... Effective immediately, any Canadian Armed Forces members who have experienced sexual harassment, sexual misconduct or any other form of discrimination based on sex/gender while performing their duties have a new path to justice available to them. They can choose to bring their complaint directly to the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). The Canadian Human Rights Commission is Canada's human rights watchdog and operates independently from the Government of Canada.
With this change, a CAF member who intends to file a complaint of sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of sex will have two options for lodging a complaint: (1) they can file a complaint through the existing CAF grievance and harassment processes, or (2) they can file directly with the CHRC. Members who choose to go directly to the CHRC will no longer be required to exhaust internal grievance and harassment processes first. The implementation of these recommendations applies to both new and existing complaints.
In particular, as recommended by Madame Arbour, the Canadian Armed Forces will no longer file objections based on section 41(1)(a) of the Canadian Human Rights Act in response to member complaints of sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of sex being filed directly with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). The Canadian Armed Forces recognizes the CHRC’s decades of experience in this area and is committed to learning from the CHRC’s expertise ...
