SEXUALIZED ENVIRONMENT WITHIN CANADIAN FORCES HOSTILE TO FEMALE AND LGBT MILITARY MEMBERS
(Photo: The Star)
In December 2014, Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps’ review team conducted confidential interviews with members from the reserve and regular military from all ranks, revealing a ‘sexualized environment’ in the Canadian Forces.
The review disclosed a variety of sexual misbehavior, including “frequent use of swear words and highly degrading expressions that reference women’s bodies, sexual jokes, innuendos, discriminatory comments with respect to the abilities of women and unwelcome sexual touching.”
Deschamps said the problem, the extent of which is far worse than the military had been willing to acknowledge up to this point, was able to be documented mainly because she is not a soldier.
The sexualized culture within the Canadian Forces is experienced by new soldiers the minute they join and it is of such a pervasive nature that they eventually become desensitized to it. This has resulted in a situation where women and LGBT members are afraid to report sexual harassment or assault for fear of not being believed by their chain of command and having to face career repercussions.
It only took six months of communication with military members and military base visits to learn the disturbing reality that many women and LGBT members in uniform confront
on a daily basis, and that is that discrimination and abuse toward these members within the armed forces is rampant.
Read more: http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/04/30/corrosive-sexualized-culture-in-canadas-military-report
