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Vance golf partner has power over probe

FLAGGED BY JUDGE

Lee Berthiaume

OTTAWA • One of the senior military officers who golfed with former chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vance has the power to direct military investigations — a power recently flagged by a retired Supreme Court justice as a threat to police independence.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and the Department of National Defence have confirmed vice-chief of the defence staff Lt.-gen. Mike Rouleau and Royal Canadian Navy commander Vice-admiral Craig Baines recently joined Vance for a game of golf in Ottawa.

The game came as Vance is under military police investigation on allegations of sexual misconduct, and despite Rouleau having the power to issue orders to the Canadian Armed Forces’ top police officer, Provost Marshal Brig.-gen. Simon Trudeau.

Since controversial changes were made to the National Defence Act in 2013, those orders have included the ability to “issue instructions or guidelines in writing in respect of a particular investigation.”

That unique power to intervene in military police investigations was flagged in an occasionally scathing report on the military justice system by retired Supreme Court justice Morris Fish.

The report was released on June 1, one day before media reports say Rouleau and Baines hit the links with Vance.

Fish in his report said such orders are supposed to be made public, and that he was unaware of a vice-chief having issued such guidelines.

But he added that the provost marshal can decide not to reveal the orders if he decides. Fish went on to say the provision “significantly encroaches on police independence,” and called for it to be repealed.

“The threat posed by this provision is even greater than the threat from the authority of the (Judge Advocate General) to issue particular directives to the (director of military prosecutions),” Fish wrote.

“This power ... may prevent the constitution of any evidentiary record to begin with.”

Rouleau, who was set to turn the vice-chief position over to Lt.-gen. Frances Allen and move to a new role advising acting defence chief Lt.-gen. Wayne Eyre, could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday.

Neither Sajjan’s office nor the Defence Department responded to questions about whether Rouleau had issued instructions in relation to any military police investigation, nor did the government say whether it would repeal the provision flagged by Fish.

The recommendation was not one of those that the government and Defence Department said they would immediately implement when Fish’s report was publicly released, though Sajjan’s office said it has been accepted in principle.

“Our members and employees deserve institutions in which they can have full confidence, and we are working to deliver reforms that will bolster our members’ confidence in the military justice system,” Sajjan spokesman Todd Lane said in an email.

Fish also recommended that the provost marshal be appointed by cabinet and report to the defence minister rather than the chief of defence staff.

Vance is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, Maj. Kellie Brennan, that started in 2001 and continued after he became Canada’s top military commander in 2015.

He is also accused of having sent a lewd email to another soldier in 2012.

Those reports sparked a number of other complaints of inappropriate sexual behaviour by senior military officers, some of which have also led to police investigations.

A parliamentary committee heard explosive testimony in April from Brennan that Vance told her that he “owned” the military police.

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2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

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