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Topic: Somalia Inquiry

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	Somalia Affair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Somalia Affair was a military scandal, magnified by a highly politicized and publicized enquiry, that greatly damaged the reputation amongst Canadians of their military in the mid-1990s.
		The inquiry ran until 1997 when it was cut short by the government in the months before the 1997 election.
		Media reports have suggested that the behaviour of Canadian soldiers in Somalia may have been at least partly due to side-effects from the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, which the soldiers were required to take.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Somalia_Affair (2300 words)

	Introduction
		The Inquiry was not intended to be a trial, or a retrial of any trial previously held, although our hearings did include an examination of the institutional causes of and responses to incidents that previously resulted in the charge and trial of individuals.
		However, because of the Government's decision to terminate the Inquiry, we were unable to carry out this intention with regard to the upper echelons, the allegations of cover-up, and the extent of their involvement in the post-deployment phase.
		We were obliged to consider whether the correct criteria were applied to determine whether Canada should have committed troops to Somalia in the first place and whether the mission and tasks of the Canadian Forces and the rules of engagement governing their conduct in theatre were adequately defined, communicated and understood.
	www.dnd.ca /somalia/vol1/v1c1e.htm (6396 words)

	Boyle Maintains Innocence
		As the fallout from the Somalia affair spread, questions were also raised about the judgment of Defence Minister David Collenette - who only four months ago appointed Boyle chief of the defence staff, in large part because the onetime fighter pilot was supposedly untainted by Somalia.
		Ironically, the incident that triggered the Somalia affair, the brutal beating, torture and killing of Shidane Arone, has been pushed into the background by the revelations of potential misconduct at high levels.
		In an affidavit submitted to the Létourneau inquiry on Jan. 18, Maj. Vincent Buonomici alleged that Maj.-Gen. Clive Addy and Maj.-Gen. Brian Vernon, who have both announced their retirement from the Forces, obstructed his investigation of Lt.-Col. Carol Mathieu, who was in charge of the Airborne in Somalia.
	thecanadianencyclopedia.com /index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0010641 (2212 words)

	Canadian government defends military over Somalia atrocities (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Concerned that the Somalia affair was threatening to expose the complicity of the top brass in criminal actions, the Liberal government, in effect, assumed responsibility for completing the cover-up begun by the CAF and Defence Department.
		The Somalia inquiry was established in November 1994, after the military's portrayal of the Somalia atrocities as the work of a few bad apples had been undermined by a series of devastating leaks.
		Unquestionably, a major factor in the government's decision to bow to the wishes of the CAF top brass and halt the Somalia inquiry was the calculation that the military may have a crucial role to play in a future "national unity" crisis.
	www.wsws.org /public_html/iwb7-28/canada.htm (916 words)

	Electronic Newsletter Volume 1, Number 1 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		The Military Board of Inquiry into the events in Bacovici concluded that the operational environment could not be blamed for the shortcomings but that flaws existed in the units prior to deployment.
		At the Somalia Inquiry, evidence was presented that suggested that the chain of command, during both the pre-deployment and the in-theatre period, failed as a device for passing and seeking information.
		Financing for the research into Military culture was received from the Somalia Inquiry while a research grant from the University of Ottawa was used to study the Bacovici records at the Department of National Defence.
	www.stratnet.ucalgary.ca /news_views/archives/1999/s99/ellislecture.html (4512 words)

	Explananda: In what other nation would this happen?
		From the outset the inquiry made it clear the focus would be on the military brass and allegations that they had shown poor leadership and conducted a coverup.
		The final Report of the Somalia Commission of Inquiry was delivered to the government at the end of June, 1997.
		It says a cover-up began with officers in Somalia and that the death was clearly a criminal matter from the outset.
	www.explananda.com /archives/000899.html (1150 words)

	Friday, February 7, 1997 -- GOVERNMENT ORDERS (125) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Speaker, on January 10, the Minister of National Defence announced he was putting an end to the Somalia inquiry, conducted by the Létourneau commission and designed to shed light on what happened before, during and after the incidents in Somalia.
		The inquiry's mandate was to restore the honour and the integrity of the Canadian forces.
		However, the more the inquiry moves along, the more obvious it is that there are links with this government and that the period yet to be reviewed would involve friends of the government, friends that the government does not want singled out.
	www.parl.gc.ca /english/hansard/125_97-02-07/125GO1E.html (6594 words)

	Sun Ottawa Bureau Columnist: Greg Weston - Critics barking at the inquiry's heels
		It all has the pungent smell of the Somalia inquiry, shut down in mid-stream by the Chretien government with all the same advance sniping now being used on Gomery.
		The Somalia inquiry, we were told, was costing too much, taking too long, not getting to the bottom of the scandal, casting unfair aspersions on the public service, and was clearly biased.
		Most Canadians may not be enthralled with the ponderous proceedings of the Adscam inquiry to date, but taxpayers still want to know what happened to $250 million of their money that disappeared into what Gomery has already aptly described as the "catastrophically run" sponsorship program.
	www.canoe.ca /NewsStand/Columnists/Ottawa/Greg_Weston/2005/03/01/pf-945756.html (615 words)

	National Post
		That the inquiry's work had been impeded by months of departmental stonewalling, document-tampering and witnesses, most notoriously Gen. Jean Boyle, the chief of defence staff, afflicted with that strange malady, SSML (sudden severe memory loss), did not deter the government.
		The inquiry was abruptly terminated, without further consequence for any of those involved in the alleged coverup.
		Here, the resemblance with the Somalia inquiry is almost exact: the same missing documents, the same parade of forgetful witnesses, the same long list of those yet to testify.
	canadiancoalition.com /nationalpost31 (912 words)

	London Free Press Columnist: hip Martin - Gomery probe hoovers up tax dough
		The former dean of the graduate school of journalism at the University of Western Ontario says inquiries must be conducted by independent parties and provided the resources and the freedom to complete their task.
		Norm Peel, who represented the military at the Somalia inquiry, says the $60-million price tag of the Gomery inquiry exceeds the annual $40-million annual budget of the program it is examining.
		Nesbitt-Larking says there is no simple answer, but he prefers the Canadian system of inquiries with their independent, arm's-length commissioners to the politically oriented ones conducted in the U.S. "There isn't enough distance between the political process and the prosecution of wrongdoing (in the U.S.)," says Nesbitt-Larking.
	www.canoe.ca /NewsStand/Columnists/London/Chip_Martin/2005/02/04/pf-920968.html (700 words)

	The Militant - 2/19/96 -- Canada Generals Quit As Abuses Exposed
		The Canadian Airborne Regiment was in Somalia from 1992 to 1993 as part of the United Nations "humanitarian" mission.
		Buonamici further stated that senior officers snooped through his files, seized documents and computer files he had assembled for the inquiry, falsified a search warrant after the fact to justify their seizure, threatened him, and derailed his career because he persisted with his investigation.
		Earlier, the inquiry also heard charges that soldiers at the Airborne Regiment's base in Petawawa, Ontario, held a dinner in 1991 to celebrate the 1989 massacre of 14 women by misogynist gunman Marc Lepine at a Montreal technical college.
	www.themilitant.com /1996/607/607_5.html (744 words)

	Travers v. Canada ( Chief of Defence Staff ) ( T.D. ) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		To the extent relevant to a determination of those issues, the Board of Inquiry shall investigate the Battle Group's antecedants in Canada and higher headquarters in Somalia prior to and during its employment in Somalia.
		No inquiry shall be made into any allegation of conduct that would be a service offence under the National Defence Act, and in particular any Criminal Code offence, that has resulted in the laying of a charge, the arrest of a person or the ordering of a military police investigation.
		It is clear to me that the Terms of Reference of the Board of Inquiry limit the hearings to a review of the various principles, policies and practices of the Canadian Airborne Regiment Battle Group, an elite battle group which was recently called upon to exercise a peacekeeping role in a distraught environment called Somalia.
	reports.fja.gc.ca /fc/1993/pub/v3/1993fca0370.html (3274 words)

	BCCLA Opinion Piece: Re: the Somalia Inquiry (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		While the costs of such inquiries are staggering under the present conditions, it is also staggering to conclude that there should be no inquiries to look into malfeasance in government, and no way to ensure government accountability.
		Inquiries are not judicial procedures: no charges emerge as a direct consequence of the evidence produced.
		That is, one could conduct inquiries without prejudice, so that any incriminating findings could not be used as evidence in a court of law.
	www.bccla.org /othercontent/97kaysomalia.html (368 words)

	[No title]
		Similarly, the Somalia Inquiry did little to reaffirm broad faith in the ethics of the liberal government.
		The report of the Somalia Inquiry, Dishonoured Legacy, was released to the public on 2 July.
		But the Commissioners completely missed the point by failing to understand why things went wrong- and there were a lot- and focussing their venom on senior Armed Forces personnel- DND civilian personnel seem to escape the Commissioners' wrath- for quite the wrong reasons.
	www.legendgames.net /blognews/archive/WN0000072.html (1893 words)

	Peter Van Loan, MP, York-Simcoe
		It is all a remarkable turnaround for the Inquiry.
		In fact, the yawns that greeted the evidence from the Liberal politicians and staff during the Ottawa phase is really an indication of how smooth and effective they have become in operating schemes like the Sponsorship Program in their partisan interests, without being exposed or held accountable.
		But with the Montreal phase of the Gomery Inquiry, even before the publication ban was invoked, there has been ample evidence of illegal contributions to the Liberal Party and of systemic efforts to divert money from the Sponsorship Program to Liberal coffers.
	www.petervanloan.com /doc20050405a.html (634 words)

	Friday, April 19, 1996-- ORAL QUESTION PERIOD (029) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Despite the latest ultimatum given the Department of National Defence Monday by counsel for the Somalia inquiry, frustrated at having to beg for documents that never appear, we learn this morning that a number of essential documents have still not been produced, including the registers for the first and third commandos.
		member on the Somalia related documents, there has been some considerable progress made on the logs and other documentation that came forward as a result of the search that was conducted under the auspices of the chief of defence staff.
		The Commission of inquiry into our national blood supply is caught in a legal tangle, because of all the confusion surrounding the mandate of the commission.
	www.parl.gc.ca /english/hansard/029_96-04-19/029OQ1E.html (6122 words)

	Price of peace: Belgian soldiers roasted Somali child
		Arone died from the beating the soldiers inflicted, setting in motion the events that led to the Canadian government's Somalia inquiry, which concluded its public hearings earlier this year and is due to report at the end of the month.
		Michele Patruno, a former Italian soldier in Somalia who took the picture, said other locals were denied food and water, had the soles of their feet burnt, and were hurled against razor wire, as well as being electrocuted and sexually abused.
		The peacekeeping operations in Somalia were also plagued by strings of allegations of corruption and outright theft -- such as the $2.9 million stolen from a UN filing cabinet.
	www.expressindia.com /ie/daily/19970625/17650123.html (1209 words)

	Canada's Shreddergates — the cover-ups explode [Free Republic]
		The Somalia Inquiry investigated the leadership problems and behaviour of Canadian soldiers sent on a peacekeeping mission to Somalia in 1992-93.
		The inquiry also determined that military and civilian defence officials in Ottawa and Somalia were involved in an attempt to cover up the killing.
		The inquiry report, issued in June, concluded there was an attempt to cover evidence in Somalia and at Canadian defence headquarters on the killing.
	www.freerepublic.com /forum/a3b0828a569a8.htm (1315 words)

	Toronto Sun Columnist: Peter Worthington (Toronto Sun) Dec. 30, 1997 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		W5 discovered that when the now-disbanded Airborne Regiment was sent to Somalia, Health Canada sanctioned the use of mefloquine (under the brand name Lariam, manufactured by Hoffmann La- Roche) only on condition it was a controlled study with soldiers being monitored and effects recorded.
		Getting back to Somalia, in October, 1994, Hoffmann La-Roche's office in Mississauga formally notified DND it had received no response about shipments of mefloquine sent to the army in Petawawa and the medical centre in Debert, N.S., in 1992.
		These documents weren't given to the Somalia inquiry which, according to Cummins, wasn't aware our soldiers were, in effect, guinea pigs for a drug whose sale at the time was illegal in Canada.
	vikingphoenix.com /news/archives/1997/mil97295.htm (635 words)

	Flit
		I've liked Gregg Easterbrook a lot, for years, but his recurring stint at Tuesday Morning Quarterback, and the playing to the masses that involves, is beginning to drag down his sense for nuance and accuracy in his writing.
		In 1993, a Canadian commando unit in Somalia tortured a civilian to death.
		UPDATE: For the record, the author was not involved with the Canadian military from 1990-96, when the events and resulting inquiries took place, and doesn't know any of the principals involved, other than from the TV like everybody else.
	www.snappingturtle.net /flit/archives/2003_09_03.html (1868 words)

	1997 Annual Report 3 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		The ACLC objected to this decision however, the Report of the Somalia Inquiry was required to be completed by June 30, 1997.
		The Inquiry Report, entitled Dishonoured Legacy: The Lessons of the Somalia Affair was released to the public on July 2, 1997, and included 160 detailed recommendations.
		The Report concluded that the Somalia mission was a profound failure, primarily due to inadequate leadership.
	www.aclc.net /annual_reports/97-3.html (1099 words)

	Canada's "Somali Scandal"
		Canada's ugly antecedent is known as the Somalia affair: the 1993 torture and murder of a Somali teenager by Canadian airborne soldiers, and the culture of racism and brutality in the ranks that it exposed.
		The Somalia revelations during 1994 and 1995 anguished the nation and traumatized the Canadian military.
		The Canadian airborne was disbanded in January after the murder of Shidane Arone, a teenage Somali thief, was followed by embarrassing videotaped footage of racism and brutal hazing in the regiment formerly known for its wartime heroics.
	www.netnomad.com /canada.html (861 words)

	Report of the Somalia Commission of Inquiry (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Use your browser's forward and backward arrow keys to move through the document.
		On July 2, 1997, the Honourable Art Eggleton, Minister of National Defence, released the Somalia Inquiry Report.
		Since the Government is committed to making the Report available to the public as quickly as possible, the Department of National Defence will post the Report on-line, on a volume-by-volume basis, as soon as each volume is programmed and loaded.
	www.dnd.ca /somalia/somaliae.htm (91 words)

	noel-1 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Letourneau's chief gripe is that the premature termination of his inquiry did not allow more names among senior military brass to be named and held accountable.
		I suspect most intelligent Canadians would think that alone was more than enough to get the colonel-to-general ranks busy cleaning up their act, encouraged by kicks in the butt behind the scenes from their equally chastened political masters.
		If the media's insatiable lust for ongoing blood on the floor from the Somalia inquiry continues to libel, solely by association, our tens of thousands of fine young soldiers, sailors and air force types, it's high time for both the media and their audiences to take a reality check.
	www.nsnews.com /issue/w071497/noel-1.html (721 words)

	UWO Gazette - Tuesday, January 14, 1997
		The ongoing saga of the Somalia inquiry will soon come to an abrupt end without having key questions answered into the allegations of a cover up within the Department of National Defence.
		Yesterday morning in a news conference the three commissioners from the inquiry announced they will execute the federal government's wishes to conclude their inquiry early, however, they will do so under protest.
		The inquiry involved the Canadian Airborne Regiment's mission to Somalia and the Liberal government's handling of the post-deployment phase between 1992-93.
	www.gazette.uwo.ca /1997/January/14/News3.htm (449 words)

	Sidesteppint the Issue: Report of the Somalia Inquiry - Sean Henry
		The report of the Somalia Commission is one more example of the Canadian predilection to avoid confronting fundamental problems.
		The causes of the Somalia affair go back some thirty years, and reflect government neglect of defence policy and the armed forces.
		Responsibility for individual dereliction of duty in the Somalia case must be borne by individuals where appropriate.
	www.cda-cdai.ca /library/sidestep.htm (801 words)

	Let It Bleed: "How would Canadians react to that?" (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		The last high-profile inquiry to run afoul of the government was the Somalia probe of 1995-97.
		Just as the Somalia inquiry reached the most critical incident in its investigation - the wanton murder of a 16-year-old Somali held in custody by Canadian soldiers - the Chrétien government shut it down, then headed into an election.
		The sponsorship inquiry (shades of Somalia here) was a device to get the growing scandal off the table in the run-up to Prime Minister Paul Martin's first election.
	letitbleed.blogs.com /blog/2005/01/how_would_canad.html (446 words)

	Are "psycho Thursday" pills behind Iraqi abuse photos? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Part of the official Somalia inquiry into the torture and killing of a 16-year-old Somali boy and the in-theatre suicide attempt of his murderer, Canadian Master Cpl. Clayton Matchee, focused on the use of mefloquine.
		It was a testimony to military dishonour when the ill-fated UN peacekeeping mission in 1993 Somalia, sent out shock waves, worldwide with Canadian, Belgian and Italian soldiers posing in photographs while subjecting hungry Somalis who had only pilfered food from the soldiers’ camps, to the most unspeakable indignities.
		Most CF members stationed in Somalia in 1992 and 1993 were prescribed weekly does of mefloquine.
	www.torontofreepress.com /2004/main052404.htm (703 words)

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