The panels were one of the recommendations made by former Supreme Court of Canada justice Louise Arbour in her 2022 review into sexual misconduct in the forces.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The Canadian Armed Forces are introducing disciplinary panels comprising both civilians and military officers to weed out personnel involved in sexual misconduct, intimate-partner violence or other unacceptable behaviour.
Former Defence Minister Bill Blair confirmed to The Globe and Mail that he signed off on the new disciplinary measures just before the March 23 election call. He was dropped from cabinet after the election and replaced by David McGuinty, the former public safety minister.
The civilian-military panels were one of the recommendations made by former Supreme Court of Canada justice Louise Arbour in her 2022 Independent External Comprehensive Review into sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces.
One of her main recommendations was to strip the military of its power to investigate and prosecute sexual offences under the Criminal Code.
But she also proposed that the military high command should not have sole responsibility for deciding the fate of soldiers, sailors and air force members who engage in illegal or inappropriate conduct.
Mr. Blair said military personnel, not just victims, have long wanted “an appropriate outcome” so that serving members are drummed out of the military for unacceptable conduct.
“It’s been a sort of frustration even for some of the commanders in the local detachments or on their bases where they have made determinations that this individual should be terminated because of certain behaviour. Then that would be reviewed at headquarters and quite often it would be overturned,” he said in an interview.
He would not discuss the operational details of the panels, but a government source said the Armed Forces will set up three-person panels that include an officer, a labour lawyer and a human-resources expert.
Any recommendation for dismissal or disciplinary measures will have to be signed off on by either the head of the army, navy or air force, according to the source.
The source said Jocelyne Therrien, the external monitor of the Arbour recommendations, is to report later this month on how effective the Armed Forces have been in implementing the panels.
The Globe is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
National Defence spokesperson Kened Sadiku said the panels will begin hearing cases in the fall.
Retired general Wayne Eyre, a former chief of the defence staff, said he fully supports the civilian-military panels.
Too often, he said, commanding officers have not been able to impose tough disciplinary measures, including dismissal, because they were overruled by more senior officers.
“Generally the commanding officers asked for more action,” he said. “So if this new procedure increases the speed and the confidence of the chain of command in the decision, then it is good.”
Megan MacKenzie, a professor of international law and human security at Simon Fraser University, said the panels are an effort to stop the “nepotistic protecting of one’s colleagues.”
“It’s better than being dealt with just in-house, but we have to see how they work,” she said.
Mr. Blair said the panels are meant to deal with “a range of behaviours that need to be dealt with appropriately,” but he would not say whether the panels should deal with a case such as the one involving a violent assault by an elite soldier on his spouse.
Master Corporal Michael Spence, who served in Joint Task Force 2, pleaded guilty to assault and possession of illegal ammunition magazines. He received 36 months of probation after a plea deal that saw more serious charges of aggravated assault, choking and assault with bodily harm dropped. He was first charged in 2023.
JTF2 is a highly specialized unit of the military whose members receive lethal training in hand-to-hand combat and weapons.
The Globe has seen photos taken by military police of the victim, Brittany Makort, that showed her bruised and battered body. Her jaw had been broken and wired shut.
“He should be put forward toward this disciplinary panel. He should not be a member of the military,” Ms. Makort told The Globe when informed of the new disciplinary panels. “He broke my face and he got simply assault.”
National Defence spokesperson Andrée-Anne Poulin said MCpl. Spence remains a member of the Armed Forces but has not been “actively employed” since 2023. She suggested he may face disciplinary action but could provide no further information because of privacy laws.
Ms. Makort said she lost faith in the Armed Forces after the Crown did the plea deal with MCpl. Spence and invoked national security to prevent her from identifying her estranged partner as a JTF2 soldier.
In a move that has yet to be explained, the Justice Department – at the urging of the Armed Forces – invoked Section 38 of the Canada Evidence Act, a rarely used provision that restricts disclosure of national security matters. It is typically used in terrorism cases and to protect classified information.
Government lawyers provided an 85-page document that detailed matters Ms. Makort could not talk about in court. That document is not public, and The Globe has not viewed it.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser would not discuss why Section 38 was invoked in this case. Nor would he say whether the time has come for ministerial sign-off before Section 38 is used in domestic violence cases.
Prof. MacKenzie criticized the use of Section 38, saying the Armed Forces did a great disservice to Ms. Makort and other victims of intimate partner violence.
She noted that the special-forces community is very insular, and that it took a lot of courage for Ms. Makort to press charges against MCpl. Spence.
“To come forward and then have the government decide that national security trumps personal safety is setting a precedent that spouses of Canadian Armed Forces members are not going to be protected,” Prof. MacKenzie said.