Women in Canadian military report widespread sexual assault

OTTAWA — More than a quarter of women in the Canadian military have been sexually assaulted during their careers, according to a survey by the government's statistical agency.

The survey, conducted by Statistics Canada and released on Monday, was commissioned by the armed forces and followed a scathing 2015 report that found that the culture of the military was "hostile to women and L.G.T.B.Q. members and conducive to more serious incidents" involving sexual harassment and assault.

But only 23 percent of those who said they had been assaulted reported what happened, most often "to their military supervisor," according to Statistics Canada. Just 7 percent filed reports with the military police or the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service.

"The fact that some won't report or haven't reported or are concerned that their report won't be taken seriously is a huge concern for me," Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of the defense staff, told a news conference on Monday. "There will not be negative consequences. The negative consequences will be for all those who are perpetrators, not those who report."

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The survey puts hard numbers to the findings of the 2015 report by Marie Deschamps, a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Since the release of that report, Vance has introduced several measures to eliminate inappropriate sexual activity and, separately, to increase the number of women in the military.

In addition to finding a high rate of sexual assault, the survey also found that members of the military were almost twice as likely as the general population to have been victims of sexual assaults within the past year. The survey of about 43,000 active members of the military showed that 960 members, or 1.7 percent, had been victims of an assault during that period. The rate for the Canadian working population is 0.9 percent.

In the House of Commons, Harjit Sajjan, Canada's defense minister and a former military officer, called the rate of sexual assaults "completely unacceptable."

He added, "We need to do better, and we will do better."

The armed forces will use the survey as a benchmark to judge the success of Vance's initiatives.

Like the military, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is also facing a scandal over inappropriate sexual activity within its ranks. Last month, Commissioner Bob Paulson, the head of the Mounties, made an emotional apology to hundreds of women who were bullied, sexually harassed or discriminated against while working as officers or employees of the force. It also settled two class action lawsuits and will pay about 100 million Canadian dollars, or $74 million, in settlements.

For the military survey, Statistics Canada defined sexual assault as being forced into unwanted sexual activity either physically or through threats, unwanted sexual touching and being drugged, intoxicated or otherwise manipulated into sex acts.

Unwanted touching was the most common form reported by the survey respondents.

Nearly half of women who were assaulted, 49 percent, said that a supervisor or someone of a higher rank had been responsible.

In addition to sexual assaults, the military appears to be facing a major challenge in simply changing its tone as a workplace. The survey reported that 79 percent of respondents witnessed or experienced "inappropriate sexualized behavior" over the past year.

Lewd jokes were their most common form, but 39 percent of respondents said that they heard sexual comments and 34 percent heard inappropriate discussions about the sex lives of others.

Last year, Vance's predecessor, Gen. Tom Lawson, came under fire after he said in a television interview before his retirement that "it's because we're biologically wired in a certain way, and there will be those who believe it is a reasonable thing to press themselves and their desires on others. It's not the way it should be." He later apologized.