Colonel's arrest won't shake confidence in military - Windsor

This story was published in todays edition of the Fredericton NB Daily-Gleaner Newspaper.

The arrest of a Canadian Forces commander in Ontario for murder and sexual assault won't affect public confidence in military leadership at locations such as Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, says an expert.

Lee Windsor, the deputy director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, said people at Canadian Forces Base Trenton will question that connection but not at other locations.

Canada's military was given a collective shock Monday with the allegation that the colonel in command of the country's largest air force base had killed two women and sexually assaulted two others.

Col. Russell Williams, 46, was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville and Marie France Comeau, a 38, a corporal with CFB Trenton's 437 squadron. She was killed in November.

Windsor said there's no question that Williams was a respected figure in Trenton.

"I think this is a problem that will affect the Trenton community," Windsor said. "I do not think it will have a ripple effect in places like Gagetown. The nature of the relationship between senior leadership, commanders, formations and Base Gagetown, and the people of the communities of Oromocto and Fredericton is based on their ties. It doesn't have anything to do with Trenton and I don't think that, as horrible a circumstances this is, it's not going to do anything to change the relationship here."

Ross Ingram, a retired major in the reserves, agrees.

"There are so many people in high military positions who are serving well," he said. "They are going to realize this is an exception to the rule. It's an unfortunate thing, but it's not going to affect all who are doing a good job."

Bob Lockhart said he can't recall anything similar happening in the Forces.

With the leadership group within the military being relatively small, everyone gets to know one another so well that their idiosyncrasies or failings are quite often common knowledge, said Lockhart, a retired lieutenant-colonel in the reserves.

"All of these people are weeded out, usually at the lower levels."

Lockhart said the impact of what happened in Trenton will be minimal on a well-trained, well-disciplined organization such as the Canadian Forces.

"If there is an isolated case, the speed and the justice of which it is handled will immediately restore the good reputation," he said. "If an organization of tens of thousands can be destroyed by one aberrant incident, it's not the organization we want to defend us."