Introduction

In my second year in the Forces, I was sexually assaulted. I didn’t know what sexual assault was, didn’t know that those things happened. So, when it happened, I felt a lot of shame, a lot of guilt, a lot of like, I was at fault, just… just dirty. And when I told somebody, they just kinda brushed it off… Nobody really talked about what the resources were, what you should do, where you should go. - Military Veteran

Service sexual trauma refers to upsetting and unwanted sexual experiences, including sexual assault and repeated, threatening sexual harassment, which occur while serving on active duty or during training. 

It’s a hard fact of military and RCMP life that some service personnel will suffer sexual harassment or assault during their careers. Despite ongoing efforts, this unacceptable conduct persists, with long-term consequences for those who have experienced it.

Sexual trauma survivors have experienced an event that leaves them feeling betrayed, violated, dirty, and profoundly unsafe. Many survivors’ first instincts are to seek safety, regain some sense of autonomy and control over their bodies and their surroundings. Some survivors want to keep their experience private. Others may want to report what’s happened to them so that they can prevent their attacker from harming others, or to make them accountable for their actions.

We’re the masters of compartmentalizing. We really like to kind of stuff it in one spot and we really don’t, you know, bring it back out until it boils up. And, I look at my career, and there was a lot of that. There was a lot of things that just boiled up and I would explode. I couldn’t really regulate very well. And I would have people tell me, “Well, you’re awfully emotional,” or, “You’re sensitive.” And I look at it now and, I was hurting. I was… I didn’t know… I didn’t know how to express it or how to process any of it. - Military Veteran

This topic describes the effects of sexual trauma on service members and Veterans, seeks to de-stigmatize their experiences through sharing and validation, and outlines available supports.