Canadian Armed Forces' "Operation Hop on Her"

Meet General Tom Lawson, formerly Canada's Chief of Defence Staff. His retirement in July had nothing to do his claim in June that sexual harassment was still an issue in the Canadian Armed Forces because men were "biologically wired in a certain way."

General Lawson was commenting on a report by former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Marie Deschamps, who had looked into a number of reports of sexual assault and harassment in the Canadian military. Her report, released on April 30th, raised warnings about a "sexualized culture" that subjected women in uniform to abuse ranging from sexual jokes and harassment to rape. She concluded that sexual misconduct was not only "endemic" in the Canadian Forces, but accepted by the military leadership.

Strong stuff, eh! To deal with the politically incorrect situation, the Canucks chose a lady, Lieutenant-General Christine Whitecross, to head a special team to, errr... well... deal with it.

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Incoming top dog General Jon Vance unveiled a hard-hitting plan to crack down on sexual misconduct in the ranks and send a tough message to those who engage in sexual harassment, assault or other inappropriate behaviour. He called it "Operation Honour".

But, Canadian boys being Canadian boys, it didn’t take long for some uniformed wags to come up with a new name for the plan. Some recruits at the Royal Military College, as well as other Canadian Forces personnel including individuals at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa, transmuted "Op Honour" to "Hop On `Er". [Geddit? If not, imagine saying "Op Honour" with a French-Canadian accent. It's a pun! See, now? Ed.]

Military officers told the Ottawa Citizen (our source for this story) that they'd heard such terminology, but couldn't say how widespread the use of the phrase has been. Canadian Forces spokesthingy Captain Jean-François Lambert said in an e-mail to the paper that the crude rephrasing of "Operation Honour" is unacceptable and not condoned. "These matters do not call for levity. This type of behaviour is one of the many reasons [Gen. Vance] has implemented Operation Honour. We expect all members [of the military] to take this issue seriously."

But how seriously does the CAF take it?  After not quite three months, Lt-Gen. Whitecross has been reassigned. The new head of the "Strategic Response Team on Sexual Misconduct" is Rear Admiral Jennifer Bennett, who took over on September 28th.

In her short time on the job, Lt-Gen. Whitecross racked up a lot of air miles, on Canuck taxpayers' dime. She visited 13 military bases and installations across the Great Not-so-white North to hear directly about sexual misconduct. [From whom did she hear? Ed.] She also travelled to the USA, whose armed forces have a stellar record on the file, as well as France, Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Asked about the rather sudden departure of Lt-Gen. Whitecross, Capt. Lambert explained that Rear Admiral Bennett, previously in charge of reserves and military cadets, will still report to Lt-Gen. Whitecross, who is now in charge of the military personnel command. And, he said, "the overall effort against sexual misconduct is led by the Chief of the Defence Staff." So that's OK then.

Capt. Lambert added that the military believes it has made significant progress dealing with sexual misconduct but "we cannot expect to change culture overnight." Which is more or less what General Lawson said. Capt. Lambert's retirement is expected to be announced shortly.

Humorous footnote: Walt cannot refrain from repeating a story about two officers in a Canadian regiment [the Forlorn Scots? Ed.] who were chatting in the mess.
Said the first one, "Did you hear about old Smythe? Got drummed out of the service."
"Why?" asked the second.
"Got caught screwing a polar bear," was the reply.
"Male or female polar bear?" was the next question.
"Male, of course!" was the response. "Nothing wrong with old Smythe!"