Members of the Central Band of the Canadian Armed Forces take part in a ceremony at the National War Memorial on Remembrance Day in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada November 11, 2023. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Sexual assaults in the Canadian military rose significantly in 2022 compared to 2018, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday in the latest indication sex crimes are a fast-growing problem.
In 2022, around 1,960 members of the military, or 3.5% of the total, reported they had been sexually assaulted by other people in the armed forces. This compares to 1.6% in 2018.
Women made almost 75% of the complaints. The military has been under pressure for years over allegations of sexual misconduct by senior officers.
The Statscan report was based on a survey of armed forces members. Around 64% victims of sexual assault did not report the incident they experienced to anyone in authority, mainly because they did not feel as though it would make a difference.
"These results are deplorable ... the continued prevalence of sexual misconduct in our workplace is incredibly disappointing," General Wayne Eyre, chief of the defense staff, said in a statement. "It is abundantly clear that we have a lot of difficult work ahead."
Last year an official probe recommended that sex crimes in the military be investigated externally by civilian authorities given what it called the unsatisfactory handling of offences by military courts over the preceding 20 years.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by David Gregorio)
