The Department of Defense (DND) recognizes that men who report abuse do not always feel “safe, secure, and supported,” and has taken steps to improve training for personnel at the military’s Sexual Misconduct Support Center. He said he was taking lessons.
The federal government issued notice in late December that it would enter into an exclusive contract with an Ottawa-based company to provide workforce training at the Sexual Misconduct Support Resource Center (SMSRC).
A notice posted online on Dec. 20, 2023, states that the center “is committed to providing training on how to best support men affected by sexual misconduct, especially men who have experienced sexual trauma.” “It is compulsory.”
“SMSRC serves a large clientele of men and requires specialized training in this area from subject matter experts.”
As the number of reports of male victims in the Canadian Armed Forces continues to rise, there are calls for external support, particularly counselors and peer support facilitators.
In 2022-2023, the most recent official reporting period, men accounted for nearly half of new case files opened for allegations of sexual misconduct within the military.
According to DND, 1,431 new case files were opened over a 12-month period during that reporting period. Of those, “645 identified as female and 528 identified as male.The remainder either identified themselves as gender diverse or their gender remained unknown. ”
The ministry told CBC News that in previous years, men accounted for only about a third of newly reported cases.
While the center’s programs and services are meant to be inclusive and open to everyone, regardless of gender, officials acknowledge there are shortcomings.
The proportion of service members who report being sexually assaulted by another service member more than doubled between 2018 and 2022, according to a new report from Statistics Canada. Lieutenant-General Jenny Carignan, Director of Professional Conduct and Culture for the Canadian Forces, discusses concerns about power and politics.
“It is paramount that people feel safe, secure and supported. Unfortunately, many who identify as men have historically faced prejudice in both the straight and LGBTQ2S+ communities. For people, that is not necessarily the case,” DND said. Media statement.
“SMSRC understands that anyone can be affected by sexual misconduct and has designed all of our programs with this in mind.”
The department said it does not currently offer services specifically for men.
The only company with a source contract is Men and Healing, an Ottawa-based psychotherapy company. The call had no dollar amount attached and was intended to give other interested companies a chance to prove they could do the job.
The proportion of men reporting sexual assault soars
Charlotte Duval-L’Antoine, a fellow at the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, said it was important that the DND acknowledged that male victims of sexual misconduct are underserved.
Statistics Canada reported last month that the proportion of men in the military who report having been sexually assaulted will be 2.5 times higher in 2022 than in 2018.
“We know that men tend to underreport sexual assault,” Duval-L’Antoine said. She called for further research to determine whether the reported increase was due to increased awareness of sexual misconduct or a spike in actual assaults.
She said it’s not surprising that men in the military who report sexual misconduct generally don’t feel safe or supported.
“If you look at a masculine culture like the Canadian Armed Forces, you see that sexual assault against men is common. [are] “It’s not very acceptable, especially when the perpetrator is a woman,” she said.
“It’s not at all surprising to see situations like this where men are not understood, not listened to, or even completely ignored.”
While there is no doubt that women are more likely to face sexual misconduct in the military, Duval-L’Antoine said, unconscious bias – the assumption that men are abusers and women are exclusively victims – is recognized. He said that it is starting to happen.
He noted that more than 40% of the whistleblowers in a recent class action lawsuit against the federal government over sexual misconduct in the military were men.
“We…have just woken up to this problem,” Duval-L’Antoine said.
SMSRC does not have a specific program for men, but it funds 32 projects in the community nonprofit sector across the country, DND said.
The ministry said, “Although most funded projects serve people who identify as men, some projects have unique projects for people who identify as women.” There is,” he said.
