General Files Lawsuit Claiming Dismissal from Canadian Forces was Politically Motivated

May 29, 2024 TruthUSA

In his $10 million lawsuit against the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) over now-withdrawn sexual misconduct charges, former senior officer Steven Whelan is accusing the federal government of destroying his career for political reasons.

“The military tried to fix a problem that had been identified, and they mishandled it because they thought fixing the problem was pleasing the politicians as opposed to dealing with the root issue,” Lt.-Gen. Whelan’s lawyer Phillip Millar told The Epoch Times.

The case of Lt.-Gen. Whelan is one of two lawsuits where members accused the government of pressuring the CAF to prosecute them for acts they were ultimately found not guilty of. These cases relate to a 2021 sexual misconduct crisis within the forces, which led to over a dozen high-ranking CAF members resigning or being pushed out while a cultural reckoning took place within the force.

The second lawsuit is that of Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, who was charged with sexual assault in 2021 over an alleged incident in 1988. He was acquitted in 2022, with the CAF clearing him of misconduct the next month.

Retired Lt.-Gen. Michel Maisonneuve, a 35-year CAF veteran, told The Epoch Times that the CAF does not have an adequate process for handling the situation when charges are dropped or the members are found not guilty.

“There’s no process whereby you say, ‘OK, if you’re not guilty, you’re going to go back and be reinstated. Basically, your life and your career are ruined,” he said.

2021 Sexual Misconduct Crisis

In 2021, the CAF was rocked by a series of sexual misconduct allegations that came under military police investigation. It led to some members being criminally charged and others being terminated.

Over the course of eight months in 2021, 13 military officers were suspended, investigated, or forced to retire due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Some of the figures who faced allegations included former chief of the defence staff and retired general Jonathan Vance as well as his successor, now-retired Admiral Art McDonald, who was later replaced by current chief Gen. Wayne Eyre in February 2021.

Others included now-retired Lt.-Gen. Christopher Coates, who had served as Canada’s former top commander of NORAD, and Maj.-Gen. Peter Dawe, a former commander of the Canadian Special Operations Command.

Lawsuits Against CAF

After an investigation was launched into a sexual assault allegation involving Maj. …

“The burden of proof remains on the accuser and the presumption of innocence remains with the accused. So those are two principles that I think, in certain ways, have been violated at times,” he said.

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