed Forces. "The CAF should let others do what they can do better, more efficiently, and concentrate on its operations."
Arbour's review comes after another task force hinted in 2015 that the Canadian military hosts "an environment that is hostile to women... and is conducive to more serious incidents of sexual harassment and assault."
In April 2021, the Canadian military reported to the House of Commons 581 sexual assaults and 221 incidents of sexual harassment, which have taken place in 2015.
