Military police have filed criminal charges against the former Canadian Armed Forces human resources chief despite the liberal government saying it would transfer the investigation and prosecution of sexual misconduct cases to civilian authorities.
The Canadian Forces National Investigative Service announced Tuesday that Vice Admiral Haydn Edmundson has been charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of indecent acts.
The charges come just over a month after Defense Minister Anita Anand announced that she had accepted a request from retired Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor that criminal cases related to sexual misconduct be transferred. from military to civil jurisdiction.
However, when announcing the charges by the military police, the CFNIS noted that Arbor left the door open to leave the investigations in the hands of the military police if they are nearing completion.
“In this particular case, the investigation was almost complete,” the military investigation service said in a statement, adding that the case will be handled by civilian courts and not by the military justice system.
Edmundson resigned as chief of the military personnel command in March due to a police investigation following a CBC report of an alleged sexual assault in 1991. His attorney, Brian Greenspan, denied the allegations Tuesday.
“Vice Admiral Edmundson continues to deny any suggestion of criminal misconduct and looks forward to the opportunity to restore his distinguished reputation of service to our country,” Greenspan said in a statement.
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The CBC has reported that the indictment against Edmundson was brought by a retired member of the Canadian Armed Forces. His attorney, Paul Champ, declined to comment “other than saying we will wait for justice to take its course.”
The Armed Forces have been battered for months with reports and headlines about sexual misconduct involving senior officials, which has left the armed forces reeling and their top brass in confusion.
After Edmundson resigned, he was replaced in May by Lieutenant General. Steven Whelan as the military personnel command chief, overseeing everything from recruiting and training to promotions and medical care.
# The former head of human resources of the Armed Forces accused of # Sexual Assault, indecent acts. #CAF #CDNPoli
Whelan was sidelined in October due to a military police investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct. He has also denied wrongdoing.
Canadian Press was the first to report last month that Arbor had written a letter to Anand’s predecessor, Harjit Sajjan, in October asking civil authorities to handle criminal cases related to sexual misconduct in the military.
The government chose Arbor in April to lead a year-long review of sexual misconduct in the ranks and recommend ways to address it. The move followed months of accusations against senior officials and criticism of the liberals’ handling of the issue.
In her letter to Sajjan, who is now minister of international development, Arbor said that these accusations and others “have led me to conclude that immediate corrective actions are necessary to begin to restore confidence in CAF.”
To that end, it recommended that all criminal cases of a sexual nature, including historical ones, be referred to civil authorities. That includes cases currently under investigation, unless the investigation is nearly complete.
Arbor’s recommendation only pertains to criminal cases, including sexual assaults. It does not apply to non-criminal cases, such as inappropriate relationships, which are not allowed in the military and will continue to be treated as a disciplinary matter.
He also left the door open to change the recommendation pending the results of his final report.
Shortly after the Canadian Press report, Anand took to Twitter to announce that he had accepted “in full the recommendations of Madame Arbor to move the investigation and prosecution of sexual misconduct cases to the civil system.”
Since then, officials have said that the chief police officer and the army prosecutor are in talks with their provincial and territorial counterparts to facilitate that transfer.
This Canadian Press report was first published on December 7, 2021.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com