The number of male soldiers reporting sexual misconduct has been increasing
The Department of National Defence (DND) says it's taking steps to improve training for staff at the military's sexual misconduct support centre, acknowledging that men who report being abused have not always felt "safe, secure and supported."
The federal government issued a notice late in December saying it intends to award a sole-source contract to an Ottawa-based company to provide personnel training at the Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre (SMSRC).
The centre "has a requirement for the provision of training on how to best support men affected by sexual misconduct, particularly those who have lived experiences of sexual trauma," says the notice, posted online on Dec. 20, 2023.
"The SMSRC serves a large clientele of men and requires specialized training in this field from a subject matter expert(s)."
The request for outside help, specifically for counsellors and peer support facilitators, comes as the number of reported cases involving male victims in the Canadian Forces continues to rise.
Men accounted for almost half of all new case files opened on claims of sexual misconduct in the military during the latest official reporting period in 2022-23.
DND said that, during that reporting period, 1,431 new case files were opened over 12 months. Of those, "645 identified as women and 528 identified as men. The remainder identified themselves as gender diverse or the gender remained unidentified."
In previous years, men made up only about one-third of new reported cases, the department told CBC News.
The centre's programs and services are meant to be inclusive and open to everyone, regardless of gender, but officials acknowledge shortcomings.
"It is of prime importance that people feel safe, secure and supported. Unfortunately, that hasn't always been the case for many people identifying as men who have been historically faced with stigma in both the heterosexual and LGBTQ2S+ communities," DND said in a media statement.
"SMSRC understands that everybody can be affected by sexual misconduct and have designed all programming with this in mind."
The department said it does not currently offer services tailored specifically to men.
The company in line for the sole-source contract is Men and Healing, an Ottawa-based psychotherapy firm. No dollar figure was attached to the solicitation, which was intended to give other interested companies the opportunity to demonstrate they could do the work.
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