Our Forces suffer a big blow to morale

Charges against colonel couldn't come at a worse time for military

By Don Martin
Canwest News Service
February 12, 2010


It shouldn't be happening because the uniform isn't on trial, but morale is free-falling inside Canadian Forces Base Trenton after the base commander was charged with double murders and a pair of sexual assaults.

The stain on the one is, wrongly, spreading to the many.

"Everyone in the Canadian Forces will tell you officially that it won't harm morale, but how couldn't it?" confided a senior officer in the reserves. "People are going to feel shocked, and I expect that many folks, particularly in the Trenton area, are going to be looking at people in military uniforms a little differently as this plays out. This can't be good for morale."

He is, sadly, correct.

Col. Russell Williams is entitled to the judicial presumption of innocence, but he can only be cleared after a prolonged media frenzy of a trial fixated on someone whose heinous crimes are worsened, if that's possible, by his lofty standing in the Canadian Forces.

Questions will swirl about how a man accused of such crimes could have been promoted to a rank where he mingled with the defence minister and piloted prime ministers or governors general on Challenger jets.

Assault victims are already coming forward to document the horror they allegedly experienced in cringing detail. Websites are filling with tributes for the murder victims and venomous outrage aimed at the accused.

And all this is erupting before a single shred of what will undoubtedly be horrific evidence in an expanding investigation is put before the courts of law and public opinion.

One retired senior officer with numerous contacts inside the chain of command was spitting fury at the situation confronting soldiers on Tuesday.

"The commander they entrusted with their lives stands accused of taking them. There is no greater breach of trust," he fumed.

Ironically, this blow strikes a military firing on all cylinders and arguably at the peak of its deployment power.

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, commander of land forces, was practically bursting his brass buttons late last week when we chatted over coffee in an Ottawa restaurant.

He's a general with a no-nonsense edginess who relishes in telling stories about his most aggressive officers and thinks a busy military is a happy fighting force.

By that measure, his army is a very, very happy place.

"I have never seen the army more active than it is right now," he told me.

His regular 2,500-soldier deployment in Kandahar is preparing to assist the British and Americans in a major Taliban clear out this week. He's got 3,000 soldiers in the California desert training in mock Afghanistan conditions for a battlefield they'll be fighting on later this year. There are 4,000 soldiers in the Vancouver area backstopping RCMP for 2010 Winter Olympics security. There are 1,500 army soldiers in Haiti helping earthquake survivors. And the northern Rangers are more active than ever patrolling the Arctic.

Without an infusion of 2,500 regular soldiers in the last few years, the army would be stretched beyond its deployment capacity, he said.

"Morale is really high even though everyone is literally working their butts off," Leslie said. "The respect and support they enjoy from Canadians is unprecedented in my 30 years wearing army green."

The proof of an energized army comes every time he addresses troops poised to head overseas for the dangers of Afghanistan. Leslie offers them a last-minute chance to refuse the assignment without losing face.

"I've probably asked that question to 25,000 soldiers and only had one bow out. His excuse was that his wife just found out his girlfriend was pregnant," he said with a grin. Gosh, I couldn't dream up a better excuse to flee for the relative safety of Kandahar battlefields if confronted by that scenario.

Contacted for a followup on Tuesday to discuss the impact of Williams' arrest on soldier morale, Leslie not surprisingly backs his soldiers.

"I am personally shocked and appalled, but morale is and will remain high in the army."

Here's hoping he's right. If the charges against Williams stick, it's only evidence of a single deranged individual and not a uniform stain on Canadian soldiers who deserve only our respect.

dmartincanwest.com

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