With a Canadian Forces authorized strength of 101,000 regular and reserve personnel, and your latest email stated that during 2023-2024 there were 25 complaints about sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination, that would mean roughly 4 complaints per 1,000 members.
During the latest Statistics Canada Census (2021), the self-reported rate of sexual assault victimization of women was 50 per 1,000 and 9 per 1,000 men.
This is just an observation, not a position nor an opinion.
This is a bit more complex – the 25 mentioned in a past post are the cases that end up being investigated and prosecuted (an average made by Mme Arbour). As for the StatsCan survey, we're looking at about 7.9% of women self-declaring an assault and 2.8% for men. But here are a few caveats:
(1) we are only talking about assault here, and not any other forms of sexual violence (e.g., harassment) or gender-based discrimination and violence. If we look at the StatsCan survey, we're looking at about 19% of the Regular Force. Not all of which are actionable legally, but are administratively and disciplinarily.
(2) the authorized strength may be 101,000, but the current trained effective strength is lower (at about 80,000).
(4) there is still a lot of stigma and misunderstanding about what sexual assault constitutes, which may skew how/ if people report.
(5) the StatsCan survey did not include a significant portion of the CAF population, which should be taken into account when we look at the numbers.
I am not saying that the numbers are miles away from what we see. They might be even higher or lower than what we see. The fact is: we do not fully know. The fact is, close to 20,000 have filed a claim under the Heyder-Beattie class action lawsuit; we keep on hearing people not feeling heard or supported when they come forward...
My argument is: regardless of numbers, we should look as to how/ why sexual violence happen in the CAF, find means to prevent it as much as possible, and what can be done to better support the victims while ensuring procedural fairness for the accusers.
With a Canadian Forces authorized strength of 101,000 regular and reserve personnel, and your latest email stated that during 2023-2024 there were 25 complaints about sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination, that would mean roughly 4 complaints per 1,000 members.
During the latest Statistics Canada Census (2021), the self-reported rate of sexual assault victimization of women was 50 per 1,000 and 9 per 1,000 men.
This is just an observation, not a position nor an opinion.
This is a bit more complex – the 25 mentioned in a past post are the cases that end up being investigated and prosecuted (an average made by Mme Arbour). As for the StatsCan survey, we're looking at about 7.9% of women self-declaring an assault and 2.8% for men. But here are a few caveats:
(1) we are only talking about assault here, and not any other forms of sexual violence (e.g., harassment) or gender-based discrimination and violence. If we look at the StatsCan survey, we're looking at about 19% of the Regular Force. Not all of which are actionable legally, but are administratively and disciplinarily.
(2) the authorized strength may be 101,000, but the current trained effective strength is lower (at about 80,000).
(3) Investigating and prosecuting sexual assaults/ violence is complex and may be traumatizing for victims – so the reporting is much smaller than actual cases. There is an estimate that about 6% of assaults are being referred to the police (in the civilian world). Source: https://sexualassaultsupport.ca/statistics-sexual-violence-in-canada/#:~:text=Sexual%20assault%20had%20the%20lowest,to%20the%20attention%20of%20police.
(4) there is still a lot of stigma and misunderstanding about what sexual assault constitutes, which may skew how/ if people report.
(5) the StatsCan survey did not include a significant portion of the CAF population, which should be taken into account when we look at the numbers.
I am not saying that the numbers are miles away from what we see. They might be even higher or lower than what we see. The fact is: we do not fully know. The fact is, close to 20,000 have filed a claim under the Heyder-Beattie class action lawsuit; we keep on hearing people not feeling heard or supported when they come forward...
My argument is: regardless of numbers, we should look as to how/ why sexual violence happen in the CAF, find means to prevent it as much as possible, and what can be done to better support the victims while ensuring procedural fairness for the accusers.