Kelly Stewart was plugging in her phone in her dorm room, planning to let it charge while she was in class at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), when she found a cord she didn’t recognize — one she would later trace to a web camera hidden inside the heater in her wall.
“My whole body just went completely cold,” she said during a recent interview at her home in Kingston, N.S.
Documents obtained by Stewart through Access to Information legislation, and shared with CBC News, show the Canadian Forces Military Police launched an investigation into voyeurism and breaking and entering offences on Oct. 31, 2018 — the same day Stewart discovered the webcam in her Kingston, Ont., dorm room and reported it to her superiors.
The following day, the National Investigation Service — a specialized unit that investigates serious matters — took over her case. According to the documents, no charges were ever laid due to insufficient evidence.
Eight years after the alarming discovery — and five years after a firestorm of sexual misconduct allegations in the Canadian Armed Forces prompted a federal review — Stewart is sharing her story publicly for the first time, emboldened by the support for a woman who alleges she was gang raped at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Stewart posted on social media on Oct. 3, writing that recent events out of Cornell had brought back painful memories.
“For 8 years I have carried the weight of other people’s disgusting actions, failures and systemic sexism. I owe it to my 20-year-old self to pass that weight off to the men who failed.”
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Stewart, now 28, believes the investigation into her case was flawed, and though she believes the webcam was put in her room by another student, she says her superiors didn’t support her, told her to “toughen up” and suggested her career could be affected by accessing mental health support.
She says her health suffered so much that she ultimately requested a voluntary release, which was granted in September 2019 on compassionate grounds, meaning she was not required to reimburse the government for the cost of her schooling.
In her social media post, Stewart named four people: her former superiors and a military police investigator. CBC News is choosing not to name them as there is no suggestion of any legal wrongdoing on their part.
The Department of National Defence (DND) has confirmed to CBC News that two of the four individuals have since retired. DND declined an interview, but in a statement said it is aware of claims, but for privacy and legal reasons it doesn’t comment on matters involving identifiable individuals.
Stewart also filed a formal complaint on May 11, 2025, about the investigating officer. The Military Police Complaints Commission confirmed to CBC News that the complaint is being processed.
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The 335-page military police report is heavily redacted but contains photos of the webcam, handwritten police notes and officer activity logs that shed some light on the investigation.
Stewart said she initially thought the investigation would reach a successful conclusion quickly. She felt her immediate, lower-level superiors took her seriously and there was a physical piece of evidence, the camera.
“I found myself a year later with nothing having been actioned,” she said.
The documents show it took a month to access surveillance footage from the hallway outside Stewart’s room, and that there was some confusion around whether an officer had even requested it.
Stewart said it took more than four months for the police to seize the suspect’s laptop, which she said she witnessed herself. She believes it was the first time his laptop was taken.
Investigative photos that show the inside of Stewart’s dorm room at the RMC. Stewart says she found the webcam in the heater. (Canadian Forces National Investigation Service)
The documents show the investigation was formally closed on Aug 14, 2020 because it did not yield enough information to substantiate the elements of the offence.
The documents list one “person of interest.” All the information about them is redacted.
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Stewart said around three months after she discovered the webcam, and after she had moved back into her dorm, a staff member at the college told her that her superiors knew who the suspect was and that he was living a few doors down from her. She said the staff member told her he had been told not to give her this information.
Having to continue living alongside the man she believed violated her was incredibly difficult, she said.
She said she repeatedly asked her superiors to move the suspect to another building but was told it was not possible — that she could move instead. She felt that was unfair.
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Stewart said she quit going to class, was afraid to go to the dining hall for fear of running into the suspect and lost a lot of weight.
She said a superior told her: “If you want a career in the military, you’ll have to get used to being uncomfortable and not getting along with everybody.”
Stewart’s release records, which she provided to CBC News, state she performed well in all aspects at the college, up until her last semester, when she failed three courses.
Her release records state she was a victim of harmful and inappropriate sexual behaviour and that her release was directly related to that incident.
CBC News has spoken with a male friend of Stewart’s, who lived in the same dorm.
CBC News is withholding his name because he remains a serving member of the military and fears disciplinary repercussions that could affect his career progression.
He said he believes it was possible for RMC to move the suspect to another building to make things easier for Stewart.
“I just don’t think they were thinking hard enough because they could have just moved a handful of people into different positions at the beginning of the next year.”
He also said all of his female friends from the RMC have told him they’ve experienced some level of sexual harassment or assault during their time there.
“I don’t think I know a single one that didn’t have something happen.”
A friend of Stewart’s said all of his female friends from the RMC have told him they’ve experienced some level of sexual harassment or assault during their time there. (Dan Taekema/CBC)
During her interview with CBC News, Stewart also disclosed that she had previously been sexually assaulted while she was a student at the French military college in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., before transferring to RMC.
She said she did not include that incident in her social media post because she did not report it. “At the end of the day, nobody failed me because I didn’t do anything about it.”
A 2023 survey of women attending Canadian military colleges, administered by the colleges, found that five per cent of women canvassed said they were sexually attacked during the previous 12 months.
DND declined an interview, but called Stewart’s assault allegations “very concerning,” in a statement, stressing there is no time limit for making a report.
“Every Defence Team member has the right to serve in an environment where they are safe and treated with dignity and respect,” the statement reads. “We know this standard has not always been met.”
The statement goes on to say that in recent years DND and the CAF have taken steps to strengthen support for those affected by sexual misconduct, improve how incidents are reported, reinforce leadership accountability and create a safer culture.
On June 18, the Military Justice System Modernization Act received Royal Assent.
The new law means cases of sexual misconduct in the military will be transferred to the civilian justice system. It includes prohibiting military police from investigating voyeurism. There will be a mandatory external review in three years to determine whether the law should be repealed.
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Only the passage of time will tell whether there has been meaningful change, said Megan MacKenzie, an expert in gender and the military at Simon Fraser University in B.C.
“We definitely have seen a commitment from many leaders, from many senior people to make changes,” she said.
“Whether that is executed on a day-to-day basis for individual leaders and the people that they are responsible for, it’s hard to know.”
Stewart said she has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder and complex post traumatic stress as a result of her experience.
She wants the higher chain of command to know her story.
“I want the colonels, the generals to hear this,” she said. “I want them to wake up in the morning and go, ‘What can I do differently to protect my subordinates?'”
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