Army reserve force commanders dumped
Military mum on details of three incidents
IT BEGS THE QUESTION ABOUT WHAT THE HECKIS GOING ON IN THESE UNITS.
In an unprecedented series of developments that one former officer says represents a crisis in leadership in the Canadian Army Reserve, the military has in the past several months removed one reserve unit commanding officer, temporarily suspended another and accepted the resignation of a third.
At the same time, it has faced a case of alleged persistent racial abuse in one of its reserve units, sources told Postmedia, amid allegations of an attempted cover-up.
The four cases appear to be unrelated, as they affect different reserve units in Ontario. But the military is refusing to provide details. “In order to respect the rights of individuals involved, under the Privacy Act, we will not be providing specifics about the circumstances,” said army spokesman Lt.-Col. Andre Salloum.
The army confirmed the senior officers’ status, but declined to say whether the events surrounding the removal of the officers involved sexual impropriety or the theft of public funds. The army also confirmed an investigation into the alleged racist incidents was carried out at the unit level, but would not provide information about which of the 40 Canadian Army primary reserve units in Ontario are involved. Military police are not investigating.
Brig.-Gen. Jocelyn Paul, the officer in charge of all army reserves, made the decision to remove the commanders in September. Paul is in command of the 4th Canadian Division, which comprises the regular and reserve force army units in Ontario. The division has more than 13,000 personnel and staff, including around 6,000 reservists.
Salloum declined to say when it was that army leadership found out about the incidents that led to the officers’ removal, but said Paul assumed command of 4th Canadian Division on June 23 and that “commanders receive briefings soon after taking command.”
“The timeframe of (the) circumstances which led to the removals of the commanding officers spanned from June 2017 to September 2018,” Salloum said. Asked when the army last removed a reserve unit commander, Salloum cited only the removals of the officers in question.
Asked whether the removals and related incidents were discussed with the senior army leadership when they met in Ottawa recently, Salloum said army commander Lt.-Gen. Jean- Marc Lanthier did talk with his commanders about “his expectations of complete adherence to the code of ethics and the Canadian Armed Forces ethos, with an emphasis on the critical role that command teams set to their soldiers by their personal example.”
Meanwhile, military sources said a white army reserve soldier was involved in an altercation with a black reservist, allegedly taunting him with a racial slur. Members of 32 Brigade Group in the Toronto area also reported the white soldier had repeatedly used the N-word during training earlier this year. It could be enough for the military to consider kicking the individual out of the military, sources said. The army has allowed the white soldier, whose father is a senior reserve officer, to stay in uniform and has transferred him to another unit.
“There have been no attempts to ignore this incident,” Salloum said.
Retired colonel Michel Drapeau, an Ottawa lawyer, said the removal of a number of commanding officers in such a short period of time raises concerns about a crisis at the leadership level of the reserves. “It begs the question about what the heck is going on in these units,” said Drapeau.
He said there are provisions in the Privacy Act that would allow the release of details to the public after the alleged racial incidents and the removal of the officers. But Drapeau said he believes it is in the “corporate interests” of the military to keep that information under wraps.
Rory Fowler, a lawyer from Kingston, Ont., and a retired lieutenant colonel, said the military is on solid ground legally in citing privacy laws as the cases proceeded using administrative measures. If disciplinary action had been taken and a court martial held then the information would be required to be released.
What is cause for concern, Fowler said, is the military’s increasing use of such administrative action instead of the more formal process. “That way, you’re not going to have public scrutiny and it’s not something that will be discussed in the public domain,” he said. “That, I think, is a problem as it stifles public debate and public discussion about what the issues are.”
The Canadian Forces is in the midst of trying to entice more recruits to join the reserves as the federal government wants to boost the size of that force.
Reservists are considered part-time soldiers but are being used on domestic and overseas missions.