OTTAWA –
The dispute between the federal government and the provinces over funding and other resources has slowed 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 temporarily transferring criminal sex offenses to civilian police forces and courts.
The decision followed an interim recommendation by Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor, who was leading an external review of sexual misconduct and harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces. She said moving the cases from the military to civilian police and courts was necessary to address widespread mistrust and doubts about the military’s ability to properly handle such cases.
Chief Marshal Brigadier-Gen. Simon Trudeau, a senior army officer, said last month that 22 new investigations and nine existing cases had been accepted by civilian police forces, including the RCMP, municipal police forces in Quebec and some other provinces.
What Trudeau did not say is that at least 23 cases have been dismissed by civilian authorities and remain with the military police amid disagreements between Ottawa and several provinces over funding and other resources.
Anand cited those numbers in a letter last month to then-Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, when she urged Jones to push for the province’s police and courts to accept the transfers.
“It is our aim that civilian police services investigate and civil courts adjudicate 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 5 June.
“The civil justice system and civilian 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 stressing the need for additional resources to handle military cases in Ontario’s “already strained system.”
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, emphasized the provincial government’s contention that Ottawa must provide additional resources to facilitate the transfer of cases.
“This includes the federal government providing specific data to local police services about cases to be referred so that they are prepared to investigate and prosecute potential charges interprovincially and internationally in a way that supports victims of sexual assault,” spokeswoman Hannah Jensen said in an email.
Ontario is not alone in the claim.
A statement from BC’s Ministry of Public Safety and the Attorney General also called for “adequate resources and consistent protocols, procedures and standards to support both survivors and civilian police.”
“We will continue to work with British Columbia police agencies, victim services and (with) the British Columbia Prosecutor’s Office as CAF works to effectuate the transfer of cases,” the statement said.
In her final report, released in late May, Arbor noted that some police forces and associations representing police chiefs had publicly and privately opposed her earlier recommendation that the military transfer cases to their jurisdictions.
These include the Ontario Provincial Police, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and its counterpart in British Columbia.
However, she noted that some other provinces and police services have agreed to accept such cases, including Quebec. She went on to say that based on historical trends, all provinces except Ontario are likely to see fewer than 25 additional cases per year.
Ontario is likely to see about 70 new cases, but Arbor said those numbers are no justification for saying no to transferring them.
“The number of cases scattered across the country, with a slightly higher volume around CAF bases and wings and virtually none elsewhere, hardly justifies this refusal to enforce the law,” she said of those opposed to the military takeover affairs.
“Targeted need for additional resources, if any, can be easily identified and accommodated.”
Arbor went on to predict that unless the federal government formally removes the military’s jurisdiction over criminal sex offences, Ottawa and the provinces will engage in “endless discussions” between the two sides.
While Provost Marshal spokesman Lt.-Cmdr. James Brezolin says military police continue to handle these cases that civilian counterparts have refused to take, a situation that raises new concerns about the impact on victims of sex crimes.
“The concern for victims is really that there seems to be a bit of a hot potato situation 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 B.C. .no
“Victims will be affected if there is this kind of disagreement between different authorities and potentially a lack of resources and arguments about who should be looking after these cases.”
Charlotte Duvall-Lantoin of the Canadian Institute of Global Affairs, whose book on military sexual behavior was published last month, worries about victims who may have come forward only because they thought their cases would not be dealt with by the armed forces.
“It will contribute to re-traumatizing people who have waited decades to come forward.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 10, 2022.
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