By Scott Taylor
Last Thursday the Ottawa Citizen broke the story of a Canadian civilian worker who was sexually assaulted by an Albanian soldier on the NATO base in Latvia. What made the story exceptionally newsworthy was the fact that when the victim reported the assault, she was told by her employers that she should have realized she faced such dangers when accepting a job supporting Canada’s military mission in Latvia.
I can understand that when a soldier voluntarily enlists, they realize they are entering a contract which entails unlimited liability in that they could be killed in the line of duty. However, I cannot fathom a civilian position with the Canadian Department of National Defence that comes with the inherent risk of sexual assault.
To recap events as they unfolded, Kristen Adams was employed by the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services (CFMWS) to support Canada’s forward deployed battle group in Latvia. On December 3, 2022 she was working at the Commons canteen on Camp Adazi, which is open to all the NATO contingents stationed there. According to Adams, she greeted an Albanian soldier whom she knew and he proceeded to grab her left breast without her consent. Following this action, the Albanian reportedly commented to Adams “Oh, you are very strong.”
Shortly thereafter, Adams reported the incident to Canadian military police who promptly told her that under NATO rules, they had no jurisdiction to investigate. As a result, Latvian Military Police were brought in to examine the case.
After interviewing only Adams and the accused, on December 14th, 2022, the Latvians notified the Canadian Military Police that the investigation was ‘concluded’, without providing any further details.
While it was outside their jurisdiction, the Canadian MP’s created a “shadow file” of Adams' case which did not dispute Adams' version of the events.
“On Dec 3, 2022, the victim was working as a civilian employee when a military member from another nation touched them inappropriately and without consent” the shadow file concluded.
No charges were laid against the Albanian and on February 3, 2023, CFMWS informed Adams that her contract was being terminated two months early “In order to ensure there is no further risk to [Adams] health.”
The real kicker came three months later when Ben Ouellette, a Vice President of CFMWS wrote a letter to Adams. It read in part: “As you were made aware during pre-deployment training which occurred from 6 to 15 September 2022, there are risks involved in deploying to a theatre of operations where numerous countries work and live together and of the cultural differences that exist. In accepting to deploy, you [were] taking on a certain risk of working in this environment.”
My question for Vice President Ouellette would be, in what universe is it considered culturally acceptable to simply grab a woman’s breast?
All the soldiers at Camp Adazi are members of NATO and therefore they are considered to be the enforcers of the ‘rules based international order.’
Adams told the Ottawa Citizen that she felt her case was swept under the rug to protect the Latvia mission.
If so, it would not be the first time the Canadian military kept mum about sexual impropriety to keep the Canadian public from questioning a foreign mission.
From 2002 until 2014 approximately 40,000 Canadian soldiers were deployed to fight the war in Afghanistan. During that time many Canadian soldiers bore witness to what is known as “Bacha bazi” which literally translates to “boy play”.
This is a custom involving child sexual abuse by older men of young adolescent males or boys, called ‘dancing boys’. The practice involves sexual slavery and child prostitution.
From 1996 until 2001, Bacha bazi was banned by the Taliban under punishment of death.
However following the U.S. invasion and subsequent NATO occupation, the practice once again flourished. Many Afghan police officers and warlords allied with NATO against the Taliban were the primary perpetrators of this practice and as such many Canadian soldiers questioned their superiors as to why they were to tolerate such blatant pedophilia.
The official response was to simply note this was a ‘cultural difference’ and our troops, along with American and NATO forces were to simply turn a blind eye.
Certainly if such news had been widespread at the time, many a Canadian might have questioned just what the hell we were doing in Afghanistan.
