Canada's top general latest victim of "Me Too"

Meet General Jonathan Holbert Vance, CMM, MSC, CD, recently --very recently -- retired from the Canadian Army. General Vance served as the chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces from 2015 to 2021. 

As reported here -- see "Canadian Armed Forces' 'Operation Hop on Her'", WWW 26/10/15 --  Jonboy was also the driving force behind Operation Honour, the military's PR campaign to quash sexual misconduct in the Canadian Forces, or at least stop people from talking about it. 

But (as Walt reported) Canadian boys will be Canadian boys [except of course for those who haven't had the op yet. Ed.] 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! Ed.] 

Now that General Vance has stepped down from his lofty position, some junior officers are suggesting that his alleged [We media professionals always say that. Ed.] behaviour undercut that initiative.

They say now that concerns about Jonboy's alleged relationships with female subordinates [Female! Nothing wrong with Jonboy. Ed.] were talked about among military leaders and in the defence community over the past several years, but no action was taken because "no official complaints were ever filed." 

(That's the same excuse used by former Governor General Julie Payette, even though it was disclosed earlier this week that indeed a complaint had been lodged even while the investigation into her unregal behaviour was under way.)

Yesterday, the Canadian Forces announced it will investigate allegations about the former chief of the defence staff. National Defence spokesthingy Dan "the Man" Le Bouthillier said the investigation will be independent but added that the "specifics around any investigation have yet to be determined." In other words (translated from government-speak), they're going to investigate something, but they don't know what.

The investigation follows a report by Canada's Global News that General Vance allegedly had an ongoing relationship with a woman he significantly outranked. [Not a non-com, shurely! Ed.] Global also reported the general is alleged to have made a sexual suggestion [not to be confused with a suggestion related to sex and travel? Ed.] to a second, much younger soldier in 2012, before he was appointed chief of the defence staff. So presumably that doesn't count.

But wait, as Vince Offer (the SlapChop guy) used to say; there's more! "Sources" say concerns about allegations of General Vance's alleged behaviour were acknowledged among senior staff and their wives when the general was named as chief of the defence staff in 2015 by then Prime Minister Steve Harpoon. 

Other generals were also aware of allegations and some National Defence headquarters staff discussed the situation among themselves but without formal complaints from the women they did nothing. Although the relationships may have been consensual, sources say there were concerns about the alleged "power-imbalance" of having a senior officer allegedly in a relationship with a woman in lower-ranked positions.

That's enough alleged allegations for today. We're certain General Vance is an officer and a gentleman. Or at least, he used to be. Ed.