Subseries 10 - Somalia Inquiry

1.4 m of textual records

In the spring of 1995 I was asked by the Somalia Inquiry to do a study of accountability in the military. The Somalia Inquiry was, of course, set up to examine the activities relating to Canadian Forces in Somalia, particularly relating to incidents in March 1993 (file 2). Stan Cohen, the secretary of the Commission, was the person with whom I dealt (files 3-5). We worked out a study which would cover a broad range of issues relating to accountability which would be called ‘Controlling Misconduct in the Military’. During the summer of 1995 I met with various members of the military (file 9) and with the staff and other experts involved with the Commission (files 12-17). I had a number of excellent research assistants (files 20-23). Caroline Ursulak, who had worked with me on the Judges Study, helped me with military justice; Rob Brush and Craig Martin, the latter with a military background, worked on a wide range of other issues. Collecting and organising the military material, with which I was formerly unfamiliar, was a particularly difficult task (files 20 and 24).

I produced a very large number of outlines of my study (file 8). In January 1996 I presented some of my ideas on civilian control to the Commission at a closed seminar on accountability in Ottawa (file 10). About the same time I presented some of the ideas in my study at a University College public symposium on violence (file 11).

The files contain some, but relatively few, of my notes on the various sections as well as a number of key documents that I relied on that are not easily available (files 25-40). Other files include the various drafts of my report, including hand-written and copy-edited drafts (files 41-66). Detailed feedback on a draft of February 29, 1996 was given by a number of experts, including former military officers such as Sandy Cotton, Jim Simpson, General Vance, and Douglas Bland (files 57-60). My report was handed in in May 1996 (file 63).

My report, Controlling Misconduct in the Military: a study prepared for the Commission of Inquiry into the deployment of Canadian Forces in Somalia, was published in March 1997 (file 67), shortly before Chief Justice Dickson’s Special Advisory Group reported (file 69). The Somalia Inquiry had resisted giving my study to the Dickson group, but eventually made it available on the condition that the Somalia Inquiry had the right to publish their background studies whenever they wished. There was therefore a rush to get my study out before Dickson reported (file 5).

I was also involved with Dickson’s group, presenting evidence and reviewing some of their material (file 69). At the same time I was reviewing drafts for the Somalia Inquiry, particularly relating to military justice and military police (file 68). In the end, the Government chose to adopt most of Dickson’s recommendations relating to military justice and the military police, recommendations which more closely paralleled my own recommendations than those put forward by the Somalia Inquiry (file 71).

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Files 17 – 19 in box 114 have been removed.