Members of the Canadian Armed Forces now have the option of filing a complaint directly with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) when experiencing sexual misconduct or harassment.
Defence Minister Bill Blair has announced that this new procedure applies to both new and existing complaints and aligns with recommendations seven and nine from the external review led by former Supreme Court of Canada justice Louise Arbour, which investigated the Canadian Armed Forces’ handling of sexual misconduct allegations. Global News’ exclusive reporting on these allegations prompted the review in February 2021.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to implementing meaningful and transformative change. This new pathway to justice will better support our people in uniform and provide them with the procedural fairness they deserve,” said Blair in a statement.
Under the new policy, military members have two options for filing complaints related to sexual harassment or sex/gender discrimination – they can either use the internal military grievance and harassment processes or file directly with the CHRC. Those who choose the latter will no longer be required to exhaust the internal grievance process first.
“We are making substantial and concrete progress on evolving DND/CAF culture throughout the organization. With today’s announcement, we are ensuring that our members have more options when it comes to reporting incidents and filing complaints related to sexual harassment or discrimination based on sex,” said Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre in a statement.
“Change takes time, but we are seeing encouraging progress on many fronts, and we will continue with this important work to create a better workplace for all our members,” added Eyre.
CHRC interim chief commissioner Charlotte-Anne Malischewski welcomes the change and hopes it can expedite the process of providing justice to complainants.
In addition, the Canadian military will no longer object to member complaints concerning sexual misconduct, harassment, or discrimination being sent directly to the CHRC. All other harassment complaints will still be handled through the regular CAF grievance and harassment processes.
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