Sex assault lawsuits seek culture change in Canada's military

Plaintiffs join forces in class action lawsuits over sex assault in Canadian military

DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
More from David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 9, 2017 | Last Updated: September 9, 2017 12:23 PM EDT

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Plaintiffs in five separate class action lawsuits against the Canadian military have agreed to work together to take the federal government to court.

The plaintiffs are seeking policy changes and redress for what they allege is systemic sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination in the Canadian Forces.

The class actions were filed in Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City, Halifax, and Victoria. Now all five plaintiffs have agreed to combine their resources to work together, according to a news release issued by Acheson Sweeney Foley Sahota LLP, a Victoria, BC law firm.

The plaintiffs in these class actions have entered into an agreement to prosecute the cases together.

Over the last several years, the Canadian Forces has been criticized for incidents of sexual assault and misconduct, most of it directed towards women.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance has vowed to take a tough approach against involved in sexual misconduct and has brought in a number of initiatives to deal with the problem.

The plaintiffs in class actions are represented by Koskie Minsky LLP in Toronto, Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne & Yazbeck LLP/s.r.l. in Ottawa, Quessy Henry St-Hilaire, avocats in Quebec City, Wagners – A Serious Injury Law Firm, in Halifax, and Acheson Sweeney Foley Sahota LLP in Victoria.

The class action filed in Victoria, British Columbia, was the most recent lawsuit to join the consortium, the lawyers noted in their news release.

The motions for certification, which will decide if the cases can proceed as class actions will be heard in the Federal Court the week of July 9, 2018.

In an April 30, 2015 report, former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps found that sexual misconduct was “endemic” in the Canadian Forces.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/plaintiffs-join-forces-in-class-action-lawsuits-over-sex-assault-in-canadian-military

Veterans merge sexual-assault suits against Canadian military

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Jul. 19, 2017 8:04PM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Jul. 19, 2017 8:13PM EDT

Veterans who launched four individual lawsuits against the military for allegedly failing to protect them from sexual assault and gender-based discrimination while they were in uniform have merged their cases to fight the Canadian Forces together.

The combined suit, if it is allowed to proceed as a class-action, aims to bring about change in Defence Department policies to prevent other soldiers, sailors and aviators from harassment and discrimination by their colleagues and superiors, and seeks compensation for those who were subjected to that kind of treatment in the past.

“I am thrilled that we can all work together towards a common goal,” Sherry Heyder, a former reservist form Northern Ontario who was a plaintiff in one of the original suits and is now part of the consortium, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Although she has not met the other plaintiffs, she said, “my heart goes out to those individuals for what they have experienced and what they have suffered.”

The merger of the court actions comes at a time when the military, under the direction of General Jonathan Vance, has been making a determined effort to end what a major report concluded in 2015 was a sexualized culture within the Canadian Forces.

Jonathan Ptak, a lawyer for the firm of Koskie Minsky who represented Ontario plaintiffs in the original claims, said those suits have combined with others in Quebec City and Halifax to present a united front. The hope is that the expertise of all the lawyers involved, and the merger of the complaints, will ensure the greatest access to justice and the speediest resolution, Mr. Ptak said.

A certification hearing to determine whether the cases can proceed as a class action will be held in July of next year.

A similar suit launched in British Columbia on behalf of a woman there remains a separate action.

A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence said on Wednesday that the military does not tolerate discrimination and harassment, and that while the military is responding to the legal challenge, the issue of harassment continues to be a priority, regardless of this lawsuit.

In 2015, Marie Deschamps, a former Supreme Court justice, released a wide-ranging report that said military leaders “must acknowledge that sexual misconduct is a real and serious problem for the organization, one that requires their own direct and sustained attention.”

When Gen. Vance became Chief of Defence Staff later that year, his first act was to order an end to sexual assault and harassment in the military. He launched Operation Honour, which aims to eliminate the harmful behaviour. By the end of April this year, 77 members who were found to have been involved in sexual misconduct had been fired.

But Ms. Heyder, who served between 1988 and 1994, is doubtful that the pervasive culture of discrimination and sexual harassment that she endured has been eliminated.

“When I read the Deschamps report, I was absolutely appalled to see that the conditions that existed when that report was written were exactly the same as existed in 1988,” she said. “So, although Operation Honour is a great start, I don’t think it could have completed anywhere near what needed to be done.”

Ms. Heyder said in her original statement of claim that she was advised after basic training that she was not permitted to pursue a career in the infantry because she was a woman and was forced to do administrative work instead. She also said the sexual harassment, sexual assault and gender-based discrimination begins when women enter the Canadian Armed Forces and that female military personnel learn to keep their concerns to themselves because the perpetrators go unpunished and complaints are not taken seriously.

Gen. Vance told The Globe and Mail recently that the culture has changed significantly since the Deschamps report and that surveys completed by the Forces indicate widespread awareness of Operation Honour and an understanding that the kinds of behaviour and attitudes that Ms. Deschamps described will not be tolerated.

But Ms. Heyder said, that for her and others, the damage has been done.

“It obliterated the career choice that I had initially chosen as a young woman,” she said. “I had intended to serve my country in the military and, as a result of what I went through, I couldn’t pursue that because of what was going on. It was just impossible for me to continue with a career in that environment.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/veterans-merge-sexual-assault-suits-against-canadian-military/article35746418/

Sex assault lawsuits seek culture change in Canada's military

Armed Force's new diversity strategy is "lipstick on a pig," says lead plaintiff Nicola Peffers

By MATTHEW BEHRENS APRIL 27, 2017


Nicola Peffers's lawsuit against the Canadian Armed Forces alleges "persistent sex-, gender- and sexual-orientation-based discrimination, bullying, harassment and sexual assault."

A recently announced review of military uniforms, ceremonies, badges and drills - part of a new diversity strategy aimed at making a broad swath of equity-seeking groups feel more welcome in the Canadian military - drew a chuckle from Navy veteran Nicola Peffers. She's one of two lead plaintiffs in sexual harassment and assault class actions filed against the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

"It all comes down to lipstick on a pig," says Peffers, a former marine electrician whose account of discrimination, insults and abuse is chronicled in her new book, Refuge In The Black Deck (Caitlin Press).

"Nothing has changed," she says.

In December, Peffers, 32, filed a notice of civil suit in the BC Supreme Court claiming "persistent sex-, gender- and sexual-orientation-based discrimination, bullying, harassment and sexual assault" in the CAF. Peffers says she's still dealing with the effects of PTSD brought on by four years in the forces and, specifically, a six-month deployment on HMCS Winnipeg in 2009.

Her claim follows a legal action filed two weeks earlier in Nova Scotia by Glynis Rogers, 29, whose dream of becoming an aerospace engineer officer was dashed by sexual assault and an atmosphere she describes as "misogynistic and encouraging degradation of, and hostility toward, women."

These legal actions - launched by a new generation of once eager recruits who came up against the same barriers that military officials promised to eliminate more than two decades ago - are the latest in a series of lawsuits, reports and media investigations that have kept the CAF in damage-control mode.

In November, Statistics Canada tallied 1,000 sexual assault reports among the regular armed forces over a one-year period (a rate significantly higher than for the general public). Shockingly, half the female respondents said their perpetrator was an immediate supervisor or someone with higher rank.

A 2015 study by former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps identified "an underlying sexualized culture in the CAF that is hostile to women and LGBTQ members and conducive to more serious incidents of sexual harassment and assault."

The CAF has been criticized for failing to take the issue seriously.

Former chief of defence staff Tom Lawson famously remarked that sexual violence occurs because people are "biologically wired in a certain way." The CAF's recently created sexual assault hotline has also come under fire because it operates during times when it's least likely to receive calls: weekdays from 7 am to 8 pm.

While the CAF's current head, Jonathan Vance, has expressed public concern, launching Operation Honour in 2015 (but derided by many soldiers as "Hop on her") to address "harmful and inappropriate sexual behaviour," he quickly embraced the findings of an internal report that downplayed the incidence of sexual assault at Kingston's Royal Military College (RMC).

Michel Drapeau, an Ottawa-based lawyer who handles military justice cases, notes that because the review was conducted by currently serving and retired senior military members, "it is anything but surprising that this report presented a far more subdued and tame account of the significant problems present at the RMC, [including] an impermissible sexualized culture."

For graduate Rogers, whose lawsuit recalls "a general culture of objectification of women," sexist abuse was part of her daily grind at RMC.

It continued in her training at CFB Borden. She says she was reluctant to report being sexually assaulted, since she and other assaulted women she knew were concerned about retaliation, not being taken seriously, being branded as troublemakers and subsequently passed over for advancement.

Having to work alongside her perpetrator, whom she also saw at mealtimes and in social settings, Rogers developed significant depression and anxiety, lost 30 pounds and feared she would be medically released if she disclosed her physical and psychological maladies.

A fellow soldier eventually convinced Rogers to report. The man who assaulted her was found guilty in a court martial but acquitted on appeal. It was the last straw for Rogers, who was released from the CAF with occupational PTSD and major depressive disorder three months before launching her lawsuit.

The legal teams for both Rogers and Peffers reveal there is significant interest in joining the lawsuits. More than 75 individuals have signed on to the Nova Scotia action alone, and there's a bump in the number every time the issue receives publicity.

Both former CAF members hope their actions will speed up the glacial pace of culture change identified by Deschamps's landmark report, which declared, "It is not enough to simply revise policies or to repeat the mantra of 'zero tolerance.' Leaders must acknowledge that sexual misconduct is a real and serious problem for the organization, one that requires their own direct and sustained attention."

Despite the potential for protracted legal proceedings, Peffers is hopeful.

"I have healed my anger toward my abusers and am motivated by justice," she says. "The military punished me with impunity to the point that I no longer felt my life was worthwhile. I want to stop that from happening to future soldiers."

She recalls her enthusiasm walking into a recruitment centre after tiring of dead-end customer service jobs. She was attracted to its walls "plastered with pictures of women doing all kinds of military things. I specifically remember a picture of a female pilot smiling at the camera with her helmet on. I thought, 'That could be me.'"

While Peffers never became that pilot, she says, "I still consider myself a soldier. Instead of serving the CAF, I now serve the many victims of the CAF."

https://nowtoronto.com/news/sex-assault-lawsuits-seek-culture-change-in-military/