New CFB Trenton commander assumes command

Published On Fri Feb 19 2010

The Canadian Press

TRENTON—Leadership at an air force base rocked by scandal changed hands Friday with the new commander urging the men and women of CFB Trenton to break through the dark cloud left by their former commander, who is now facing murder charges.

A pair of signatures on a certificate officially made Col. Dave Cochrane the leader of the shaken eastern Ontario base. But it will take a lot more than that to truly move past the shocking allegations against Col. Russell Williams, a top air force officer said Friday.

“If (only) it was as easy as just signing a piece of paper and telling somebody, ‘You got the job’ and I’ll be satisfied that we have a new wing commander and everything is going to be fine,” Maj. Gen. Yvan Blondin, commander of 1 Canadian Air Division, said at an assumption of command ceremony.

Williams was not mentioned by name at the ceremony, but his alleged crimes and the inherent betrayal felt by those on the base hung heavy in the air.

“It’s like losing a bit of your innocence,” Blondin said of military members’ reaction to the charges. “You just can’t believe that this is happening. You expect people in uniform to be the white knight.”

Cochrane assumed command of Canada’s busiest air force base during the ceremony attended by hundreds of officers and dignitaries. With his family _ wife Sherri and children Jamie, 13 and Lindsay, 12, _ looking on he urged the soldiers under his command to stay proud.

“I realize this is a difficult period of time for the Canadian Forces, most notably 8 Wing Trenton and our local community,” Cochrane said.

“Stand tall, ladies and gentleman. You deserve it.”

Williams, 46, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau of Brighton and Jessica Lloyd of Belleville.

He is also charged with two counts each of forcible confinement, break and enter and sexual assault relating to attacks on women during home invasions in Tweed on Sept. 17 and Sept. 30.

Williams, who has hired high-profile Ottawa lawyer Michael Edelson to handle his case, was formally relieved of his command Thursday after making his first court appearance, via video.

He is being held at the Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee.

Comeau, 37, was found dead in her home in Brighton last November. She was a flight attendant at CFB Trenton and served aboard the same military VIP flights Williams piloted for much of the 1990s, ferrying the Governor General, the prime minister and other dignitaries on domestic and overseas trips.

Lloyd’s body was found in Tweed two weeks after the 27-year-old failed to show up at her job in Napanee.

Police have said they don’t expect to release the cause of death of either Lloyd or Comeau, but various media have quoted sources as saying the women were asphyxiated.

According to a search warrant issued before Williams emerged as the primary suspect in the cases, detectives entered the home of a prior suspect looking for lingerie, baby blankets and computer data storage devices.

The warrant was related to the attacks on the two women who were bound and sexually assaulted in their homes. Both women lived within walking distance of Williams’ cottage.

Cochrane grew up in Toronto and received a mechanical engineering degree from Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., in 1986. During his long and varied career he has participated in several deployments, including the Gulf War and Kurdish re-supply air drop missions, before moving on to training and supervisory positions. He received a master’s degree in defence studies from RMC and has overseen Hercules, Challenger and Airbus projects.