'Bureaucratic burden' blocking progress on addressing military sexual misconduct: report

While she says she still believes Canada's military is committed to culture change, an external observer overseeing a plan to address sexual misconduct is blaming a «large bureaucratic burden» for slowing down progress.

The government appointed Jocelyne Therrien in 2022 to report on the federal government's handling of sweeping recommendations in former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour's report on military sexual harassment and misconduct.

Therrien released her latest report card on the government's work last week. In it, she writes that «a large bureaucratic burden… weighs heavy on the organization. This is having a major impact on timelines.»

The government brought in Arbour in 2021 to review the military's sexual misconduct crisis. Since early February 2021, roughly a dozen senior Canadian military officers, current and former, have been sidelined, investigated or forced into retirement from some of the most powerful and prestigious posts in the military over claims of sexual misconduct. Some of the cases have wrapped up in the military or civilian justice systems, resulting in charges being dropped or stayed.

Arbour made 48 recommendations. Chief among them was her call for the government to strip the military of its power to investigate and prosecute sexual offences under the Criminal Code. Defence Minister Bill Blair tabled legislation in March to implement that recommendation; the bill has gone through first reading in the House of Commons.

Arbour also called on Ottawa to appoint an external monitor, citing a fear that her recommendations might wind up «in the graveyard» with past reports.

In her new report, Therrien wrote that while «headway is being made in terms of operationalizing culture change,» more