By Scott Taylor
Last week the CBC broke the story that 5 Canadian soldiers have been suspended from active duty and are under investigation by the Military Police. The alleged infraction in this case, is that a number of military personnel were video taped giving Nazi salutes at a house party near Quebec City. To date the actual video footage has not been released to the media. Murray Brewster, the CBC reporter who initially broke the story was informed of the video contents by Canadian Armed Forces Public Affairs officials.
What information is known is; that the video segment is about 30 seconds long, the footage shows at least seven individuals, five of whom are confirmed to be serving members of the CAF, the incident occurred in 2023 with an individual performing drill in front of the Regimental flag of the Royal 22nd Regiment (aka the Vandoos) and the consumption of 'a substance' -presumably a narcotic. In a statement to the media, Army Commander Lieutenant-General Michael Wright said he is "deeply disturbed and profoundly disappointed" by the actions on the video. Wright also pointed out that hateful conduct of this nature is "completely unacceptable". According to the DND, Wright became aware of the video on August 6 and he had immediately referred the matter to the Military Police. The decision to bring this matter to the attention of the media would not have been made lightly as it is sure to once again erode public trust in the CAF. However the risk of this story being privately leaked to the media by a whistle blower is too real to ignore these days. Things would be far worse if it appeared that the CAF was trying to hush this up rather than come clean.
The problem with Lt-Gen Wright's fear of eroding public trust in Canada's military is that this is the third major scandal involving CAF personnel displaying hateful conduct to make the headlines in as many months. In early July four men were arrested and charged with facilitating terrorist activity and the illegal storage of prohibited weapons and explosives. Two of those individuals are serving members of the CAF based at CFB Valcartier, one was a former regular force member and the fourth had beed a cadet instructor. To date little is known of the group's ideology other than they planned to seize a parcel of land near Quebec City. Prior to that we had what has come to be known as the 'Blue Hackle Mafia' scandal involving a now defunct Facebook group created by members of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (The Duke of Edinburgh's Own). In this case it was the media that brought the inappropriate and unprofessional imagery to the attention of Lt-Gen Wright. He immediately ordered the Military Police to re-open a previous investigation which had determined that no service offences had been committed.
I have seen the imagery and I concur with Lt-Gen Wright that much was overlooked in the initial probe. Given the number of dick-picks taken at a military facility and shared on social media by the Blue Hackle Mafia, one could easily apply section 129 of the National Defence Act (conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline). Although at time of writing no charges have been laid in this case, Lt-Col Ryan Hendy, the Commanding Officer of the Cameron Highlanders has been relieved of command and Col. James McKay, the 33 Brigade Commander has resigned from his post over the affair. So while the CAF got three black eyes in rapid succession, the only thing connecting these three incidents would be that they all fall into the category of 'Soldiers behaving badly'.
There were some anti-muslim and anti-semitic comments posted on the Blue Hackle Mafia FaceBook site, however the bulk of the unprofessional conduct involved public nudity and simulated homosexual sex acts. The wannabe terrorists in Quebec seemingly just hate authority which makes one wonder what they were told at the recruiting centre. However they were in possession of a small arsenal and thus their actions need to be taken seriously. Now we have video footage of Canadian soldiers giving the Nazi salute in 2023.
As this footage predates Tesla CEO Elon Musk giving two Nazi salutes at Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, I cannot use that incident to illustrate how society as a whole is becoming desensitized to that hateful gesture. However, in September 2023 Canada as a nation gave ourselves an international black eye when our parliament gave two standing ovations to a WW2 Ukrainian SS veteran. On the occasion of the visit of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaker of the House Anthony Rota invited 98 year old Paul Hunka to the gallery. Rota hailed Hunka as a hero for fighting against the Soviet Union during WW2. All in attendance rose to their feet twice to give thunderous applause to the veteran. Only after the fact, when it was pointed out by US media outlets that Hunka served in the notorious Waffen SS Galicia Division in WW2, did our parliamentarians realize they had hailed a Nazi in the presence of Zelenskyy who is Jewish. The international media erupted with derision and labelled the blunder moronic. Speaker Rota tabled his resignation but the blame was not his alone to bear. The vetting that should have occurred did not and that falls on Parliament as a whole.
It also illustrates that with the passage of time, we are collectively forgetting the lessons of the Holocaust. Perhaps the answer lies not in investigating the ideology of those Canadian soldiers thrusting out Nazi salutes at a party, but rather we should be educating them more clearly as to what that gesture represents. It can never be considered a 'gag'. If they do know what that salute symbolizes, then they have no business wearing a Canadian uniform.
