Louise Arbour, Supreme Court Justice (Retired)
Photo Credit: Canada Without Poverty
Esprit de Corps Magazine June 2021 // Volume 28 Issue 5
Let's Talk About Women in the Military – Column 27
By Military Woman
Question:
What would your recommendations be for Louise Arbour?
Answer:
As you may know, Supreme Court Justice (Retired) Louise Arbour has been named to lead a review of sexual misconduct in the military. While there have been some grumblings that this is just a repeat of the review conducted by Justice Marie Deschamps in 2015, in fact the scope of Justice Arbour’s mandate is much wider and this time all report recommendations are binding. We at “Military Woman” offer a few recommendations for Justice Arbour’s consideration.
Choose your words carefully. Sexual misconduct is an extremely broad term that can mean many things, ranging from an one-time inappropriate sentence in an email to a premediated tortuous gang rape. The term is often used as a euphemism to downplay or avoid the direct naming of rape, sexual assault, sexual coercion, and/or sexual harassment. Please be precise in your word choices and always provide definitions for your key terms – including what “independent” review or “external” monitoring system truly means.
Talk about power – not sex. As Dr. Alan Okros PhD (Dallaire Centre of Excellence) is fond of saying, “If I hit you with a shovel, you wouldn’t call it inappropriate gardening.” Although the acts of misconduct may be sexual in nature, they originate from power imbalances. Sexual misconduct being but one of many possible negative outcomes from abuses related to military power imbalances.
Do not call sexual misconduct a women’s issue. Politicians and journalists have undone decades of hard work by women in uniform to not have sexual misconduct or military sexual trauma (MST) labeled as “women’s issues.” Women constitute just over 15% of the military and, while women are more likely than men to be victims of military sexual violence, the total gross number of men victimized is actually higher than the total number of impacted women. Male victims of MST were co-sponsors of the recent sexual misconduct class action lawsuit and have also repeatedly spoken out to the media about their experiences.
Look beyond legal issues. The politicians, lawyers and police have all to date, not surprisingly, focussed their action item lists on legal issues around sexual misconduct reporting, investigation, and justice systems. Quite unfortunately absent, are non-legal areas such as the military health care system which is responsible for the prevention, identification, support and treatment of sexual misconduct case health and wellness sequelae. Given that MST is an acknowledged military specific occupational hazard and the direct cause of ongoing workplace injuries and illnesses, the military medical system’s absence from many of the MST discussions and system reviews is inexplicable.
Understand the culture. Canadian military culture is different from other Canadian organizational cultures. We urge Justice Arbour, therefore, to seek input from those with lived Canadian military experience to anchor and inform her recommendations. Without a demonstrated understanding of military culture, it is highly likely that the recommendations will once more not be internally embraced by CAF members (or veterans).
We believe that Justice Deschamps’ (2015) decision to describe the military culture as a “sexualized” work environment although understandable, was unintentionally harmful.
How?
The absolute refusal by so many women and men in uniform to accept the validity of the “sexualized culture” descriptor directly contributed to the internal pushback to Justice Deschamps report and recommendations. Lived experience input may have suggested “male-dominated,” “masculine assumed” or “male locker room” as alternative descriptors that may have been better accepted internally.
At the end of the day, understanding military culture through a sex and gender intersectional lens is essential to conducting an external review of sexual misconduct in the military. In addition to reaching out to the many experts on military culture, such as Drs. Karen Davis and Maya Eichler, we strongly urge Justice Arbour and her team to sit down and review all the Military Women pieces written since March 2019 (vol. 6, no. 2). It is our hope that the more you learn about our world and its culture the more likely your recommendations will receive internal (and external) support and be, this time, successfully implemented.
Let’s get it right this time around!
