Former top military commander pleads guilty to obstruction of justice charge

Canada’s former high navy commander has pleaded responsible to a single cost of obstruction of justice within the highest profile case within the disaster of sexual misconduct that has shaken the Defence Division to its foundations.

Jonathan Vance was charged by navy police final summer time in relation to an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Vance appeared just about in an Ottawa court docket the place he entered the responsible plea on Wednesday morning.

The choose accepted a joint request from each the Crown and defence and sentenced him to a conditional discharge, plus 12 months of probation.

His lawyer, Rodney Sellar, learn plenty of letters of assist into the court docket report. Vance, upon sentencing, selected to not tackle the court docket.

The Canadian Forces Nationwide Investigation Service (CFNIS) laid the one cost towards Vance however didn’t present particulars. 

The CFNIS stated solely that the cost pertains to occasions that occurred after the navy police started investigating Vance over an allegation of misconduct on Feb. 4, 2021.

Provincial court docket paperwork allege that Vance “willfully” tried to impede justice by repeatedly contacting Maj. Kellie Brennan and trying to influence her to make false statements to investigators.

Brennan, a employees officer at military headquarters, informed World Information final winter that she and the previous chief of the defence employees had an on-again, off-again intimate relationship. She subsequently testified earlier than a parliamentary committee and claimed Vance had fathered two of her eight kids.

On the outset of the controversy, talking to World Information, he denied any wrongdoing.