Letter of resignation: Dave Hall
Jennifer Jordan
Editor, EVeritas
June 11, 2022
Good morning, Jennifer,
I am resigning from further participation in all formal events concerning the Royal Military College. I’m writing to you as EVeritas is the widest form of communication on Ex-Cadet issues. It has included multiple articles over the years regarding the military and the Colleges’ conduct and attitudes toward the harmful and inappropriate sexual behaviour (HISB) issue. I’ve cc’d Nancy Marr as well.
In view of retired Justice Arbour’s report, I suspect that EVeritas will soon be addressing this issue. I address my owns thoughts here. Especially, but not only, given Mme Arbour’s recommendation #29:
“...[to] determine whether the RMC Kingston and the RMC Saint-Jean should continue as undergraduate degree-granting institutions, or whether officer candidates should be required to attend civilian university undergraduate programs through the ROTP.”
What disappoints me is that I see RMC as a fine institution that should be maintained. Yet because of the inaction, the total inability to properly deal with the issue of HSIB the indifference of multiple politicians, Commandants, Squadron Commanders, and 4th year cadets since the introduction of women cadets in 1980, we now have a venerable institution that is clearly under attack.
My wife, LCdr (ret’d) Rosemary Park wrote a letter to the Toronto Star over twenty-four years ago on May 31,1998 titled The Military Can Change if it Really Wants To. She wrote that “The Canadian military has been provided informed analysis from 1983 through to 1996. I know because I wrote the reports ...What is more, by 1998 there had already been a Royal Commission, three significant pieces of federal legislation and a human rights tribunal.”
What disgusts me is that, since then, three different retired Supreme Court Justices, plus the Auditor General of Canada in the past seven years alone have written reports about the issue of sexual harassment and assault. There was Operation Honour, truly an oxymoron, which has since been terminated. We have had two books written on the subject one, by Major Sandra Perron (Out Standing in the Field) and another by Kate Armstrong (The Stone Frigate). Both have been reviewed in the pages of EVeritas. Cataloguing the lack of action, it is nothing short of appalling that military leadership has known for decades the harm occurring to serving female members within the military. It has been a continuous policy of deny, resist, delay, and feign. It’s nothing but a fortress mentality. Deal with the issue.
There is one EVeritas article that I believe, is indicative of the some (no, not all) Ex-Cadets’ and the military’s perspective of this issue. In the May 13, 2018, issue, Ms Sharon Miklas, RMC Vice-Principal Academic wrote an article on the subject of HSIB in response to a speech given at Mess Dinner at CMR. In the comments section beneath the article, she received almost no support or acknowledgement of the points she was making. In fact, she was labelled “an academic” by one ex-Cadet, as if that somehow negated/disqualified her views on the subject. Another disputed her claims on legal grounds. Talk about missing the point! This is not a “handle it and move on” issue as one senior female officer put it at that CMR dinner. That comment was parochial, insensitive, and dismissive. Especially so, given what has transpired since that time.
The military was slapped with a $900 million lawsuit to settle sexual assault and harassment claims This will do little to fully compensate those women whose careers have been cut short like LCol. Eleanor Taylor, Lt.-Cmdr. Nicole Dugas and Lt.-Cmdr. Jennifer McGean. Or Major Sandra Perron, Canada’s first female infantry officer. Or the many others whose lives have been irreparably changed like those interviewed in Maclean’s in 1998.
And in what I see is a remarkable coincidence in timing, Canadian Forces Provost Marshal Brig.-Gen. Simon Trudeau apologizes for the mishandling of an event – three years after its occurrence - in which a female officer cadet reported an alleged sexual harassment to the Kingston military police. That delayed apology came almost at the same time as the issuance of Mme Arbour’s report.
I think that the classes in the 1960’s and prior – who set a high standard at the College would be especially disappointed. I have a picture of the RMC arch in my office showing the names of Cadets who gave their lives for Canada. What would they think of such a disgraced ending to the College by those few who have tainted its reputation for the rest of us? To say nothing of the behaviour of a former RMC cadet, and CDS – and, to my knowledge, the first one to be removed from our Alumni - Mr. Vance. Shameful. RMC was a pinnacle of respectability when I went there in the 70’s. I was proud to wear my 4’s – which also hang in my office - in downtown Kingston when so many Queen’s students seemed the polar opposite of me.
It is for this reason I resigned this year from my positions with the Club, as my class treasurer, as a member of the AWOD committee. I have attended far more reunions than the usual 5-year ones. More than most. I am one of the larger contributors from my year to our class fund which I initiated, and to the Foundation. I am a former President, Treasurer and Director of the Toronto Branch. I have (had) skin in this game. What is more, I’m only an RETP with no military service to speak of. I see the entire military and College system as being intransigent and indifferent to the HISB issue.
It is both difficult and disappointing for me to say that I will not attend another formal occasion at RMC. I have already spoken to a few of my RMC buds about my decision. I know it is a personal one. It affects no one else. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me what anyone thinks. I simply cannot associate myself with an institution that has made little to no effort to deal with the fair and equitable treatment of its female members.
I look forward to seeing classmates off-campus at future Ex-Cadet gatherings on the Friday night get-togethers. Many of these fellas remain some of the closest friends I have ever had in my life. That will not change. They are gentlemen.
But I wish to stand on the side of all cadets – both women and men as equals in all respects. It is clear that the military and the Colleges have consistently ignored this basic concept and right.
10950 David M. Hall
cc: Ms Nancy Marr, RMC Alumni Association CEO
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