A former army captain who led a training exercise in which a female officer was tied to a tree, beaten and left barefoot in the snow for two hours admits he hit the woman but says he did nothing wrong.
Michel Rainville told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Wednesday that he hit Capt. Sandra Perron in the April 1992 incident."There was one blow with an open hand to the abdominal region. That blow was administered by me," he said.
But he denied abusing the officer. "That was a big lie," he said.
On Monday, Le Journal de Montreal published photos of Perron tied to a tree, her head slumped, which had been taken by an officer cadet at the exercise.
Rainville - who was discharged from the army as "unfit for duty" in 1995 - said the capture of Perron was part of a routine military exercise.
He denied she was left barefoot in the snow, but he admitted he hit her, saying he gave the same type of blow to each of the prisoners captured during the exercise.
Rainville said Perron - Canada's first female infantry officer - was a friend and wanted to be hit. "She wanted to be treated like any of the men. She felt it gave women in the forces credibility," he said.
Perron has said the incident has been blown out of proportion, that it was a test she had to go through - and she was proud of it.