{"id":242057,"date":"2020-11-03T00:13:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/sajjan-grilled-over-delay-in-protecting-victims-rights-in-military-law.html"},"modified":"2020-11-03T00:13:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:13:59","slug":"sajjan-grilled-over-delay-in-protecting-victims-rights-in-military-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/sajjan-grilled-over-delay-in-protecting-victims-rights-in-military-law.html","title":{"rendered":"Sajjan grilled over delay in protecting victims’ rights in military law"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The federal government is determined to\u00a0consult with victims of misconduct before fully\u00a0enshrining victims’ rights in Canadian military law, Defence Minister\u00a0Harjit\u00a0Sajjan\u00a0told a House of Commons committee today.<\/p>\n

It’s been over a year since Parliament passed legislation to insert a victims’ bill of rights into the separate\u00a0but distinct justice system of the Armed Forces, but it has yet to come into force because new regulations\u00a0have not yet\u00a0been drafted.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

“I wish these regulations could be done almost immediately, but we also committed to consulting with the victims so that the regulations are done appropriately,” Sajjan said during a virtual appearance before the Commons justice committee. “This is something we committed to and we need to make sure that we do it well.”<\/p>\n

In a media statement, the defence department’s legal branch said today\u00a0that it has conducted a series of consultations with various\u00a0organizations, including the military’s\u00a0Sexual Misconduct Response Center (SMRC), its\u00a0External Advisory Council \u2014\u00a0“[of]\u00a0which the founder of the [victim’s rights] group It’s Just 700 is a member” \u2014\u00a0the\u00a0Department of Justice’s policy centre and\u00a0the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime.<\/p>\n

The statement acknowledges that individual victims have not yet been asked for input but plans are being made for an\u00a0online survey.<\/p>\n

Marie-Claude Gagnon is the head of It’s Just 700,\u00a0which represents survivors of sexual misconduct in the Canadian military. She\u00a0said her two-year term on the external advisory council expired in March and, to her knowledge, no one has been appointed to replace her or speak for victims.\u00a0She also said she was not aware of any planned consultations with victims,\u00a0online or otherwise.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
Marie-Claude Gagnon, founder of the support group “It’s Just 700” for survivors of military sexual assault. (Pierre-Paul Couture CBC News )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

“If there had been a sense of emergency to enshrine rights to victims, it could have been written by now\u00a0and it could have been done with proper consultation with military victims,” said Marie-Claude Gagnon\u00a0of It’s Just 700, the group that\u00a0spearheaded a\u00a0class action lawsuit against the federal government in response to\u00a0decades of sexual violence and harassment in the ranks.<\/p>\n

“Looking at how the Declaration of Victim’s Rights in the National Defence Act was drafted, without any consultation with military victims, we know that delays do not necessarily equate to better and proper consultation with military victims.”<\/p>\n

That declaration was drafted without input from those who had suffered injury and injustice in military service.\u00a0Gagnon said victims were promised a voice in the drafting of regulations as Bill C-77 \u2014 the legislation containing the promise of victims’\u00a0rights \u2014 passed the Senate.<\/p>\n

More than a year afterward, Gagnon said victims are frustrated.<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand how the Canadian military judicial process has been able to go on for so long, unchecked,” she said Monday.<\/p>\n

A victims’ bill of rights\u00a0that spells out (among other things)\u00a0the need for the justice system to consult with those affected by crime\u00a0has been a fixture in civilian courts for years. Its absence in military law has been the subject of debate for just as long.<\/p>\n

The former Conservative government tried and failed to correct the oversight, but the legislation did not pass before the 2015 election.<\/p>\n

New Democrat defence critic Randall Garrison told the committee the Liberal government has no excuses left and that regulations and consultations should be complete by now.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan on victims’ rights<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan answers NDP Defence Critic Randall Garrison’s question about the implementation of regulations on victims rights in the military justice system. 1:34<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

“Can you tell us when those regulations will be done? And ‘soon’ is not a good enough answer. We’ve been waiting a year for those regulations. So what’s the holdup?” Garrison asked.<\/p>\n

Sajjan\u00a0said he was unable to offer a timeline.<\/p>\n

“We are working, I can assure you, as quickly as possible,” the minister said, noting that he had spoken to the military’s judge advocate general “many times” about the issue.<\/p>\n

“The regulations have to be written in a way that has impact. That impact can only happen if we continually consult with the victims themselves so we can get this right.”<\/p>\n

At least one military legal expert has said the will of Parliament is being flouted by the defence department through\u00a0its inability to put a law in place that has been passed\u00a0already.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Article source: https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/sajjan-victims-rights-military-law-1.5786796?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal government is determined to\u00a0consult with victims of misconduct before fully\u00a0enshrining victims’ rights in Canadian military law, Defence Minister\u00a0Harjit\u00a0Sajjan\u00a0told a House of Commons committee today. It’s been over a year since Parliament passed legislation to insert a victims’ bill of rights into the separate\u00a0but distinct justice system of the Armed Forces, but it has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-242057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}