Tim Dunne, a Global Military Justice Reform contributor, has written
this op-ed for
The Herald. In a nutshell, he argues -- among other things -- that it was a mistake for Canada to subject sexual assaults to prosecution in courts-martial rather than solely in the Superior Court. Excerpt:
The clock should be reset to 1998, before sexual assault was listed in section 70 of the National Defence Act as one of the offenses that could now be tried by a military tribunal.
The CVBR [Canadian Victim Bill of Rights] section 18(3) should also be repealed, so criminal offenses are no longer prosecuted before military tribunals, sparing victims the ordeal of being excluded from the act’s provisions.
This gives some urgency to the need to conduct a comprehensive and immediate modernization of the National Defence Act.
Until the NDA is reformed, the interests of victims will continue to be ignored by the military justice system, leaving the central issue unresolved.
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