The acquittal of Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin last December on a charge of sexual assault arising from an incident that allegedly took place nearly 35 years earlier, and the failure of the Canadian government to produce any significant documents relating to the case in response to a subsequent lawsuit from Fortin, is disconcertingly reminiscent of the shameful prosecution of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman in 2018. In both these cases, with very different fact situations and charges, there were many indications of a shabbily motivated and prepared prosecution, followed by the frantic ambition of everyone connected with the prosecutions to avoid lawsuits of retribution by settling the claims with presumably ample amounts of the taxpayers’ money in exchange for a ban on any public comment. As I commented at the time of the Norman case, it appeared to be a vindictive and unfounded imputation of discreditable motives to a courageous officer doing his best for the Armed Forces of Canada, to which he had devoted his entire career. In the Fortin matter, the military authorities threw a distinguished combat general to the wolves in capitulation to fuzzy recollections of a complainant who had remained silent about her grievance for most of her life.
