Former chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vance charged with obstruction of justice

Former chief of defence staff Jonathan Vance has been charged with one count of obstruction of justice related to an ongoing military investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, CFNIS, announced the single charge against the country's former retired top military commander on Thursday.

The service would not provide details about what is alleged to have taken place, but that it happened sometime after the CFNIS began investigating Vance on February 4, 2021.

"It was during the course of this investigation that the obstruction of justice is alleged to have occurred," CFNIS said in a news release.

Vance is due in provincial court on Sept. 17.

He retired as chief of the defence staff in mid-January. Almost two weeks later Global News published and broadcast a story that accused him of having a long-standing relationship with a female subordinate and that he had sent a racy email to a junior non-commissioned officer eight years ago, prior to him assuming the top spot in in the military.

It was later revealed that the alleged inappropriate relationship involved Maj. Kellie Brennan, a reservist and staff officer at army headquarters in Ottawa.

Recordings of Vance

The allegations against Vance have sparked two sets of parliamentary committee hearings where Brennan testified and revealed the allegations which appear to be the basis of the charge against Vance. She also was interviewed by Global News and claimed that Vance, after the first story broke, counselled her to lie to military police.

She claimed to have tape recordings.

"It's recorded, and the CFNIS has all of the recordings of him directing me in what to say, what not to say, how to say it, what to exclude, to perjure myself," she told the Commons status of women committee on April 22.

Vance, responding to the initial Global News story, denied the allegations. He has not spoken publicly since the stories were first made public in early February.

The allegations touched off a series of revelations and accusations involving other senior leaders in the military, including Vance's successor, Admiral Art McDonald who voluntarily stepped aside in late February after sexual misconduct allegations against him were leaked to CBC News and the Ottawa Citizen.

The investigations into both senior leaders set off a crisis within the Canadian military, which has been grappling with the scourge of sexual misconduct for decades.

Vance was supposed to be the one who fixed it, coming into the defence chief's job in 2015, he launched Operation Honour, an attempt to stamp out misconduct.

The ongoing sexual misconduct crisis has prompted calls for the resignation of Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan

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