Tearing itself apart

Vincent J. Curtis

15 Apr 22

The Canadian Armed Forces is slowly tearing itself apart. It’s overreacting - overreacting - to allegations of sexual misconduct.  Overreaction doesn’t help the average female member.  Like it or not, the ordinary female member, by this overreaction, is falling under suspicion.  ‘Is this one going to be a career suicide-bomber, destroying her own career for the sake of destroying mine?’  The prudent superior is going to make sure he doesn’t have females close to him.  He’s not going to mentor a female.  It’s dangerous to socialize with females when rules keep changing.  The cost of being wrong is too high..  Since females only comprise about sixteen percent of the CAF, they lack the numbers to be self-supporting.

This is what I mean:

In March, 2022. Provost Marshal BGen Simon Trudeau appointed CWO Jonathan Lacoste Group Chief Warrant Officer of the CF MP Gp.  Lacoste was recently awarded the Sacrifice Medal, he’s got an MMM, a CD with bar, the Afghan Star, and jump wings.  Five days later, Trudeau rescinded the appointment.  Why?

According the CBC News report, then-MWO Lacoste at a 2017 Christmas party held off-base “became visibly drunk and made sexual comments to those around him.”  At his court-martial sentencing in 2019, the judge called Lacoste’s remarks ‘sexualized’ and his comments about the assumed sexual activity and sexual orientation ‘repugnant,’ according the CBC translation from the French.

In the statement of facts, CBC reported “Lacoste agreed that he commented on a junior female sergeant who was wearing a low-cut dress…. Lacoste told a colleague: ‘Look at her with her tits coming out. We know her boyfriend is in Afghanistan. She just wants to get screwed,’ or other remarks to that effect.  Lacoste also made a vulgar comment about the perceived sexual orientation of a woman who was of a higher rank.”

“Later, he was in a car with a female friend and told her….not to be a ‘sainte nitouche,’ a slang term that roughly translates into a prude who is a tease.  The decision also stated he made unkind comments about her husband, who did not attend the event.”

“In a plea deal, Lacoste was convicted of drunkenness and fined $2,800, an offence and sentence that would not show on his criminal record or prevent promotions.” 

Trudeau explained that problems with the vetting process failed to bring to light Lacoste’s “sexualized” and “repugnant” remarks.  Yet within days of Lacoste’s appointment the media got hold of internal CAF documents the Provost Marshal wasn’t aware of.  Somebody with deep insider knowledge leaked protected documents.

Lacoste’s in vino veritas moment doesn’t appear to technically violate the DAOD on Sexual Misconduct.  No matter, people he trusted turned on him, including his “friend”, and Lacoste paid a price – twice, once after rehabilitation.  Trudeau may have ignored the old conviction, but the leaked details made the politics dangerous and he reacted predictably.

Mutiny on the Bounty: Also in March, LCdr Nicole Dugas and LCdr Jennifer McGean jointly announced to CBC News that they were quitting the RCN over “the way the CAF handles sexual misconduct.”  The story is that Cdr Ian Bye allegedly sexually harassed Dugas.  Bye was charged and convicted of making a sexual comment in the mess, was given a written warning, fined $1500, and administratively released under 5F in July 2021, according to the CBC News report.

Not good enough for the ladies.  They wanted the scalps of three other superior officers who had discouraged Dugas from pressing charges.  RAdm Brian Santarpia wouldn’t agree, and so they quit “having lost trust” in Santarpia and the “entire institution.”  Apparently, Dugas recorded conversations she had with the superiors, and with Santarpia.

Dugas didn’t get what she wanted, and so she publicly detonated her career in the hopes of harming RAdm Santarpia.  McGean self-detonation was apparently coordinately, in public sympathy with Dugas.

Nobody’s clean here.  But all this dirty laundry is being aired in the media because somebody leaked in the hopes of sparking another overreaction.

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