Planned abandon of sexual assaults victims

October 28, 2018. In an article "Cabinet documents show transfer of sex-assault investigations to military police (in 1998)", the Globe and Mail reports that in 1998 the Cabinet was told that a public relations problem the military was then facing, in addition to its mishandling of the Somalia Scandal, that of rampant sexual assault would be quelled if Parliament transferred the investigation of these most serious crimes to the military police and their prosecution to court martials.  It is well know that at the time the military police totally lack any training, expertise, experience to be dealing with any such serious crimes. The military disciplinary tribunals (court martials) also lacked any training and experience in dealing with such serious offences.  The argument used by the military to convinced Cabinet to trust them with that important new responsibility was that it could act "more swiftly" with such matters as if speed and expediency was an antidote to the lack of experience, expertise and training. No wonder that in 2015, retired Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps, who conducted an external review of sexual misconduct within the armed forces, said the Military police lacked skills and training to deal with sexual

Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose.