For the second time in as many months, a senior Canadian Forces officer serving overseas has been stripped of his command for having what the military calls “an inappropriate relationship.”
But this time — unlike the May firing of Canada’s top soldier in Afghanistan — the object of Canada’s top soldier in Haiti’s affection wasn’t a female subordinate but a female United Nations civilian staffer stationed at UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince.
Col. Bernard Ouellette, chief of staff to the United Nations mission in Haiti and commander of a team of 10 Canadian soldiers, was relieved of his duties June 26 and is now the subject of an internal investigation into a number of allegations that include his relationship with the UN staffer.
Ouellette, a member of the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment, was on vacation in Quebec when he was told he would not be returning to Haiti. He remains on vacation.
Despite the investigation, the military did not intend to notify the public of Ouellette’s firing and only did so Friday after a member of the international press stationed in Haiti began asking authorities there why Ouellette had not returned to his post.
“You can’t just let the top person in Haiti go and say the public should be satisfied with ‘an internal investigation,’ ” Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal party’s defence critic, said late Friday.
“If the matter is so serious and the person has been relieved of his command and it isn’t in a war zone why would the military keep it confidential and secret for so long?”
The case is under internal investigation by the military, and the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) will not disclose the particulars of the allegations.
“To me right now it’s not trying to hide any information on Col. Ouellette,” said Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay, a spokesman for CEFCOM. “We do not disclose information until an investigation finds out whether it is right or wrong,”
Ouellette was the celebrated face of Canada’s relief effort in January after an earthquake left much of Haiti in ruins. At that time he was halfway through a year-long deployment in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where he worked with an international force that includes Canadian police officers.
The colonel’s dismissal came shortly after Brig.-Gen. Daniel Ménard, commander of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, was stripped of his command for an alleged “inappropriate relationship” with a female soldier of lower rank.
The military is still investigating that case.
Lemay explained: “We have within DND a rule that when you deploy on every mission you don’t engage in a relationship.”
Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, commander of the Canadian Forces abroad, was made aware of the relationship and other allegations against Ouellette several months ago and chose to relieve the colonel of his command after the allegations began lowering the morale of the 10 Canadian soldiers under Ouellette’s command.
“The situation that evolved around perceptions and chit-chats and stuff like that ended up being negative for the team that was living together to the point that Gen. Lessard thought that Col. Ouellette had not addressed the situation with regard to the welfare and the morale and the cohesion of the team and it was better at this point to bring him back.”
The cases of Ouellette and Ménard have some questioning whether there are serious problems in the top echelons of the Canadian Forces.
“These incidents in a short period of time show that it is not an isolated incident and maybe the military needs to reflect on that and see what needs to be done,” said Jack Harris, defence critic for the NDP.
“We don’t know the nature of the conduct in either (the Ouellette or Ménard) case so we’d like to hear more from the chief of defence staff about this as to whether he sees a problem and whether he thinks there needs to be more rigorous understanding of the rules.”
Another Canadian officer who was due to take over Ouellette’s duties later this month will arrive in Port-au-Prince next week.
Be the first to comment