Operation Honour Tracking and Analysis

Government Institution
Department of National Defence

Government official responsible for the PIA
BGen Andrew J. Atherton
Director General Professional Military Conduct – Operation HONOUR

Head of the government institution or Delegate for section 10 of the Privacy Act
Deirdra Finn
Director, Directorate Access to Information and Privacy

Description of Program or Activity

Defence Team Management
The Defence Team Personnel Management program is directed toward the Department National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces leadership for decision-making purposes and the stewardship of the military personnel management system.

Standard or institution specific class of record:

Standard or institution specific personal information bank:

Legislated authority for activity:
Legal authority is derived from the National Defence Act (NDA).The Minister of National Defence is a federal Cabinet Minister who is responsible for management and direction of the Canadian Armed Forces and all matters relating to National Defence (pursuant to s 4 of the NDA). Control and administration of the CAF resides with the CDS.

Summary of the project / initiative/ change:
In 2014, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) announced that an independent external review was being undertaken to analyze CAF workplace policies, programs and leadership engagement regarding sexual misconduct in the CAF. That external review concluded in 2015 indicating the existence of an underlying sexualized culture in the CAF, which if not addressed, would be conducive to more serious incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

In response, in August 2015, the incoming CDS issued the order to initiate Operation HONOUR – the CAF’s mission to eliminate sexual misconduct in the Canadian military. The initial focus of Operation HONOUR was on:

The CAF Directorate Professional Military Conduct - Operation HONOUR (DPMC-OpH) is the strategic level planning and coordination organization leading the CAF’s institutional change efforts to address sexual misconduct and promote a focus on the dignity and respect of the individual.

In March 2016, a fragmentary order (FRAGO 001) clarified a strategic enabler to the Operation HONOUR mission is to measure the effectiveness and progress of Operation HONOUR by tracing and measuring trends related to Harmful and Inappropriate Sexual Behavior (HISB) incidents. The term ‘HISB’ was used at the onset of Operation HONOUR but was replaced with the term ‘sexual misconduct’ in April 2019.

In 2016, DPMC-OpH provided reporting and tracking measures of sexual misconduct incidents through an MS Excel spreadsheet. However, in 2018, the Operation Honour Tracking Analysis System (OPHTAS) was deployed to centralize reporting and tracking of sexual misconduct incidents and replace the MS Excel spreadsheet. OPHTAS is a Protected B MS Dynamics installation managed by DPMC-OpH with the purpose of providing a reporting database for the chain of command (CoC); to track, assess, and report sexual misconduct incidents and their eventual disposition, as well as to measure trends and evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken at all levels within the military.

For an incident to be recorded in OPHTAS, it must be reported to the CAF CoC. That report to the CoC must have occurred on or after 1 April 2016; the incident may have occurred prior to that date.

In the completion of this PIA, there were nine (9) risks identified: 0 High, 8 Medium, and 1 Low. A risk mitigation strategy has been developed which will result in a reduction of risk to an acceptable level before the end of the current fiscal year.

Risk Area Identification and Categorization
In its Directive on Privacy Impact Assessment, Treasury Board has expressed that the PIA must include a completed risk identification and categorization section and make public those risk ratings. A risk rating must be assigned to each risk areas named and described in Appendix C of the Directive on Privacy Impact Assessment. The numbered risk scale is presented in an ascending order: the first level (1) represents the lowest level of potential risk for the risk area; the fourth level (4) represents the highest level of potential risk for the given risk area. For this PIA the risk areas and associated risk levels are as follows:

Risk Area Risk Level

Type of Program or Activity
Criminal investigation and enforcement / National Security
Personal information is used for investigations and enforcement in a criminal context (i.e. decisions may lead to criminal charges/sanctions or deportation for reasons of national security or criminal enforcement).

4

Type of Personal Involved and Context
Sensitive personal information, including detailed profiles, allegations or suspicions, bodily samples and/or the context surrounding the personal information is particularly sensitive.
For example: personal information that reveals intimate details on the health, financial situation, religious or lifestyle choices of the individual and which, by association, reveals similar details about other individuals such as relatives.

4

Program or Activity Partners and Privacy Sector Involvement
Within the institution (amongst one or more programs within the same institution)

1

Duration of the Program
Long-term program
Existing program that has been modified or is established with no clear “sunset”.

3

Program Population
The program affects certain individuals for external administrative purposes.

3

Technology and Privacy
OPHTAS is a system designed to support the CAF’s Operation Honour mission to eliminate sexual misconduct in the military. The system records and tracks incidents of sexual misconduct to provide the CDS with a centralized reporting feature to understand the volume and severity of such incidents and track the progress of the mission.

Information Transmission
The personal information is transmitted using wireless technologies

4

In the Event of a Privacy Breach Impacting the Individual
In the event that a privacy breach of OPHTAS occurs, there are potentially significant and lasting negative impacts on the reputation and health/safety of Complainants and Respondents. For the Respondents, the records store extremely sensitive information and, at times, are allegations which have not been proven in court. An unauthorized disclosure could have detrimental and negative impacts of work, as well as professional and personal reputation and relationships.

For Complainants and victims of sexual misconduct, especially sexually assault, the implications of a privacy breach can cause these individuals to relive the crime and face the public shame/humiliation that is often felt by those individuals when media and public disclosure of events occur. Furthermore, privacy breaches of such information can have a significant and negative impact on an individual’s mental health, work, reputation, and relationships (professional and personal).

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