OTTAWA—Nearly 1,000 members of Canada’s military say they’ve been sexually assaulted in the last year — and women are overwhelmingly the target of the misconduct, according to a landmark survey.

One in 60 regular force members say they’ve been the victims of conduct that ranges from unwanted sexual touching to attacks and sexual activity without consent.

That works out to about 1.7 per cent of regular forces personnel, higher than the comparable rate of 0.9 per cent for the general population, according to the newly released survey that reveals top commanders have much work left to improve the culture within the Canadian Armed Forces.

“I am extremely disappointed,” Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, said Monday at a news conference held to release the results of the Statistics Canada survey, commissioned by the military to uncover the extent of inappropriate conduct in the ranks.

Some 43,000 military members responded to the voluntary survey between April and June and the findings will serve as a benchmark in what promises to be a regular survey to keep tabs on the problem.

The survey was launched in the wake of a 2015 report by former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps that sounded the alarm about a “sexualized culture” within the military that was conducive to sexual harassment and misconduct.

The statistics confirm Deschamps’s findings, showing that “harmful sexual behaviour is a real problem in our institution,” Vance said.

“We know it and we’re trying to tackle it head on,” he said.

Women were four times more likely than men to have been sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months. And in an especially disturbing revelation, almost one-third of women in uniform say they’ve been the victim of a sexual assault since they enlisted.

But especially troubling is that the survey reveals the inappropriate behaviour has continued even after Vance last year launched Operation Honour, a military-wide effort to stamp out misconduct.

Vance made plain his annoyance that inappropriate behaviour within the ranks had continued despite his orders. He voiced a renewed commitment to seek out the perpetrators.

“My orders were clear, my expectations were clear. Those who chose or choose not to follow my orders will be dealt with,” he told the news conference, with senior commanders from across the military in attendance.

Indeed, Vance said that 30 people have already been removed from command or supervisory roles this year because of misconduct, and he bluntly said he’d be happy if they left the military altogether.

He said the statistical findings would help the military root out perpetrators, which he declared “are now more apparent to us.

“They will become a focus of our efforts,” Vance said.

The top general said he was buoyed by the finding that almost of 80 per cent regular force members have confidence that complaints about inappropriate sexual behaviour would be taken seriously.

But he said that more work needs to be done to encourage the victims of sexual assault and misbehaviour to report incidents to their superiors or the police. According to the survey results, the majority — 59 per cent — do not report the incidents. Just 7 per cent are reported to military police.

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Vance sought to reassure victims who fear they could face reprisals for coming forward.

“The negative consequences will befall those who are perpetrators, not those who report,” he said.

“The more that come forward, the better because then we can start to deal specifically with the individuals and the wider issues,” he said.

Between January and October, there were five courts martial for sexual-related offences — four resulting in convictions — and another two scheduled for this week.

There were nine guilty findings at summary trials and administrative action — ranging from warnings and fines to release from the armed forces were levied against 83 individuals, said Rear-Admiral Jennifer Bennett, director general of the strategic response ream on sexual misconduct.

“We are seeing a trend where people are being held to account and are receiving serious punishments,” Bennett told reporters.

Vance said he wants better training for the thousands of new recruits over the coming years so they “understand what is expected of them, what constitutes inappropriate behaviour.

“Some would appear not to know so we need to train them,” Vance said.

How the numbers break down

<bullet>49 per cent of women who were sexually assaulted in last 12 months identified their supervisor or someone of higher ranks as the perpetrator. For men, a peer was commonly the perpetrator.

<bullet>Among regular force members, 27.3 per cent of women and 3.8 per cent of men have been victims of sexual assault at least once since joining the Canadian Armed Forces. Unwanted sexual touching was the most common type of assault.

<bullet>Four in five members of the regular forces saw, heard or were personally targeted by sexualized behaviour in the military. The most common behaviour were sexual jokes and inappropriate sexual comments but the complaints also included indecent exposure, explicit materials, unwanted sexual attention and the offer of workplace benefits in exchange for sex.

<bullet>Close to one in five regular force members were personally targeted by sexualized or discriminatory behaviour in the past 12 months. Women were twice as likely as men to being the target of such behaviour.