Dee Brasseur

Who is Dee Brasseur?

Major Deanna Marie Brasseur, CM is a retired Canadian military officer and one of the first two female CF-18 Hornet fighter pilots in the world.

Born in Pembroke, Ontario, a daughter to Lieutenant Colonel Lionel C. Brasseur and Marie Olive, she joined the Canadian Forces in 1972 as an administrative clerk at a dental unit detachment in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The following year, she was accepted for commissioning under the Officer Candidate training program. She graduated as an Air Weapons Controller in 1974. In 1979, she was accepted for pilot training and received her wings in 1981. In 1988, she took fighter pilot training. She retired from the military in 1994 with 2,500 hours of jet flying.

In 1998, a Maclean's cover story on sexual abuse in the Canadian Forces prompted Brasseur to go public with her own experiences. In the June 1 edition of the magazine, Brasseur claimed that throughout her 21-year career she faced unwanted sexual advances, was raped by her enlisted boyfriend and was coerced into having sex with her flight teacher.

In 1998, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2007, she was inducted into the Women in Aviation, International Pioneer Hall of Fame.