Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour and Minister of National Defense Anita Anand, centre, release the final report of the Independent External Comprehensive Review on Sexual Badconduct and Sexual Harassment to the Department of National Defense and the Canadian Armed Forces in Ottawa on Monday. 30 May 2022. Also present is the Chief of the Defense Staff, General Wayne Eyre. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick A dispute between the federal government and the provinces over funding and other resources is slowing efforts to transfer military police investigations and prosecutions of alleged sex crimes to civilian authorities. Defense Minister Anita Anand said last November that the Canadian Armed Forces would begin transferring criminal sex offenses to police forces and courts on an interim basis. The decision followed an interim recommendation by Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor, who was in the midst of an external review into sexual harassment and harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces. He said the transfer of cases from the military to the civilian police and courts was necessary to address widespread mistrust and doubt about the military’s ability to properly handle such cases. Brigadier General-Gen. Simon Trudeau, the military’s top police officer, said last month that 22 new investigations and nine pre-existing cases had been accepted by civilian police forces, including the RCMP, municipal police forces in Quebec and some other provinces. What Trudeau didn’t say was that at least 23 cases have been dismissed by civilian authorities and remain with military police amid a dispute between Ottawa and several provinces over funding and other resources. Annand cited those numbers in a letter last month to then-Attorney General Sylvia Jones as she urged Jones to push the province’s police and courts to accept the transfers. “It is our aim that civilian police agencies investigate and civilian courts try all sexual offenses under the Penal Code alleged to have been committed by a member of the CAF,” Anand wrote in the letter sent on June 5. “The civil justice system and civil law enforcement already have jurisdiction over these Criminal Code offenses and I urge you to work to ensure that they exercise their jurisdiction and enforce the law.” Anand’s letter made no mention of funding or other federal support, despite receiving a letter from Jones three months earlier outlining the need for additional resources to deal with the military’s “already strained system” of Ontario. Instead, Anand said the federal government is considering permanently removing the military’s jurisdiction over criminal sex offenses — a move that would dump all such investigations and prosecutions in the lap of the provinces. A spokeswoman for Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, who took over the portfolio from Jones last month, underscored the provincial government’s contention that Ottawa needs to provide additional resources to facilitate case transfers. “This includes the federal government providing specific data to local police agencies about cases to be forwarded so they are equipped to investigate and pursue potential charges provincially and internationally in a way that supports victims of sexual assault,” she said. representative Hannah Jensen; E-MAIL. Ontario is not alone in the request. A statement from British Columbia’s Ministry of Public Safety and Attorney General also calls for “adequate resources and consistent protocols, procedures and standards to support both survivors and civilian police.” “We will continue to work with BC Police, victim services and (the) BC Attorney’s Office as CAF works to implement case referrals,” the statement said. In her final report released in late May, Arbor noted that some police forces and unions representing police chiefs had publicly and privately opposed her previous recommendation that the military transfer the cases to their jurisdictions. These included the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and the equivalent police in British Columbia. However, he noted that some other provinces and police agencies had agreed to accept such cases, including Quebec. He went on to argue that based on historical trends, all provinces except Ontario were likely to see fewer than 25 additional cases per year. Ontario was likely to see about 70 new cases, but Arbor said those numbers did not justify saying no to transporting them. “The number of cases, spread across the country, with a slightly higher volume around CAF bases and wings, and almost none elsewhere, hardly justifies this refusal to enforce the law,” he said of those opposed to the military takeover. cases. “Targeted need for additional resources, if any, can be easily identified and addressed.” Arbor went on to predict that unless the federal government formally removes the military’s jurisdiction over criminal sex offenses, Ottawa and the provinces will engage in “endless discussions” between the two sides. While the representative of the Provost Marshal Lt.-Cmdr. James Brezolin says military police continue to handle those cases that their civilian counterparts refused to accept, a situation that raises new concerns about the impact on victims of sex crimes. “The concern for victims is actually that there seems to be a kind of ‘hot potato’ where some of the provinces basically don’t want to take on the cases,” said Megan McKenzie, an expert on military sexual misconduct at Simon Fraser University in BC “Victims will be affected if there is this kind of negotiation between different authorities and possibly under the availability of resources and disputes about who should look after these cases.” Charlotte Duval-Lantoine of the Canadian Institute of Global Affairs, whose book on military sexual harassment was published last month, worried about victims who may have come forward only because they believed their cases would not be handled by the Armed Forces. “This will help re-injury people who have waited decades to come forward.”
