Mr. Speaker, I must say it is a privilege to speak to Bill C-25, an act to amend the National Defence Act, involving primarily military justice. The title of the bill does not state it all. I want to mention some of the highlights of this bill before I get into the discussion of its content.
Bill C-25 includes proposed amendments to the National Defence Act that attempt to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the military justice system's principal actors, including the Minister of National Defence and the judge advocate general. It also attempts to establish clear standards of institutional separation between the investigative, prosecutorial, defence and judicial functions. It establishes two independent oversight bodies external to the department and the Canadian forces, one a Canadian forces grievance board and the other a military police complaints commission.
The bill also abolishes the death penalty as a punishment and substitutes it with life in prison.
The bill requires the Canadian forces grievance board, the military police complaints commission and the judge advocate general to file annual reports that the minister must table in this House. These reports are in addition to the annual reports of the ombudsman, the chief of defence staff and the Canadian forces provost martial. It also requires the minister of defence to have the National Defence Act reviewed and the results of that review reported to Parliament within five years.
Mr. Speaker, I know that you stay awake late at night worrying about all of these different tablings and so on. I am sure that you will appreciate this process is appropriate within our parliamentary system.
It really is a joy for me to join the debate on Bill C-25, a bill which I have indicated changes and modernizes the National Defence Act and in particular the code of service discipline.
As most members of this House know, the main focus of Bill C-25 and a key focus of the National Defence Act is the military justice system, a distinct system of penal law applicable to members of the Canadian forces and other persons subject to Canadian military jurisdiction.
We all recognize that the military justice system in recent years has been under increasing scrutiny and pressure for change. A number of factors have contributed to the introduction of this bill.
One factor is undoubtedly the extended and unprecedented period of time since Canada was last involved in a major war and the perception that chances of such involvement are now very remote. This situation tends to lead people both inside and outside the military to be less tolerant of any perceived systematic unfairness in the system and its retention of punishments perceived as excessive or rather out of date.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that while we have been fortunate enough not to be involved in a major war for many, many years now and in fact for some decades, we do not forget the fact that many of those serving in our armed forces are serving in very troubled hot spots around the world. As we debate this change to Bill C-25, they are carrying on their best efforts as peacekeepers and peacemakers on behalf of Canada.
Another factor has been the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This constitutional change has brought the military justice system as well as the Canadian legal system generally under increased scrutiny as regards procedural safeguards for accused persons and principles of fairness and equality of treatment generally.
Particular attention has been drawn to aspects of the military justice system that reflect the disparity of treatment between soldiers and civilians or among military personnel. These include the lack of certain traditional criminal law safeguards at summary trials, the fact that only junior ranks, privates and corporals, and non-commissioned officers, master corporals and sergeants, can be summarily sentenced to detention or reduction in rank.
Also, commanding officers had considerable discretion in deciding to proceed or dismiss charges, including very serious criminal charges, the fact that persons exercising judicial fact functions, or what would be judicial functions in the civilian system, are often members of the chain of command who have no legal training and have other apparently conflicting responsibilities for administering the code of service discipline.
Let us be very clear. All of us in this House today know what is behind Bill C-25. In the last two years, such issues and concerns have been brought to the forefront by various high profile cases such as those relating to the misconduct by a handful of selected forces members in Somalia and Bosnia and the cases of Lieutenant Commander Marsaw and Corporal Purnelle.
The 1997 report on both the Somalia Inquiry and the Dickson report recommended a series of changes to the military justice system. There have also been a number of other internal and external studies dealing with possible reforms of the military system when it comes to justice.
New Democrats appreciate the efforts of the Minister of National Defence to bring the military justice system more in line with the civilian justice system. We are very concerned about the issue of accountability when it comes to the military justice system. Unfortunately, the efforts of the Minister of National Defence in this regard just do not go far enough. We regret that greatly. We were hoping for significant changes in the area of accountability, but unfortunately this has not happened with this particular piece of legislation.
We know that something went terribly wrong in Somalia. We sent Canadian troops to Somalia to help keep the peace. Some ended up killing the same people they were sent there to help. It is a horrible thing that happened. It would not be right to sweep this under the rug and pretend it never happened. Nor would it be right to simply deny it. It would not be right to deny why this happened. It is certainly not right that certain individuals involved in this terrible incident are not now held accountable.
All of this has happened. This is a fact. What is more shocking than the incident itself is the cover-up that happened and occurred after, a cover-up that included some of Canada's senior defence personnel.
Canadians first learned about the Somalia incident through some enterprising news reports. Some talented inquiring reporters broke the story. We learned more when Canadian soldiers with a conscience blew the whistle as well. However, during this time soldiers in the upper levels of the military were busy little beavers tampering with some documents, destroying some, distorting others and stonewalling at every opportunity.
Canadians, in spite of their efforts, could not get the full story no matter how hard they tried. In 1994 the Liberal government set up the Somalia Commission of Inquiry. In the beginning the Liberals appeared very keen to get to the truth. They were going to get to the bottom of things. I remember time after time various ministers and others speaking in this House saying it was important to get to the bottom of the Somalia issue.
When the commission started working, they too were stonewalled by military brass in their attempts to avoid having the truth come out. To say the least, this frustrated the commissioners. We all remember night after night on the news various commissioners in their own adroit way explaining the frustration that they experienced in terms of getting to the facts.
Nevertheless, the commission continued and the Liberal government got scared. They were now well into their term of office and preparing for an election call. I guess they did not want the defence department's dirty laundry being aired on the eve of an election. We all know what happened next.
Doug Young, the former minister of defence, shut the Somalia inquiry down. One of the commissioners called the shutdown the most brazen cover-up in denials of responsibility in the history of this country. He also said that the Liberal government's actions were a brazen cover-up and a denial of responsibility.
Because the government snuffed out the inquiry, Canadians will never know the truth about what happened in Somalia and Canadians will never know who was really responsible for all the cover-up.
I just grabbed a handful of newspaper clippings of that time from my file. I thought it would be appropriate to read some of the headlines into the record.
One of the panelists said of the commission that the Department of National Defence got away with it. Others went on to say some very questionable things. I do not think our rules would allow me to use some of the language in these presentations. I will set those aside.
One headline says “An inquiry insider slams the federal government's response”. A second says “Prime Minister acting in a most irresponsible fashion”. Another headline says “Canada's military remains not accountable”. Another says “The government kowtows to military brass”. Others say “The Somalia inquiry proves a major embarrassment to the armed forces and to the government of the day” and “Outside supervision of military ruled out”. The sub-headline says “Military remains responsible for their own: Inquiry exposes areas of incompetence”. It is depressing to read these headlines. One says “The defence stonewalled: Defence unable to obtain documents”.
It says—again this is the minister—“The minister has betrayed the Canadian armed forces, particularly their future”. Another one is “Panic in the armed forces”. Another one says “The Somalia inquiry a mess”. Still another says “Cutting off the inquiry will backfire in terms of political fall-out”. I am not sure if that happened but this was a prediction.
Another one says “Government calls the whole thing off before embarrassment” and another says “The deadline lets the brass off the hook: A previous Prime Minister shielded from reality”. It says “Minister of defence not told the truth: Grits shielded from military scrutiny”.
I could go on. This is just a handful. I am very reluctant to even mention these in my presentation because they are so distasteful. I guess we have to nevertheless do these things.
I must say that in spite of all the stonewalling and in spite of all the denials and cover-ups, despite being shut down mid-way through its work, the Somalia commission still issued recommendations.
Wouldn't you know it? The Liberal government has again responded with some arrogance, I am afraid to say. The Minister of National Defence called the inquiry's work an insult. The arrogance of this minister is unbelievable, how he would call the inquiry work an insult and not the fact that it was stonewalled and shut down prematurely.
I think we should tell the minister that this piece of legislation before the House today is an insult. This bill completely ignores—