10-18-2010, 07:49 PM
Winnipeg Free Press:
Posted: 18/10/2010
OTTAWA - In the warrior culture of the new Canadian Forces, it couldn't get much more humiliating.
His crimes were heinous but images of Col. Russell Williams, the confessed murderer, frolicking in women's and girl's underwear added a new, unexpected layer of shame for the straight-laced military community.
"Freak" was among the words tossed around the military messes late Monday after the sensational case resurfaced in an eastern Ontario court.
The disturbing pornographic photos, which showed the former base commander and rising military star indulging in his fetishes, served to hammer home questions about he was able to evade the military's extensive psychological screening for command positions.
Williams pleaded guilty to the murders of two Ontario women, two sexual assaults and 82 break and enters.
The trophy shots shown in court, some of which showed him dressed in women's underwear and a training bra while masturbating, have the potential to do serious damage to morale within the Forces, especially when cast alongside a series of other embarrassing cases this year.
"The reaction is one of absolute dismay and absolute abhorrence," said Alec Morrison, a professor and military expert at Royal Roads University in Victoria.
Morrison said the Afghan mission has given the Canadian Forces a large pool of goodwill and public sympathy, and how badly that is depleted by the Williams case depends on how firmly the leadership responds.
Within hours of the guilty pleas, the military moved to drum Williams from the ranks, beginning a month-long administrative process that will strip him of his rank, medals and eventually lead to explusion from the air force.
The exercise is as much about damage control as it is justice.
"The whole affair will reflect badly on the Forces, but how long lasting it will depend on whether the leadership maintains a serious, well-measured and mature approach," said Morrison.
There are still tough questions the military will have to answer in the wake of the sensational case, including what it is doing to root out other potential deviants and whether there have been unsolved crimes on military bases related to Williams. Those in uniform are subject to an entirely separate justice system if crimes are committed on military property.
Brig.-Gen. Neville Russell, the head of air force personnel, said the military plans to tighten its psychological screening, but insisted the revisions had been planned before the Williams case exploded in the media. He noted there are a number of layers to the current system, including annual fitness and performance reviews.
But all of them failed to spot Williams, a decorated, motivated officer in charge of the country's largest military air base and, by all accounts, on his way to a senior command in Ottawa.
"To be honest, there are no tests that the CF conducts that could, or are designed to detect psychopathic behaviour, as in this case," said Russell.
"I just don't think they exist."
Senior defence officials, speaking on background, said since the charges were laid there have been a battery of soul-serarching reviews related to how the military conducts its mental health evaluations. Both Russell and the officials declined to say precisely how the system will change and what safeguards are being built in.
Earlier this year, the country's ground commander in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, was fired after being accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female subordinate. The same accusation was also leveled at the army's top officer in Haiti last summer.
victims:
Comeau, 37, a much-loved military flight attendant who had flown with the pilot Williams, was murdered Nov. 25, 2009.
Lloyd, a fun-loving 27-year-old who worked at a Napanee, Ont., bus company, disappeared Jan. 28, and after an unsuccessful exhaustive search was located weeks later on Feb. 8, on a rural road near her hometown of Tweed, one day after the Feb. 7 arrest of Williams.
Posted: 18/10/2010
OTTAWA - In the warrior culture of the new Canadian Forces, it couldn't get much more humiliating.
His crimes were heinous but images of Col. Russell Williams, the confessed murderer, frolicking in women's and girl's underwear added a new, unexpected layer of shame for the straight-laced military community.
"Freak" was among the words tossed around the military messes late Monday after the sensational case resurfaced in an eastern Ontario court.
The disturbing pornographic photos, which showed the former base commander and rising military star indulging in his fetishes, served to hammer home questions about he was able to evade the military's extensive psychological screening for command positions.
Williams pleaded guilty to the murders of two Ontario women, two sexual assaults and 82 break and enters.
The trophy shots shown in court, some of which showed him dressed in women's underwear and a training bra while masturbating, have the potential to do serious damage to morale within the Forces, especially when cast alongside a series of other embarrassing cases this year.
"The reaction is one of absolute dismay and absolute abhorrence," said Alec Morrison, a professor and military expert at Royal Roads University in Victoria.
Morrison said the Afghan mission has given the Canadian Forces a large pool of goodwill and public sympathy, and how badly that is depleted by the Williams case depends on how firmly the leadership responds.
Within hours of the guilty pleas, the military moved to drum Williams from the ranks, beginning a month-long administrative process that will strip him of his rank, medals and eventually lead to explusion from the air force.
The exercise is as much about damage control as it is justice.
"The whole affair will reflect badly on the Forces, but how long lasting it will depend on whether the leadership maintains a serious, well-measured and mature approach," said Morrison.
There are still tough questions the military will have to answer in the wake of the sensational case, including what it is doing to root out other potential deviants and whether there have been unsolved crimes on military bases related to Williams. Those in uniform are subject to an entirely separate justice system if crimes are committed on military property.
Brig.-Gen. Neville Russell, the head of air force personnel, said the military plans to tighten its psychological screening, but insisted the revisions had been planned before the Williams case exploded in the media. He noted there are a number of layers to the current system, including annual fitness and performance reviews.
But all of them failed to spot Williams, a decorated, motivated officer in charge of the country's largest military air base and, by all accounts, on his way to a senior command in Ottawa.
"To be honest, there are no tests that the CF conducts that could, or are designed to detect psychopathic behaviour, as in this case," said Russell.
"I just don't think they exist."
Senior defence officials, speaking on background, said since the charges were laid there have been a battery of soul-serarching reviews related to how the military conducts its mental health evaluations. Both Russell and the officials declined to say precisely how the system will change and what safeguards are being built in.
Earlier this year, the country's ground commander in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, was fired after being accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female subordinate. The same accusation was also leveled at the army's top officer in Haiti last summer.
victims:
Comeau, 37, a much-loved military flight attendant who had flown with the pilot Williams, was murdered Nov. 25, 2009.
Lloyd, a fun-loving 27-year-old who worked at a Napanee, Ont., bus company, disappeared Jan. 28, and after an unsuccessful exhaustive search was located weeks later on Feb. 8, on a rural road near her hometown of Tweed, one day after the Feb. 7 arrest of Williams.