If this keeps up, we’ll have more officers in military courts than on the battlefield.
Every month, it seems more fine, upstanding Canadian officers are caught with their pants down in some distant part of the world.
In private life, getting caught sleeping around with somebody else’s spouse at the law office is more likely to be chatter for the after-work cocktail hour than a cause for you to lose your job.
Certainly, nobody goes to jail for adultery.
We aren’t in Iran here. That’s a problem worked out between spouses at home or, failing that, a job for a good divorce lawyer.
But the Canadian military sees things very differently, it seems.
Our former top soldier in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Ménard, has lost his job and faces 40 years in jail plus a dishonourable discharge. He’s set for a court martial next year.
And for what? For sleeping around with a subordinate officer, the charming and pretty Master Cpl. Bianka Langlois, for about five months while in Afghanistan, the military says.
The military’s code of conduct forbids soldiers in the battlefield from having romantic relations with other soldiers, even with their spouses.
The rule is supposedly there to prevent favouritism - as if that’s something that doesn’t already exist in the military.
The country sends our soldiers over to Afghanistan for nine months at a time expecting them to behave like monks. Even judges allow sequestered jurors to see their loved ones once in a while.
There was a time in the military, back during the Second World War, when going on leave meant visiting the medic who handed out a condom and wished the soldier good luck. People had a different understanding of humanity then.
But now Ménard is facing two charges of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline plus a charge of obstructing justice.
For good measure, the military laid three more charges of obstructing justice but it won’t give details. Each obstruction charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Of course, in light of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s hardline agenda, Ménard could be looking at four consecutive 10-year sentences.
Ménard’s lawyer, Lt.-Col. Troy Sweet, says the charges won’t stick. In the meantime, Ménard’s career is over.
The military is really throwing the book at Ménard. The Judge Advocate General folks must have been working overtime on this case.
It’s too bad. Ménard was what they call a soldier’s soldier. He has been in the military for 26 years and was set to come back this year to head the Canadian army in Quebec. Now his career is in ruins.
Ménard isn’t the first soldier to face such a situation. Last June, the military removed Col. Bernard Ouellette from his command in Haiti. His crime involved having an inappropriate relationship with a civilian, not another soldier. Even civilians are now off limits.
Later, the military demoted Lt.-Cmdr. Tina Hanratty, an officer aboard HMCS Moncton, to a desk job for alleged inappropriate conduct. We all know what that means by now. Her husband is Lt.-Cmdr. Niall Hanratty, commanding officer of HMCS Shawinigan.
My suggestion is to have each spouse get a ship and settle the matter with a war game. May the best spouse win.
Where does the military’s ideology against romance come from? Is it the military brass who have forgotten what it was like when they were young? Or is it from a self-righteous, religion-minded federal government?
The irony is that in Canada’s military, you can hand over Afghan prisoners for torture; you can bomb Afghan villages at night; and you can shoot the enemy all you want without getting a court martial. But if authorities catch you making love even once, that’s it. Your career is over.
And then people wonder why so many soldiers coming back to Canada have psychological problems.
Richard Cleroux is a freelance reporter and columnist on Parliament Hill. His e-mail address is [email protected].
