Okay, so I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but the justice reviewing the certification portion of my class action against the Canadian Armed Forces has agreed that the class action has merit to proceed.
The justice has also stated that I am okay to be the representative plaintiff.
I don’t know if the Department of Justice and the Canadian Armed Forces will try to appeal these decisions. I don’t know if they will be allowed to appeal. So I’ll have to wait and see.
If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt in my life it’s that nothing usually goes as planned.
Maybe it’s the eternal pessimist in me, but I have a very good reason to expect things to fail.
I come from a very long line of systemic failures.
It’s like my life has been falling through each and every crack imaginable.
My grandmother going through residential school
My father joining the Royal Canadian Navy.
The HMCS Kootenay incident.
The military’s lack of acknowledgment of PTSD and stigma to mental illness
The military’s culture of self medicating with alcohol and other substances
The military’s rules and regulations that put non-serving spouses at great disadvantage on the bases, especially in matters of child custody.
The military’s defective by design justice system.
The flaws in the National Defence Act
The “blame the victim” culture that existed on the bases.
The rampant homophobia that existed on the bases and which was condoned by Canadian Forces Administrative Order 19-20 which really made it almost impossible for male victims of sexual assault to be taken seriously.
The ability for dysfunctional military parents to use the transfer system to skip out on social services.
The fact that civilians such as civilian law enforcement and civilian social services needed permission to enter defence establishments.
So, will I continue to fall through more cracks?
Or will long overdue acknowledgements be forthcoming?
Beeshive 