A former main with the Canadian Forces Cadet group is dealing with three sexual assault costs in civilian courtroom after navy police reopened a case three years after it was shut over lack of proof, CBC News has discovered.
Kenneth Richards, 70, a former main with the Cadet Organizations Administration and Coaching Service (COATS), is dealing with three sexual assault costs filed by the Canadian Forces Nationwide Investigation Companies (CFNIS) in July 2021.
The fees stem from a criticism filed in 2017 by a subordinate. CBC News has granted anonymity to the alleged sufferer at her request and is figuring out her as “Cassandra.”
CFNIS investigators initially closed the investigation into Cassandra’s criticism towards Richards in 2018 after interviewing only one witness, based on information from the investigation reviewed by CBC News.
Cassandra stated new CFNIS investigators took one other have a look at her case in early 2021 after she reached out to them with issues concerning the end result. She stated she contacted navy police after discovering an Ontario cadet unit employed Richards, who had by then retired, as a civilian teacher.
“The system is actually stacked towards folks coming ahead,” stated Cassandra in an interview with CBC News.
Skilled requirements investigation on maintain
COATS is a part of the Canadian navy’s reserves and is concentrated on the supervision, administration and coaching of Cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers — a pair of youth improvement applications for Canadians aged 12 to 18.
Richards is at present dealing with a jury trial with the Ontario Superior Courtroom. No trial date has but been set.
David Hodson, the lawyer representing Richards, stated his shopper wouldn’t present remark.
5 navy cops concerned within the preliminary investigation of Cassandra’s criticism — together with two who are actually retired — now face an expert requirements investigation that has been paused till the conclusion of Richards’ trial, based on information reviewed by CBC News.
Cassandra filed a criticism in August with the Navy Police Complaints Fee (MPCC) over how her case was initially dealt with. The MPCC, following customary process, despatched the criticism to the navy police skilled requirements workplace, which opened the investigative file.
The MPCC will open its personal case if Cassandra is dissatisfied with the end result of the skilled requirements probe.
Cassandra’s criticism named Maj. David Hitchcock, Warrant Officer Michael Bekkers and Sgt. Matthew Hackett. The three have been members of the CFNIS unit at CFB Borden that originally investigated her criticism towards Richards.
One other allegedly flawed investigation
CBC News not too long ago revealed that Hitchcock and Bekkers have been additionally concerned within the allegedly flawed 2018 sexual assault investigation of a male personal accused of sexually assaulting a feminine personal in a brush closet at CFB Borden, positioned about 100 km north of Toronto. Hackett was peripherally concerned on this investigation, based on information beforehand obtained by CBC News.
Hitchcock, the unit’s commanding officer on the time, signed off on a cost package deal compiled by Bekkers that advisable charging the personal with sexual assault and forcible confinement. A regional navy prosecutor rejected the advice.
A June 2020 MPCC assesment stated the sexual assault investigation into the broom closet incident was “insufficient,” the cost package deal lacked a key element and the way in which navy cops performed interviews with the complainant and suspect “suggests an absence of expertise and/or coaching.”
The alleged sufferer within the case, who CBC News recognized as “Jane,” has since filed for a non-public prosecution with the Ontario Courtroom of Justice to cost Oleksii Silin, now a corporal, with aggravated sexual assault and forcible confinement. Silin denies the allegations.
A listening to scheduled for late January will decide whether or not Silin shall be formally charged.
An skilled advised CBC News that Jane’s case confirmed the navy wants to permit for a civilian evaluation of sexual misconduct instances on the request of alleged victims.
In an emailed assertion, the Canadian Forces Navy Police stated “It won’t touch upon any particular person member of the CFNIS.”
Switch of navy instances to civilian authorities
Nationwide Defence Minister Anita Anand pledged final yr to switch new navy sexual misconduct instances into the arms of civilian authorities.
Louise Arbour, a former Supreme Courtroom justice and UN Human Rights commissioner, advisable the change after she was appointed in 2021 to analyze the roots of navy sexual misconduct as scandal engulfed senior Canadian Forces management.
Arbour advised MPs final week throughout an look earlier than a Home of Commons committee that the navy was “dragging their toes” on the change.
Civilian authorities have to this point declined 40 of 97 instances despatched to them by navy police over the previous years
Widespread sexual misconduct additionally afflicts the Reserve Drive, based on findings by Morris Fish, a retired Supreme Courtroom justice whose report on the navy justice system was tabled on June 1, 2021, within the Home of Commons.
Quoting 2018 Statistics Canada information, Fish’s report stated that about 600 members of the reserves reported a sexual assault within the earlier 12 months, totaling about 1,500 incidents. Girls reported incidents at six instances the speed of males, based on the report.
Fish advisable the Canadian Forces strike a working group to find out how finest to carry reservists to excessive requirements and make them accountable for “sexual misconduct and hateful conduct.”
The Division of Nationwide Defence stated in an emailed assertion {that a} working group “has been created and conferences have occured.” The assertion stated the advice was “complicated and contemplates” adjustments to legal guidelines and laws.
The division listed the reserve suggestion amongst an inventory of these it deliberate to start implementing within the “brief time period” in a press release issued following the June 2021 tabling of Fish’s report.
Jurisdictional confusion plagued 2017 investigation
The 2017 investigation into Cassandra hit issues from the very starting, based on Cassandra’s written criticism to the MPCC.
The navy police investigators initially balked at opening the case over jurisdictional confusion — Cadets are thought-about a part of reserve pressure members and, as such, fall below navy justice jurisdiction in restricted circumstances, together with drills, coaching, when they’re in uniform or on obligation.
The investigation, led by Hackett and supervised by Bekkers, with Hitchcock because the commanding officer, interviewed only one witness and the complainant earlier than formally closing the case 13 months after it began.
In accordance with information from the investigation, Bekkers “performed an in depth evaluation” of the investigation and advised Hackett to shut the case as a result of there was “no cheap grounds to imagine a sexual assault has been dedicated.”
Hitchcock filed a memo in Might 2018 stating that the “prolonged investigation” had resulted in “inadequate grounds to put costs.”
Three years later, the CFNIS assigned new investigators to the file who reopened the case on the finish of February 2021.
This time, investigators interviewed seven witnesses and laid three sexual assault costs towards Richards in civilian courtroom. The fees stemmed from three incidents that allegedly occurred in February and April 2017.
Cassandra, who advised her story twice to navy police, is now making ready to inform it a 3rd time in courtroom.
“I requested myself the query, ‘What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?’ What I’d do is inform my story and inform the reality about what occurred to me,” she stated in an interview with CBC News.
“It takes quite a lot of energy to return so far as I’ve and it’s within the face of nice concern.”
