Canadian Forces refuse to release records revealing who protected long-dead pedophile

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The Canadian Forces is refusing to release records on who inside its Ottawa headquarters tried to protect a convicted pedophile who raped children at a military base decades ago.

The case has to do with a Catholic priest, Chaplain Capt. Angus McRae, a pedophile who was eventually booted from the military and died in 2011.

But getting records on McRae, convicted of sodomizing a child at CFB Edmonton in 1980 and later molesting two boys in the Toronto area, continues to be an uphill battle even decades later.

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This newspaper reported in August 2020 that National Defence and military officials had taken unprecedented measures to block the release of information about McRae, to the point of falsely claiming that details about the charges laid at the time were secret.

National Defence and the Canadian Forces also claimed in a statement to this newspaper in 2020 that they needed to protect McRae’s privacy, even though he died nearly a decade earlier.

Now, the department is refusing to release records showing who at National Defence headquarters made that 2020 decision. Those documents were requested by this newspaper under the Access to Information law, which allows members of the public to obtain federal records for a fee.

“When it comes to McRae, the leadership of the Canadian Forces always circles the wagons and makes sure he is protected, even in death,” said Bobbie Bees, who was sexually assaulted at CFB Edmonton in 1980, when Bees was seven years old.

This newspaper has filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner of Canada over National Defence’s decision not to release the records, but it could take years for it to be heard because of the backlog of complaints and the Liberal government’s decision to cut the Information Commissioner’s budget.

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National Defence spokesman Alex Tétreault claimed records would be eventually released, but could provide no details on what material would be disclosed or when that might happen.

The department and the Canadian Forces have faced widespread criticism from former soldiers, parliamentarians and the information commissioner for the lack of openness and transparency.

Bees said he would have thought that former police officer Bill Blair, now defence minister, would have the courage to force the military to stop protecting McRae and release records about the child molester, but said that wasn’t happening.

Blair did not directly respond to the allegations made by Bees, but his office released a statement it often uses to address concerns about the military’s increased slide into secrecy. It noted that access to information was a right for all Canadians and the department needed to do better in releasing records.

Right from the time of McRae’s arrest, the Canadian military cloaked his case in secrecy. It cited the need for “protecting public morals” for closing the court martial to the public in 1980.

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The priest was sentenced to four years in jail. The military, at the time, refused to provide any details about McRae and even declined to state where he would serve his sentence.

The secrecy surrounding the McRae case worked to the chaplain’s advantage. It turned out he only served 10 months of his sentence and was allowed to continue working as a priest.

In 1989, McRae was arrested by civilian police in the Toronto area for sexually molesting two boys. He pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation and sexual interference. Then 63, McRae was sentenced to three years’ probation, but avoided any jail time. He died in May 2011.

Bees, whose father was in the military, has been fighting for years to get further records about McRae. He alleges the chaplain molested a number of children at various bases and military leaders knew about it at the time.

Research by Bees has uncovered other military records related to similar crimes. Among those were documents related to Donald Joseph Sullivan, who was accused of sexually abusing 11 boys when he was a Scouts Canada leader in the 1970s. A police investigation into Sullivan’s assaults as a Scouts leader only began in 2018, but it ended with a conviction and a six-year sentence that Sullivan began serving in 2019. Sullivan was also caught molesting a child in 2005.

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Sullivan managed to avoid carrying a criminal record for his sex crimes until that 2005 incident because of how the military legal system handled his conviction for five counts of gross indecency at CFB Gagetown in 1984, according to records obtained by Bees. Sullivan was sentenced to four years, but was effectively pardoned by the Canadian Forces judicial system and released after only serving one year.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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