Sexual assault court martial of master seaman to begin in Halifax

HALIFAX — A member of the Royal Canadian Navy is expected in a military court Tuesday to face allegations he sexually assaulted a lower-ranking male colleague.

Master seaman Daniel Cooper, a naval communicator at Canadian Forces Base Halifax, also faces a charge of ill treatment of a subordinate stemming from the incident on Nov. 10 2015.

Military police said at the time the complainant was also a member of the Forces, and both men were participating in a training exercise on board the navy’s last remaining destroyer, HMCS Athabaskan, off the coast of Spain.

The Canadian Forces have been attempting to clamp down on sexual misconduct in the ranks since l’Actualite and Maclean’s magazines reported in April 2014 that a large number of military sexual assaults were being ignored or played down.

Retired Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps led an independent investigation into the issue and her 2015 report described an “underlying sexual culture” in the military that left victims to fend for themselves.

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Military judge Col. Mario Dutil will preside at Cooper’s court martial.

The Canadian Press