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Those include the same right to information, protection and to participate as their cases move through the military justice system, as well as access to new case managers or victim-liaison officers.

“That’s a huge gap,” Illingworth said. “People who are highly traumatized, who have just had an experience with violence, just even deciding what is the next step that they want to take is really difficult.”

People who are highly traumatized, who have just had an experience with violence, just even deciding what is the next step that they want to take is really difficult

The same shortcoming exists in the civilian version, Illingworth said, but that is because provinces administer their own justice systems. Such isn’t the case with the military, which is a federal entity.

It’s also unclear in the proposed legislation exactly who is responsible for informing victims of their rights and providing them with services, she said, which raises the risk victims will through the cracks.

The federal auditor general warned last fall that the military had failed to properly support victims of sexual misconduct, with military police often failing to provide information about services or updates on the case.

There were also concerns about a lack of training for specialized personnel such as chaplains and military health-care providers in terms of assisting victims.

The military has said it is working to address concerns, with its arms-length sexual misconduct response centre taking much of the lead, but Illingworth said improving the legislation could add impetus to those efforts.

“We can’t leave it up to the goodwill of criminal justice system professionals to hopefully do this,” she said.