Sexual Assault & Sexual Misconduct in the CF

[McG]

Just how many sexual offence investigations do the MPs get a year?

There is probably a statistically predictable value corresponding to size of the base and whether or not the PMQs are policed by the municipality or by MPs (which is not standardized across all bases), but I have no idea what that value nor reality might be.

 

[QV]

Just how many sexual offence investigations do the MPs get a year?

They were few to my recollection, but that was before the recent sexual misconduct definitions.

 

[Haggis]

They were few to my recollection, but that was before the recent sexual misconduct definitions.

There's a difference between sexual misconduct, as defined by the DAOD, and sexual assault, as defined by the Crim Code. Nobody is going to jail for an off-colour joke, even if it could cost you a promotion or your career.

 

[Booter]

It’s again worth noting sexual assault has an abysmal conviction rate and victims will find the off base response just as underwhelming.

40 percent of the cases go from police to crown, about 60 percent of that 40 percent go to court and then just under half result in a conviction of any sort.

So of a hundred cases- 12 will get a conviction of any sort.

At least in the new system they can’t blame the MPs but they really aren’t the issue when you look at numbers like that

 

[lenaitch]

She complains to civilian police and they decline to investigate.

Decline to investigate or not finding a prima facie criminal offence? Declining to investigate would be unusual and in most provinces the victim would have recourse to complain to a civilian oversight authority.

Typically, police would not keep a victim's or suspect's employer in the loop one way or the other, but seeing as the alleged offence took place on the employer's property, I can see the foundation for a formal agreement between the involved levels of government or agencies. In terms of sharing or turning over investigative files, turning it over to someone in the CoC might be problematic from a privacy point of view (I say this not knowing all the ins and outs of the various privacy laws). If I was an MP and wanted a civilian police file for investigative purposes, I would be inclined to cover all my bases by getting judicial authorization via a warrant/production order.

 

[QV]

There's a difference between sexual misconduct, as defined by the DAOD, and sexual assault, as defined by the Crim Code. Nobody is going to jail for an off-colour joke, even if it could cost you a promotion or your career.

No shit.

 

[lenaitch]

I believe Cold Lakes PILT saga and court decisions are available and continuing. They are the most recent and largest I am aware of. Theirs is ongoing and endorsed by the federation of municipalities. They are my closest example I have some working knowledge on.

The property valuations are argued to be too low- and the supporting arguments are the access and drain to services funded by the municipality, traditionally policing isn’t a service used by the base- it will be included once this starts. Even by a small margin- the argument will be that it is one more thing and the outdated PILT amounts are wrong- hence the disputes.

In Ontario, if it were to involve a municipal police service, it or, more accurately, its police services board, would be free to try and negotiate some sort of cost recovery mechanism with DND if they felt it was an onerous drain on its taxpayers. If it involves a municipality policed under an OPP contract, push come to shove I can see the province declaring that said costs are not part of the contract costing formula and fall under the 'provincial responsibility' component. I think it would have to be a big 'push'. The province used to cover the policing costs for provincial correctional facilities but no longer does and the town near where we used to live is rightly pissed.

The OPP has a 'Pen Squad' in Kingston for the federal institutions in the area which includes, to the best of my recollection, a member of Kingston PS and a couple of members of CSC. It used to have a couple of RCMP members but as far as I know no longer does. It's been a long time since I had anything to do with them but have no recollection that the province received any federal funding other than the cost of the federal employees involved.

Other than - maybe - a bit of rush of historic cases during transition, I honestly don't see a huge impact on any one police service/detachment. In Ontario, there are specific training requirements under the Act for any members conducting a SA investigation (and others).