Officer Cadet Alex Whitehead arrives for his court martial hearing at the Royal Military College of in Kingston, Ont. Allegations of sexual misconduct in the military rarely land before a judge.Lars Hagberg/The Globe and Mail
In a makeshift courtroom at the Royal Military College this week, a Second Lieutenant in a blue military dress uniform recounted the night she says a fellow cadet – a man who was her friend and her superior – walked naked into her shower stall.
Her testimony, delivered mostly with confidence but occasionally punctuated by tears, revealed the turmoil she has endured in the aftermath of the incident – and the denunciation she faced from fellow cadets for her decision to lodge a sexual-assault complaint against her alleged assailant.
The ostracism was "unbearable," said the officer, whose name is under a publication ban, and who was promoted to Second Lieutenant this month at the direction of the Chief of Defence Staff after the psychological trauma threatened to end her military career.
Other students were saying "it was something that should not have been reported, that it shouldn't be taken that seriously," she told the court martial of Officer Cadet Alex Whitehead, which is expected to continue at least through next week.
A wide-ranging review of sexual assault in the Canadian Armed Forces that was conducted by former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps and made public on April 30 found there is an "underlying sexualized culture" in the military that is hostile to women – and the military colleges, where "sexual assault [is] an ever present risk," are no exception.
The court martial of OCdt. Whitehead is one of the rare cases in which allegations of sexual misconduct at a military college are taken to college superiors and then land before a judge. And, when they do, the hearings are rarely attended by the media.
Studies say only a small fraction of military women who are assaulted choose to lodge a complaint – for the sake of their own careers, or the careers of the men who assaulted them, or out of fear of bringing disrepute on their army, navy or air force family. They also fear that the chain of command will be sympathetic and loyal to the accused.
Julie Lalonde, an expert on sexual assault with the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres who was treated with open contempt and catcalls by RMC cadets when she spoke at the school last fall, says there is "an incredibly frightening culture on that campus … it is a hostile place to be a woman."
Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel who is a lawyer who handles many military issues and is representing the complainant in this case, says he has nine other female clients who attended RMC who say they were also victims of sexual assault.
"The message of non-tolerance maybe exists at a higher echelon, where there is no presence of sexual misconduct on a larger scale," said Mr. Drapeau. But it is not getting through to the cadets who are Canada's future military leaders, he said. "It's a real failure, and a failure that we should have addressed decades ago because there have been many warnings to that effect."
RMC refused repeated requests for interviews.
The Second Lieutenant initially rescinded her complaint in the face of the criticism from fellow students. "I was still ashamed of what had happened," she told the court. But, when a second female cadet told her she had been assaulted by OCdt. Whitehead, she was overwhelmed by the thought that "because I had not proceeded, there was a second victim."
First she slit her wrists in a failed suicide attempt. Then she rallied. And now she and the other cadet have helped press criminal charges against OCdt. Whitehead.
The Second Lieutenant said OCdt. Whitehead was her friend for more than a year before things went wrong. One night in September, 2013, the two went with fellow cadets to a bar in Kingston, Ont. When she decided to leave early, she said OCdt. Whitehead offered to go back to the RMC barracks with her. She could smell the alcohol on his breath when they got in the cab.
Back at the college, he walked her to her room and asked to come inside, which she said she allowed because she is a member of a peer support group and she assumed he wanted to talk. But he didn't want to talk, she said, he wanted to kiss her and, despite her protests, the two fell awkwardly onto her bed.
She scrambled from underneath him and "I told him I am going to take a shower and I want you to go to bed," she told the court, explaining that she took her bathrobe and headed to the women's showers where men are not allowed. But, with the water running, she saw his reflection in the bathroom mirror. And then, she said, he was in the shower with her.
She told the court she turned the water to hot – so hot it burned her back – and he left. For the next 15 minutes "I was in the shower, crouched in a little corner crying."
OCdt. Whitehead, who, like his accusers, is in his early 20s, sat with a straight back as he listens to the testimony against him, casting only occasional glances at the witness box.
The petite Second Lieutenant did not look at him, either. The defence has signalled its intention to point out inconsistencies in her testimony and to raise the issue of her psychological state.
OCdt. Whitehead was a good person, and a good friend, and everybody makes mistakes, she told The Globe. "Even to this day," she said, "I believe from the bottom of my heart, that the core, the morals that he has are good and it was due to alcohol and a lack of judgment in one moment that he made the mistake again."
Major Edmund Thomas, one of the men who is acting as OCdt. Whitehead's legal counsel, said the episode has been "devastating" for the young man who entered the military at the age of 18 and held so much promise. After four years at the college, OCdt. Whitehead was not permitted to graduate with the rest of his class and is now posted to do menial work on campus until the case is over. And, even if he is found not guilty, said Major Thomas, the military will do its own review where the burden of proof is much lower than that of the court martial.
All of this could have been prevented, said Mr. Drapeau, had the leaders at the RMC made clear it to students in year one that sexual assault would not be tolerated. Now, no matter what happens at the trial, OCdt. Whitehead's career is likely to be affected.
The second officer who accused OCdt. Whitehead of sexual assault will testify next week. There is a long-term concern, she said, about how it will affect her life in the military.
"Everybody empathizes but that's not what you want," she said. As an officer, she said, "you want people to respect you. You don't want that to be the first thing that gets to your unit. You are going to be leading troops and you don't want to be doing it from a position of weakness."