HALIFAX — Military police are investigating an alleged sexual assault involving members of the navy on board HMCS Athabaskan.
Capt. Joanna Labonte says the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service was notified of the alleged incident on Nov. 10 as the ship was at sea.
She says the case involves two navy personnel from the destroyer, but would not provide any other details.
No one has been charged and it's not known if anyone has been relieved of duty while the investigation is underway.
The Iroquois-class ship returned to Halifax last Friday after participating in multinational joint exercises off the western European coast as part of Trident Juncture.
It involved several other Royal Canadian Navy vessels, including HMCS Halifax, Goose Bay, Summerside, Windsor and Winnipeg.
Canada joined Poland, France, Germany, Denmark, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom in the exercises.
In May, the federal government accepted all 10 recommendations from a hard-hitting report by a retired Supreme Court of Canada justice on sexual misconduct in the military.
The report by Marie Deschamps recommended, among other things, that an independent agency be set up outside the military chain of command to handle sexual misconduct complaints.
The military launched the review last year after media reports into what appeared to be a major discrepancy in official records of sexual harassment and assault cases and what was actually happening inside the Canadian Forces.
