Ex-general cautious about CFB Trenton charges

Updated: Fri Feb. 12 2010 17:03:03

CTV.ca News Staff

A retired military official says that troops at CFB Trenton aren't demoralized, despite reports that spirits at the base have plunged after Col. Russell Williams was charged in two deaths and two sex assaults.

Retired major general Lewis MacKenzie said Friday that the base is still operating around the clock.

"There are reports that morale in Trenton has hit rock bottom? Baloney," MacKenzie told CTV News Channel.

Williams is charged with the first-degree murder of Jessica Lloyd, a 27-year-old Belleville, Ont., woman who was found dead on Monday, and the first-degree murder of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, a 37-year-old air force flight attendant who was found dead at her Brighton, Ont., home last November.

Still, MacKenzie said the military community across the country has been affected by the charges, adding: "You can really be pissed off and still have good morale."

Williams is also charged with two counts each of forcible confinement, as well as break-and-enter and sexual assault relating to alleged attacks on two women from Tweed, Ont., a town about 60 kilometres north of CFB Trenton.

"We feel that we have been let down," MacKenzie said.

On Friday afternoon, it was announced that Lt.-Col. Dave Cochrane would take over command of the base.

According to interviews with Williams' friends and family, the former colonel exhibited few signs that suggested he would ever be on police radar.

MacKenzie agreed, adding that military officials would have had very little indication that Williams could one day face criminal charges.

Since police announced charges against Williams earlier this week, it has emerged that the accused was born in England, but moved to Canada in his youth.

His parents divorced after arriving in Canada and his mother eventually remarried. For a time, Williams changed his name to Russell Sovka, taking the last name of his then-stepfather, Jerry Sovka.

Stan Sovka, the brother of Williams' former stepfather, said he and his wife, Madeline, were shocked by the charges facing the man they knew long before he became a rising star in the Canadian Forces.

"That's not the guy we know," Madeline Sovka said from Calgary. "We knew a very nice man, a nice boy growing up, no problem, very gentle."

Before studying at the University of Toronto, Williams attended Upper Canada College, an elite private school that counts Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and actor Brendan Fraser among its alumni.

Back then, Williams was a quiet student who earned good grades. A yearbook photo shows him wearing a striped tie and sport coat, sporting a bushy hairstyle that was typical of the time period.

He liked music, was considered a skilled trumpet player and was one of the top-five prefects in his dorm, demonstrating the leadership qualities that got him noticed in the military.

Innes van Nostrand, now a vice-principal at Upper Canada College, graduated from the school at the same time as Williams and remembers him as a "diligent, hard-working fellow who was not a high-profile guy here."

"That's how I think most people in the class would probably describe him: a serious student and a really good musician."

He graduated in 1982, moving on to earn a degree in political science and economics at the University of Toronto campus in Scarborough, in east-end Toronto.

Members of Williams' family still hold ties to the Toronto area.

His mother, Nonie Sovka, still lives in Toronto, where she works as a physiotherapist at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre.

She wrote a letter to Madeline and Stan Sovka at Christmas telling them about the "beautiful ceremony" that saw her son promoted to colonel last summer.

Since the charges were announced against her son, Nonie Sovka's voicemail has indicated she will be "off campus on an emergency basis."

His brother, Harvey Williams, is a doctor in Bowmanville, Ont., a small town about an hour east of Toronto.

After graduating from university, Williams joined the military and began his ascent to the position of the commander of CFB Trenton.

Williams married Mary-Elizabeth Harriman, who works as an associate executive director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Madeline Sovka said she has not spoken with Harriman but said she believes the couple was close.

"He had a good relationship and a wonderful wife," she said. "We just don't know if it's possible that he could be the one."

Police investigation

Beyond looking at Williams' roots, police are probing if the accused colonel has ties to other unsolved crimes in regions where he has previously been posted.

His official Department of National Defence biography indicates he earned his wings within three years of joining the military and was assigned to 3 Canadian Forces Flying Training School in Portage la Prairie, Man. He worked there for two years as an instructor.

In 1992, he was posted to CFB Shearwater in Nova Scotia, where he piloted a CC144 Challenger.

After that, Williams was transferred to Ottawa, eventually earning a promotion to the rank of major in November 1999. He then returned to school, earning a Master of Defence Studies degree from the Royal Military College in 2004.

From December 2005 to June 2006, he led Camp Mirage, a logistics base that is reportedly near Dubai, but which is not officially acknowledged by the government or military. In January 2009, he was promoted to colonel and spent six months attending French language training in Gatineau, Que.

He took over the leadership reins at CFB Trenton in July of last year.

In Ottawa, Insp. Al Tario is heading up a team that will determine if Williams can be tied to 30 unsolved crimes dating back more than three decades ago.

"We'll be looking at our unsolved break-ins, unsolved sexual assaults. We'll be looking at unsolved homicides, unsolved missing person cases, etc.," Tario told CTV News on Thursday.

On Thursday, police continued to search the Ottawa home Williams shares with his wife.

Police also searched the lakeside cottage the couple owns in Tweed, a small town near Trenton where Williams is accused of sexually assaulting two of his neighbours.

At present, Williams is being held in the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee, Ont., about 60 kilometres east of CFB Trenton. The Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper reports that Williams was initially placed on suicide watch at the jail, but has since been allowed to exchange his suicide gown for a standard issue, orange jumpsuit.

He is scheduled to make a video appearance in court on Feb. 18.

With files from The Canadian Press