Trudeau has not given reasons for those rejections, but there have been complaints from some police forces and from the province of Ontario about the strain the additional cases puts on their resources.
On Thursday, officials from the Defence Department and the Canadian Armed Forces released an update on their efforts to implement the 48 recommendations made in former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour’s report last May.
Defence Minister Anita Anand laid out a plan last December to implement the changes.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Anand said that a federal-provincial-territorial committee has been set up to facilitate conversations between deputy ministers about the transfer of cases of criminal sexual offences.
In the meantime, the Armed Forces has agreements in place with the RCMP, Sûreté du Québec and now the Ontario Provincial Police to refer cases to police for investigation, officials said.
In her report, Arbour warned that Ottawa and the provinces could end up engaged in “interminable discussions” about the matter if the federal government did not formally make the change.
“It’s not to get justice. It’s for good order and discipline in the organization.”
The NDP has called on the Liberals to introduce legislation to permanently remove such cases from the military’s jurisdiction.