Army officer breaks silence on departure

The army's first ever female infantry captain has broken her silence about why she left the military. Sandra Perron made headlines after photographs were published of her tied to a tree during a training exercise.

Perron says it wasn't the tree incident that made her leave. Instead, it was the constant harassment she faced.

Perron was the army's first-ever female infantry captain. She led a platoon of 42 soldiers on peacekeeping duty in the former Yugoslavia.

Perron says she gained the respect of the soldiers under her command, but when it came to some of her peers things were different. They never let her forget that she was a woman in a role traditionally held by men.

"It was the little jokes and the comments," she said. "It's like chopping down a tree, every little hit helps to chop down that tree."

Perron left the military in 1995 without ever lodging a single complaint. "I didn't want them to be saying,' well this is what we get for women in combat, they complain'."

No one paid much attention to her departure, until photos of a 1992 training exercise in Gagetown New Brunswick appeared in a Montreal newspaper. They showed Perron tied to a tree for hours, in the snow, to simulate a prisoner of war experience.

The military ruled the training exercise was unacceptable, but Perron says she's proud to have survived it, even though it was another chop to the tree.

With public attention on Perron, the military brass discovered why she left the forces. A spokesman says no there's no question, the military lost an excellent officer.

Perron's departure has contributed to new efforts to change the way women are treated in combat roles. Commander Deborah Wilson, a diversity officer, says: "We are attempting to recruit a number of women all at once, so that when they go through training, they won't be like Sandra where she was one of a large group of men "

Perron is using the skills she gained during her 12 years in the military to help run a consulting business. She teaches organizations, including the Canadian Forces, about team building and diversity.