Canadian commander in Haiti relieved of duty

The top Canadian military commander in Haiti has been relieved of his duties after allegations he was involved in an inappropriate relationship with someone outside the Forces.

Col. Bernard Ouellette, who was the chief of staff for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, is under investigation, said Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay, a spokesman for Canadian Expeditionary Force Command.

Lemay said the decision was based on Ouellette's "inability to address a negative environment that lasted a few months, which affected the morale and team cohesion within the Canadian contingent."

The "situation within the team deteriorated," Lemay added

"Ouellete was at the end of his tour," Lemay said, adding that he did "great on the mission in Haiti, especially during the earthquake. He should be applauded for that."


Alain Pellerin, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, says the decision to dismiss Ouellette — coming so closely on the heels of Menard's dismissal and during the high-profile court-martial of Capt. Robert Semrau for the murder of a gravely wounded Afghan insurgent — is part of a stark message to the rank-and-file.


"The message is that the rules are there to be obeyed, and they must be obeyed by everyone: from the soldiers on the ground to those in command," he said.


"What you're seeing with the Menard and Semrau cases, and with this latest one, is a message that the army of today is not the army of decades ago. The Armed Forces will not stand for another Somalia."


Pellerin's reference to Somalia goes back to one of the darkest scandals in Canadian military history — the vicious beating death of a Somali teen by Canadian soldiers serving there during a humanitarian mission in 1993.

Well it looks like another senior office has gotten himself into a little trouble. Whether it was actually having sex with someone, or just an emotional thing, has not come out. The story states that this had been going on for months; why the delay in firing him?

And Pellerin's reference to Somalia is quite like a pile of shite. It is not like the Canadian Army never beat to death anyone before. To think that the actions of a few caused the disbanding of the Airborne Regt is f**king horrible. Only to have the Army create the CSOR (Canadian Special Operations Regiment)for duty in Afghanistan when they realized - Hey, we could sure use some tough well-trained combat killer hero types to fight the Taliban.

Robert Semrau's case should be thrown out, and it never should have been brought this far.

And Bernard Ouellete is another R22R, vandoo. And while they said he did a great job in Haiti, particulary after the quake, while on the same page is another story about how Haitian relief is disorganized and they wonder where all the money went is quite curious.