Two senior female officers quitting the navy over military’s handling of sexual misconduct case
Warning: this story consists of graphic sexual language that will offend some readers.
Two senior feminine officers say they’re leaving the navy as a result of the commander of Canada’s Atlantic fleet refused to carry three key subordinates to account for mismanaging and making an attempt to cowl up a sexual misconduct case, CBC Information has discovered.
Lt.-Cmdr. Nicole Dugas mentioned she’s ending her 12-year navy profession after shedding all belief in Rear-Admiral Brian Santarpia and the complete establishment.
“It will have been simpler to easily proceed to endure the sexual misconduct and the sexual harassment somewhat than to report and and undergo that,” mentioned Dugas. “Should you’re not holding folks accountable from that high stage, nothing is ever going to alter.
Lt.-Cmdr. Jennifer McGean, who supported Dugas and her chain of command through the case, mentioned she’s additionally leaving the navy as a result of she will now not tolerate how the navy handles accusations of sexual misconduct.
“I am unable to as a senior officer proceed spouting what I do know is lies — that it is secure to report, that you’re going to get help and you will be protected,” mentioned McGean, who has served greater than 30 years.
Dugas claims her boss, Cmdr. Ian Bye, sexually harassed her and abused his place of energy as a senior officer in control of base administration. He was charged with making a sexual remark within the mess on Oct. 22, 2020, given a written warning and fined $1,500.
The navy launched Bye in July 2021 as “unsuitable for additional service” following an administrative assessment, in line with a letter despatched to Dugas. However three different senior, male officers concerned within the dealing with of Dugas’ misconduct case weren’t held accountable, Dugas and McGean declare.
‘I do not suppose it is truthful to carry them to account’
Dugas, an govt officer, mentioned she felt strain from a officer superior in rank to not report the alleged sexual harassment and shared a partial recording of that dialog with Santarpia.
Regardless of that proof, Santarpia sided along with his male senior officers at CFB RisePEI.
“I do not suppose it is truthful to carry them to account …” Santarpia informed Dugas in September 2021, in line with a recording of their name Dugas shared with CBC Information. “I actually do not consider there was malicious intent in any means … I feel it is essential we steadiness the intent in opposition to the influence.”
Santarpia declined CBC’s request for an interview. In a written assertion, he mentioned an administrative investigation he ordered into his male senior officers’ actions, and the choices wherein he was concerned, “revealed correct procedures had been adopted, nevertheless, the complete chain of command might have offered more practical help to the individuals concerned.”
“… regardless of the efforts that had been made to supply her with help, we failed to fulfill her wants,” Santarpia wrote.
WATCH: Dugas says she regrets ever reporting her sexual harassment claims
Lt-Cmdr. Nicole Dugas says she regrets reporting her sexual misconduct declare to the navy. 0:57
CBC Information has been monitoring the case carefully for a 12 months and has obtained a collection of paperwork, emails and audio recordings associated to it.
Dugas claims that Bye was continuously seen consuming at lunch on the mess within the early fall of 2020 when he was president of the mess, which gave him entry to a bar tab paid for by the membership. CBC Information has obtained month-to-month mess information that present there was overspending on that account between September and October of 2020.
Dugas alleged that Bye made a remark with sexual overtones in late September 2020 in non-public — that she’d be shocked to be taught what actions he’d settle for in return for a greater efficiency assessment — and that within the following month he talked a couple of suite he had on the bottom that he known as his “intercourse room.”
In a press release issued to CBC Information, Bye acknowledged making one “inappropriate” remark within the mess however insisted that the opposite allegations in opposition to him are “both misconstrued, taken out of context, or false.” He additionally mentioned his use of his bar tab on the mess was “in accordance with the procedures and precedent in impact on the time.”
CBC Information spoke to 4 different Canadian Armed Forces members, together with McGean, who mentioned Dugas informed them concerning the alleged sexual harassment on the time. McGean mentioned it obtained to the purpose the place Dugas was locking herself in her workplace after Bye returned from the mess as a result of she felt unsafe at work.
Dugas claims Commander J.J. Doyle and Commander Patrick Perks — senior officers who weren’t in Dugas’ chain of command on the time — drank with Bye on the mess and witnessed him making inappropriate sexual feedback in entrance of her, which included speaking about his “intercourse room” and welcoming her to his place on the weekend.
Doyle informed CBC Information over the cellphone that Dugas’ claims are false and an investigation of them “got here again unfounded.”
‘Let me take care of it’, commander says on recording
Dugas claims that on two events after an inappropriate remark from Bye, Perks joked that she had requested for it as a result of she selected to be transferred to that unit.
Dugas mentioned that in a cellphone dialog on Oct. 27, 2020, Doyle requested repeatedly if he might communicate to Bye privately to offer him an opportunity to alter his behaviour.
CBC Information was given a roughly 12-minute audio recording of a part of Doyle’s name with Dugas, who mentioned she began recording about 10 minutes into the dialog.
“I feel we give it an opportunity and provides it a month,” Doyle is heard saying on the recording of the decision with Dugas. “He goes away and f—ing thinks about it … Possibly he simply thinks he is aware of you higher than he does.”
Dugas then tells Doyle she’s experiencing a variety of nervousness at work and asks him why she has to guard Bye. In response, Doyle says he is merely explaining her choices.
“I am saying I am keen to go and f—ing verbally beat him up about it to get him again in f—ing line so he perceive the severity and the way severe that is…” says Doyle on the recording.
“Let me take care of it. Then if you happen to suppose that it is not solved, then you definately go carry it up by way of your chain [of command] … You are good with that plan? That I will go speak to him, he will go away, however factor higher change … It is time to f—ing smarten up.”
Dugas breaks down crying on the decision and ultimately says she has to go.
“I 100 per cent consider the intent of the decision was to persuade me to not report the incidents that I had endured,” Dugas informed CBC Information.
Base commander testified he had no issues
Perks declined CBC’s request for an interview. In a press release, Perks mentioned he reported the allegations to the chain of command “as quickly as I turned conscious of them” and later testified in opposition to Bye throughout a abstract trial in April of 2021. Dugas mentioned Perks witnessed a number of inappropriate feedback all through the month and failed in his obligation to report till he discovered she was going to report it.
The Canadian Forces Nationwide Investigative Service (CFNIS) investigated and laid one cost for “conduct to the unfairness of fine order and self-discipline” in opposition to Bye associated to at least one inappropriate sexualized remark that witnesses apart from Doyle and Perks heard.
Dugas mentioned she was devastated that the navy failed to inform her about Bye’s abstract trial and didn’t publish a discover of the continuing, as is customary.
The bottom commander, Capt. (navy) Sean Williams, testified underneath oath through the April 2021 trial that Bye was a superb officer total and he had no issues. As base commander, Williams oversaw what went on within the mess. At the moment, Bye had already been faraway from his function on the mess over claims of mismanagement of his privilege, in line with an inner electronic mail.
Bye apologized for making what he described as “silly, juvenile joke.”
The presiding officer at Bye’s abstract trial, Commodore Richard Feltham, commander of the Canadian Fleet Atlantic on the time, mentioned Bye’s “try at humour was degrading” and there was “no means you might not have recognized this was not OK.”
Santarpia later informed Dugas on a name that the preliminary outcomes of a separate investigation into Bye’s consuming “would not shock” her as a result of it “strains up” what what she reported, in line with a recording of that decision that Dugas shared with CBC Information.
In November of 2020, Williams gave Dugas a brand new boss — Doyle.
That meant the senior chief Dugas accused of placing inappropriate strain on her to not report her case was out of the blue her rapid supervisor and writing her efficiency evaluations.
Dugas filed one other criticism with the navy, alleging that her case had been mishandled. That led Santarpia to order a separate investigation into the actions the chain of command took after she reported. Dugas mentioned she needed to report her experiences with Bye yet again, which she described as “retraumatizing.”
McGean known as Santarpia’s investigation “a farce and an entire battle of curiosity as a result of he was investigating choices that he made, or was partly making these choices.”
Santarpia admits the case wasn’t dealt with ‘completely’
On Sept. 10, 2021, Santarpia known as McGean and Dugas to allow them to know the outcomes of his investigation. Dugas shared with CBC Information an audio recording of that roughly 30-minute name, throughout which Santarpia apologized for not supporting Dugas the way in which “we needed to.”
Santarpia mentioned his subordinates would obtain coaching somewhat than punishment. He mentioned they “tried to make gentle of the state of affairs” and created a “communication challenge” as a result of they had been “nervous” about being truthful to everybody concerned.
“That is actually what the coaching is about,” mentioned Santarpia. “I feel it is a human problem that individuals aren’t essentially outfitted to do by nature.”
McGean pushed again with extra examples of issues — together with the truth that Bye continued working in one other unit throughout his investigation, regardless of her repeatedly telling Williams that there was a recognized sexual assault complainant in that workplace.
“That is on me,” says Santarpia on the decision. “…I don’t suppose we ever thought Bye introduced a threat of rape.”
WATCH: McGean says she would not consider the navy is able to altering its tradition
Lt-Cmdr. Jennifer McGean says she would not consider the navy is able to altering its tradition to reply higher to sexual misconduct claims. 0:50
McGean known as that remark the ultimate “sucker punch” that made her finish her profession.
“The usual we’re now dwelling as much as is that every little thing up till rape is OK?,” mentioned McGean.
In a press release to CBC Information, Santarpia apologized for that remark and mentioned the navy makes a cautious evaluation to find out if a navy member is vulnerable to additional inappropriate behaviour.
“I sincerely remorse and apologize for the insensitive method wherein I conveyed that info to LCdr McGean,” mentioned Santarpia.
Santarpia mentioned that, in response to the case, the navy introduced in “professionals and volunteers with lived expertise to coach the members of our group at varied ranges.” He mentioned an assistant deputy minister within the Division of Nationwide Defence is investigating Dugas’ case.
Williams mentioned he couldn’t present a remark to CBC Information attributable to that ongoing investigation.
