Former supreme court justice Louise Arbour’s long-awaited report on sexual misconduct in the Canadian military is as thorough, serious and wide-reaching as anyone could’ve hoped for. It’s 700 pages long, with 48 substantial recommendations that, if implemented, will upturn the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) justice system, military colleges and hermetic culture.
If Arbour herself had the power to implement the report’s 48 recommendations, most notably removing all sexual assault investigations from the military justice system, I’d be willing to bet on the side of real change. Unfortunately, she doesn’t.
Yet the PMO’s track record on the military sexual misconduct file is troubling, to say the least. The debacle with ex-defence chief Jonathan Vance, who was convicted of obstruction of justice in connection to a relationship he had with a subordinate, revealed a PMO only concerned with women’s rights up until the point that protecting them may result in bad publicity.
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