‘IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING’
OTTAWA— Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, spoke to the Star about the newly released report that concludes the military failed to deal effectively with reports of child sexual abuse in Afghanistan by Afghan soldiers and interpreters. Q: What is your take-away?
When I became (chief of defence staff) and was briefed that this board was still pending, I placed a very high premium on it getting done quickly, including putting a lot of personal time into reading it, understanding it, and getting it done. It’s been a long time coming, too long in my view. Many of the recommendations were acted on right away. . . . I want to make certain that it endures into all missions and so it becomes a part of what we do. Q: This report spoke to the nature of conflict today. Not only do you need to be trained in the enemy and warfare but there is a sub-layer of complexity.
It’s a conflicted environment. We were an active combatant in that environment and . . . because of the nature of our operations, we weren’t present and privy to the private acts of Afghans.
To characterize the environment as people kind of witness these acts right in front of us would be dead wrong. That certainly didn’t happen when I was task force commander. We can’t possibly expect all of our soldiers to be trained as international human rights lawyers. That’s not what we’re there for. What we do though is bring with us a very solid set of — and the ability to act on — Canadian values and the law of armed conflict. Q: You’re confident that between the written orders and beefed-up training that a soldier today would feel empowered to intervene?
A soldier would be able to take a pro-active role, whether that is reporting or whether it’s an actual intervention with the use of deadly force or non-deadly force. Mission by mission we make decisions around what is legal and authorized in that particular mission. It’s conceivable that we could be in a place where the use of deadly force may violate not only Canadian law but the law of the land that we are in, but non-deadly force would be perfectly acceptable. We’ve got to make certain that we gear the training of the solider and the rules of engagement and the appropriate orders from me to do what is the right thing. . . . I am confident that our soldiers have an active avenue available to them on all missions. Q: I’m sure in some cases a soldier feels conflicted, is he imposing a Canadian value?
I don’t feel as conflicted. I spent a lot of time in Afghanistan. Abusing children is not part of their culture. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. That culture tends to celebrate their children. They dote on their children and the abuse of a child is inherently and fundamentally not a part of their culture. I don’t know of any Afghan commander that I worked with that would condone such a thing. I mean they are all family people. They wanted their country to be better. I think this is down into the level of criminal act.