OTTAWA — Canada’s opposition leaders are calling on the Conservative government to implement all 10 recommendations of a report on sexual misconduct in the Canadian Forces.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau were responding to a CBC report that said Canada’s chief of the defence staff told the military to be prepared to ignore certain recommendations.
The CBC says that even before the report by retired justice Marie Deschamps was made public, Gen. Tom Lawson told senior officers to disregard some of her recommendations.
Deschamps recommended that an independent agency be set up outside the military chain of commend to handle sexual misconduct complaints, one of several recommendations to which the military has not agreed.
Mulcair and Trudeau say the military has an obligation to follow all the recommendations.
Lawson says the military takes the misconduct allegations seriously, noting that a response team has been established to explore how best to respond to the conclusions of the report.
“This action plan, as endorsed by our senior leadership and released publicly, clearly accepts all of the recommendations made by Madame Deschamps, either outright or in principle,” Lawson said in a statement.
“Maj.-Gen. Chris Whitecross and her team are now actively examining options for how to best achieve the intent of each of these recommendations.”