Unfit to Serve

Kevin and Annalise Schamuhn describe what it was like when high-ranking military officers chose to support a convicted sexual offender who had assaulted Annalise, and explain why they are speaking out now.   CBC

"Major-General Dawe [head, Canadian special forces] is an accomplished and outstanding officer, with a strong track record as a military leader. [Dawe] accepts responsibility for not taking the victims' perspective into account."

Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Lt.-Gen.Wayne Eyre 

"I believe that, through this experience, Gen.Dawe lost his moral authority to lead the special forces."

"General Dawe was in my chain of command. For him to support a violent criminal who had violated my wife, I didn't know what to do. I was shocked."

Kevin Schumuhn, retired major, Canadian Special Forces

We can confirm that the Significant Incident Report in question was not about Lt.-Cmdr.Trotter."

"Any attempt to discredit a member [of the Canadian Armed Forces] is reprehensible and lacking in both morality and professional conduct."

Department of National Defense spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier

"It's disheartening to see and to hear about."

"It's causing stress, but ultimately I have to understand what I had to endure for the benefit of my subordinates was correct."

"I have to be prepared for these things, professionally and personally."

Lt.-Cmdr. Raymond Trotter

A spokesperson for Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan says the department is looking at "additional steps ... to prevent sexual misconduct." (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

Lt.-Cmdr Trotter had testified to a Commons committee that having filed a second incident of sexual misconduct involving an unnamed senior naval officer, his complaint was set aside as irrelevant and he was berated for having reported sexual misconduct on the part of elite-level officers in the Canadian Forces. He had testified in March before a Commons defence committee of his decision to report allegations of sexual misconduct against Chief of the Defence Staff Adm.Art McDonald which led to Adm.McDonald placed under military police investigation, and having to vacate Canada's top military spot to which he had been appointed only a month before.

His predecessor as Chief of the Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance had retired. And then it was revealed that he too was under investigation for sexual misconduct. A ranking female military officer had come forward to attest to a 20-year sexual alliance with General Vance which she felt unable to resist because he was her commanding officer. She had made numerous complaints about her position to senior defence officials, none of whom supported her. And then she revealed all in an interview broadcast widely on television.

 

Canada’s former top soldier General Vance boasted that he was untouchable and that he “owned” the military police who are investigating allegations of sexual misconduct made against him, a House of Commons committee heard   Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia 

 

To questions in the House of Commons by members of the official opposition, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan both denied having had any knowledge of allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of Adm.Art McDonald, appointed to take his place as successor to General Vance, just as denied having been apprised of General Vance's sexual improprieties.. This, despite testimony to the House of Commons committee that former military ombudsman Gary Walbourne had approached the Minister of Defence with proof of General Vance's misconduct, which Mr. Sajjan refused to accept.

Since then it has been revealed that a Canadian Forces document anonymously mailed to a reporter claimed to show that Lt.-Cmdr.Trotter had been convicted of sexual assault himself in 2018. Provincial court records indicate this to be a false effort to smear the officer. The document in actual fact referred to someone else entirely. 

 

Lt.-Cmdr.Trotter

This has been followed by Defence Minister Sajjan stating his serious concerns with judgement demonstrated by a general to produce a character reference for a sex offender who had attacked a female soldier. This, from the man who knew that former Chief of the Defence Staff General Vance had been a sexual predator, and refused to take any action against him to have him removed from his post. There was a personal link of prior comradeship between Minister Sajjan and General Vance that does not exist with the current acting Chief of Defence Staff, Lt.-Gen.Wayne Eyre.

Who saw fit to praise the outstanding leadership qualities of an officer who assaulted another officer whose wife he had sexually attacked. Claiming he has full confidence in the officer, actions aside, as an outstanding leader. Retired major Kevin Schumuhn differs on that assessment, since he was the officer who had been assaulted by the man Maj.-Gen.Dawe praised. A soldier who was found guilty on six criminal counts; unlawfully entering the Schamuhns' home to sexually assault Annalise Schamuhn, a retired logistics officer on two occasions, and twice physically assaulting her husband Kevin Schamuhn.

Maj.-Gen Dawe felt the sex offender was a "good guy", deserving of a break, leading him to influence the sentence the soldier would receive. With the supportive letters from Dawe and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment, the judge in question sentenced the soldier to three years of probation, and no jail time. That same soldier was later convicted in connection with another sexual assault, unrelated to Mrs. Schamuhn's, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison.

(Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

Now, in turn, acting Chief of the Defence Staff Lt.-Gen.Eyre claims full confidence in Maj.-Gen.Dawe to continue to lead Canadian Forces personnel. This is a man who is viewed as a possible future candidate for the highest military office in Canada; Chief of the Defence Staff. This makes the third, albeit temporary, Chief of Defence Staff implicated in military issues of sexual malfeasance; though not himself personally charged with any offence, he has seen fit to support someone who has been.

Maj.-Gen. Peter Dawe, head of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, wrote a positive character reference to a judge for a soldier found guilty of sexually assaulting the wife of another member in his chain of command. He's been placed on leave. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)

 

The  issue doesn't end there, as yet another police investigation has been launched into allegations of sexual assault against Vice Adm.Hayden Edmundson. Parliamentary committees studying sexual misconduct in the Canadian Forces have heard an earful from witnesses called or willing to testify, about a military system geared to protecting its own, against charges of sexual predation while punishing or ignoring victims and those who support them.   

"The country's top soldier has placed the commander of Canada's Special Forces on leave indefinitely with pay following revelations that he wrote a letter in support of a soldier found guilty of sexual assault."    

"Amid mounting anger, Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre, acting chief of the defence staff, apologized for his handling of the situation and said Maj.-Gen. Peter Dawe will immediately turn his command over to the Special Forces unit's deputy commander and proceed on leave, according to a statement released Sunday."  

" Eyre said a 'sense of betrayal' was intensifying the suffering of many in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). 'It has become increasingly clear to me that MGen Peter Dawe's actions four years ago around sending a character reference are causing division and anger within the CAF', Eyre said. 'I apologize for increasing this pain'."

CBC Report