Retired Canadian lieutenant general accused of sexual assault and proposed army commander

　　China News Service, Toronto, June 16. The Canadian military disclosed on June 15 that retired Lieutenant General Trevor Cadieu is being charged with two sexual assault charges.

　　The Canadian military's Gendarmerie Command released a statement saying that the Canadian military investigation department had brought charges against Cadieu on the same day.

The case will be referred to the civil justice system for follow-up hearing.

　　The Canadian military has not released further details of the case, saying only that the incident is allegedly related to a case at the Royal Canadian Military Academy in Kingston in 1994.

　　The Canadian military originally planned to appoint Cadieu as commander of the Canadian Army in September last year.

But the appointment was put on hold due to allegations of sexual assault.

Cadieu denies the allegations.

In April of this year, he chose to retire while being investigated.

　　Later, the media revealed that Cadieu went to Ukraine in his personal capacity and allegedly participated in the war against Russia.

　　Cadieu has responded to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that he is preparing to return to Canada from Ukraine to cooperate with the follow-up process of the case.

　　A series of incidents involving sexual assault and other acts were exposed in the Canadian military last year, leading to investigations of several senior retired or active-duty officers.

These include the former chief of defense staff Jonathan Vance, who retired early last year, and his successor, MacDonald, the former commander of the Royal Navy.

　　The Canadian military announced at the end of April last year that it had appointed a special person to launch an independent external comprehensive investigation into the problems of harassment and sexual misconduct in the Canadian Ministry of Defense and the Canadian military.

Statistics submitted by the Canadian Ministry of Defence to the House of Representatives in the first half of last year show that the Canadian military has recorded 581 sexual assault and 221 sexual harassment reports over the past five years or so.