Canadian Forces sex assault case transfer plans spark funding fight with provinces
Global News
A dispute between Ottawa and provinces over resources is slowing efforts to transfer military police investigations and prosecutions of alleged sexual crimes to local authorities.
A dispute between the federal government and provinces over funding and other resources is slowing efforts to transfer military police investigations and prosecutions of alleged sexual crimes to civilian authorities.
Defence Minister Anita Anand said last November the Canadian Armed Forces would start transferring criminal sexual offences to civilian police forces and courts on an interim basis.
The decision followed an interim recommendation from Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour who was in the midst of leading an external review of sexual misconduct and harassment in the Canadian Armed Forces. She said moving the cases from military to civilian police and courts was necessary to address widespread mistrust and doubt about the military’s ability to properly handle such cases.
Provost Marshal Brig.-Gen. Simon Trudeau, the military’s top police officer, reported 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 rejected by civilian authorities and remain with military police amid a disagreement between Ottawa and several provinces over funding and other resources.
Anand cited those numbers in a letter last month to Ontario’s then-solicitor general Sylvia Jones as she urged Jones to push police and courts in the province to accept the transfers.
“Our aim is that civilian police services investigate, and civilian courts adjudicate, all Criminal Code sexual offences alleged to have been committed by a CAF member,” Anand wrote in the letter sent June 5.
“The civilian justice system and civilian law enforcement already have jurisdiction over these Criminal Code offences, and I urge you to work to ensure they exercise their jurisdiction and enforce the law.”
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