Canadian military refused apology to sexual assault victim over fears of bad press

Canada’s military decided not to apologize to an employee after she was sexually assaulted while working with Nato allies, over fears that any apology would be reported by an Ottawa newspaper.

For years, the country’s armed forces has publicly acknowledged a culture that bred abuse and assault, and a longstanding failure to root it out. The crisis, which prompted a shake-up at the most senior ranks, has eroded public trust in the institution and weakened morale within the military’s ranks.

Kristen Adams, who was working at a canteen for troops in Latvia, was sexually assaulted by a Nato soldier on 3 December 2022. After filing a formal complaint about the assault, she was warned by the army’s morale and welfare services that she should have better understood the risks of the job.

Adams’s contract was terminated two months early “in order to ensure there is no further risk to your health”.

Internal documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen newspaper confirmed Adams, who is a civilian, was sexually assaulted by an Albanian soldier. Although the assault took place at a Canadian-operated facility within Camp Adazi, near the city of Riga, Adams was told little could be done because under existing Nato rules, Canadian military police did not have the jurisdiction to investigate.

Months afterwards, the army’s morale and welfare services, which works to feed soldiers, told Adams it had “gone above and beyond in its efforts to support you” and that it would “no longer entertain further complaints or correspondence from you regarding this issue”.

But the Citizen’s reporting on the incident spread quickly throughout the ranks, and the army’s mishandling of the assault prompted outrage and disbelief among staff. The head of the army’s morale and welfare services, Ian Poulter, quickly apologized over its mistakes but never apologized to Adams directly for her experience.

New documents obtained by the Citizen show why: upper management in the military were worried about negative media coverage of any apology.

“Because the story was unfolding in the pages of the Ottawa Citizen, we did not want to correspond with Ms Adams in writing because we didn’t want to perpetuate that cycle,” officials at the department of national defense wrote.

In another email, the chief of staff to the country’s top solider warned Poulter in an email: “Ms Adams is likely to be coming back with more media coverage.”

Even though staff had written a formal apology for Adams, it was never sent.

“I never did get [one],” Adams told the Citizen. “That shows you they don’t think they did anything wrong in all of this. It’s disgusting.”