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OTTAWA — Newly released emails show military personnel at all levels privately questioned a retired Supreme Court justice’s explosive report last year on sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, suggesting the scope of the problem had been overstated.

However, the general responsible for stamping out what retired justice Marie Deschamps described as an “underlying sexual culture” in the military, Lt.-Gen. Christine Whitecross, says the time for debate is over, and that she is committed to tackling the issue.

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“The fact of the matter remains: we have a problem,” Whitecross said Wednesday. “We have to address it. I don’t care how big the problem is. I just want to make a change. That’s the bottom line.”

Military commanders ordered an independent probe in April 2014 after l’Actualité and Maclean’s reported a large number of military sexual assaults were being ignored or played down. Deschamps was tapped to lead the year-long study, which included interviews with dozens of current and former service personnel.