By Scott Taylor
For many casual observers of Canada’s military the recent deluge of media reports alleging sexual misconduct at the highest levels comes as a disturbing shock.
First it was the Feb. 2, 2021 Global News revelations that recently stepped down, but not yet retired from the military, former Chief of Defence Staff, General Jonathan Vance had engaged in some inappropriate sexual behavior.
One of the allegations was that Vance had maintained an extra-marital affair with a junior officer dating back two decades and continuing through his tenure as Canada’s top soldier.
The second allegation involved a 2012 email sent from Vance’s military email address, wherein he invited a junior soldier to join him, then a major-general, on a clothing optional beach vacation.
During the initial media storm, Vance told Global News that he had dated the junior officer in 2000, while he was single. However, according to Vance, that relationship was no longer sexual in nature.
As for the 2012 email, Vance claims to have no recollection of sending such a missive. However, if he indeed did extend a nude beach invitation to a servicewoman, he suggested it would have been intended as a joke.
At that juncture of the developing story, it was Vance’s word against two anonymous accusers.
However, things did not stay that way for long. Global News reporter Mercedes Stephenson conducted an exclusive follow-up interview with Maj. Kellie Lynn Brennan on Feb. 21.
In that conversation Brennan alleged that the affair she had with General Vance was indeed of a sexual nature. She cited locations and timings of their trysts including having sex with Vance at his home on the eve of him delivering his incoming speech as Canada’s CDS in 2015.
What was far more alarming about Brennan’s comments during her interview was her allegation that once this story first broke, Vance had urged her to lie to the media about the sex. Brennan also claimed that after she was allegedly raped at CFB Wainwright, Alberta, Vance said he could take no action as he felt it might reveal their adulterous affair.
For the record, Vance has yet to publicly comment on Brennan’s allegations and he maintains that he has committed no sexual impropriety.
Which brings the bouncing ball back to the 2012 nude beach email. The recipient of that correspondence took her evidence to the Canadian Forces Ombudsman in 2018.
As the complainant did not want any formal action taken and wanted her identity protected, Ombudsman Gary Walbourne sought direction in this matter from Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan.
According to Walbourne’s recent testimony before a commons committee, Sajjan refused to actually look at the evidence in his hand.
In the world that is partisan politics we now find ourselves fixated on opposition parties clamouring to know who-knew-what-when amongst the Liberal government’s senior leadership.
However, the object of their fixation is a 2012 email between Vance and a junior subordinate which even the anonymous complainant did not wish to have formally pursued.
The initial bombshell dropped on Vance by Global’s Stephenson has since set off a chain reaction of explosive revelations among the senior brass.
On Feb. 24, Admiral Art McDonald, Vance’s successor, stepped aside as CDS pending the results of an investigation into a 2010 allegation of sexual impropriety.
Then there was the report that Lt.-Gen. Chris Coates will not be deployed to a NATO posting after it was revealed he had had an affair while on a NORAD posting.
Then last week CBC aired a report about allegations of past impropriety from the 1990s aimed at Vice Admiral Haydn Edmundson, head of Canadian military personnel.
Reeling from these morale-crushing news stories, it is being hinted to the media that DND is about to create a new, more independent investigative service.
Those of us old enough to remember will recall that in May 1998, Macleans magazine ran four weekly cover stories in a row detailing ‘Rape in the Military.’ Public outrage from those revelations led to the creation of an Ombudsman’s office.
In 2013 another series of media reports on sexual misconduct led to the commissioning of a report by former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps.
The damaging findings of Deschamps’s reports were released in 2015 and she categorized the military as a highly masculine sexualized culture. To counter Deschamps’s findings the military appointed Jonathan Vance as CDS and had him spearhead Operation Honour, the full out effort to eliminate sexual misconduct in the ranks.
And that my friends, brings us full circle.
