Jonathan Vance responds to a question during a news conference, June 26, 2020 in Ottawa.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Former chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vance’s obstruction of justice case will go to trial in May 2023.
Ten days of trial dates were set during a brief, virtual courtroom hearing this morning, three months after military police charged the former Canadian Armed Forces commander following a sexual misconduct investigation.
The case is proceeding through the civilian court system after investigators referred it there, citing what they described as “the limitations of the military justice system” in trying Canada’s top military officer.
The former defence chief, who retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in April, has previously denied any wrongdoing.
The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service alleged in court documents that Vance repeatedly contacted a woman identified as “K.B.” in early February and “tried to persuade her to make false statements about their past relationship” to military investigators.
Maj. Kellie Brennan told a parliamentary committee in April that she and Vance had an inappropriate relationship that started in 2001 and continued after he became chief of the defence staff in 2015.
Brennan also told the committee she had recorded Vance telling her on the phone what to tell military police, and had turned those recordings over to the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service.
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