By Scott Taylor
Last week the Canadian military was dealt another blow on the sexual misconduct front when a senior female officer wrote that she was resigning from the forces in disgust.
In a letter to her Commanding Officer, LCol Eleanor Taylor requested an immediate release from the military.
“I am sickened by ongoing investigations of sexual misconduct among our key leaders,” wrote Taylor. “Unfortunately, I am not surprised. I am also certain that the scope of the problem has yet to be exposed.”
What makes Taylor’s resignation all the more damaging for the Canadian military institution is that she was one of their extraordinary role models.
Taylor served as an infantry officer for more than twenty-five years with combat tours in Kosovo and Afghanistan. In 2010 she became the first female to command an infantry company in combat while serving with the Royal Canadian Regiment in Kandahar.
At the time of issuing her request for release Taylor was serving as the Deputy Commander of 36 Canadian Brigade Group as a reservist.
“I am not encouraged that we are investigating our top officers. I am disgusted that it has taken so long to do so,” wrote Taylor.
This public condemnation of the Canadian military’s senior brass caps off a seven-week relentless media crap-storm of sexual misconduct allegations leveled at the CAF’s most senior leaders.
The result of this tempest has left the command structure in complete disarray and it has crushed morale among the rank and file.
To assist those readers who may have lost track of the many bouncing balls in this scandal, here is a brief recap.
On 2 February, Global News reporter Mercedes Stephenson broke the story that recently retired Chief of Defence Staff, General Jonathan Vance was accused of sexual misconduct.
The two allegations against Vance involved him having a twenty year extramarital affair with a subordinate and an email allegedly sent by him in 2012, wherein he invited a junior soldier to join him on a clothing-optional beach vacation.
Vance denied the allegations.
If the saga ended at this juncture it would have been just a couple of anonymous accusers suggesting that the ex-CDS had character flaws as neither of the allegations against Vance were criminal in nature.
However, once it was learned that the Canadian Forces Ombudsman was aware of the nude beach invitation email and had tried to brief defence minister Harjit Sajjan about the situation in 2018, the scandal began to explode.
Opposition parties began demanding to know who-knew-what-when in the Trudeau Liberal government. Vance was placed under military police investigation and his successor as CDS, Admiral Art McDonald announced there would be a second independent investigation into the allegations.
As this was all starting to boil, Vance’s alleged long term mistress decided to go public with details of the affair.
In an interview with Stephenson on Global News, Kellie Brennan described the times and locations of her trysts with Vance, including having sex with him on the eve of him becoming CDS.
Brennan’s most shocking allegation was that after the story had first broken and while her identity was still not public, Vance had requested that she lie to the media about the sexual nature of the relationship,
To counter this burgeoning public relation’s black eye, CDS McDonald sent out a message on 25 February to all CAF personnel, advising them to come forward if they had knowledge of any additional sexual misconduct.
Come forward they did. Within hours of sending that message, the media were alerted to the fact that McDonald himself is under investigation for an alleged incident aboard HMCS Montreal that occurred back in 2010.
That same night McDonald stepped aside as CDS and Army Commander LGen Wayne Eyre temporarily assumed the top soldier post.
Then came news that LGen Chris Coates had an extramarital affair while he was stationed in Colorado as Deputy Commander of NORAD. That transgression is now preventing him from deploying to Naples, Italy as Canada’s NATO representative.
Up to bat next was Vice Admiral Haydn Edmundson who faced allegations of inappropriate behaviour with female subordinates while a Lieutenant-Commander at CFB Esquimalt in the early 1990’s.
In her dramatic exit from the military, LCol Taylor said she is hoping that her actions will bring about real change in the culture.
For the sake of the institution, I hope she is right.
On the hopeful side, if any organization knows how to effect short term culture change it is the military. After all, ten weeks of recruit school converts civilians into soldiers.