Imperialism — Canadian style

The Joint Task Force 2, formed in 1992, was originally designed to respond to "terrorist attacks." But the highly secretive force has expanded to take over many of the tasks, and the personnel, of the Canadian Airborne. According to the Ottawa Citizen’s David Pugliese, in an article published April 21, 1999:

The Canadian army was the subject of a federal commission of inquiry for its actions during a United Nations "peacekeeping" mission to famine- and war-torn Somalia.

During the Somalia Commission’s investigations, it was confirmed that the Canadian Airborne Regiment was not on the mission of mercy to feed the hundreds of starving children so acclaimed at the time.

Canada’s troops went in to Somalia just after then Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had slashed foreign aid budgets by 10 percent. Immigration controls were tightened to limit the ability of Somali and other refugees to enter Canada.

These Canadian "peacekeepers" were responsible for the March 17, 1993 torture and murder of Somalia civilian teenager Shidane Arone. They were responsible for the March 4, 1993 shooting death of another Somali.

The lie was put to the heroism of the Airborne troops.

There was also the disclosure of videotapes showing blatant acts of racism and disgusting behaviour in the name of "initiation" rituals among the soldiers.

The government was forced to disband the Airborne in 1995.

Four soldiers were court-martialed, one receiving five years for manslaughter and torture. Another tried to hang himself and suffered brain damage. He was considered unfit to stand trial.

Just when the Somalia Commission turned its attention to the chain of command, dozens of military files were "lost." Between 1993 and 1995, General Jean Boyle led the working group responsible for coordinating the defence department’s response to the Somalia incidents.

Minutes of the meetings of this group, according to Boyle, did not exist.

Boyle has told the commissioners in testimony that minutes were not kept because he "didn’t personally see the purpose" of them.

Boyle was then appointed by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to clean up the crisis in Canada’s military.

Eventually, Jean Boyle was forced to resign. But the Commission’s funding was cut by the Liberal government, which replaced the Tories in 1993, before the investigation was completed.

And apparently, those who got away without conviction for the Airborne’s activities were promoted. They were recruited to participate in Joint Task Force 2. Clearly the Airborne Regiment was the real Joint Task Force 1.

Take the example of one Michel Rainville.

According to Department of National Defense documents obtained by Pugliese, Rainville operated with Joint Task Force 2, based in Dwyer Hill, near Ottawa. Rainville was also part of the Airborne Regiment sent to Somalia.

Brigadier-General Ernie Beno, commander of the Special Service Force at Petawawa, suggested that Rainville was unfit and should be sent home immediately after his photo appeared in a Montreal newspaper displaying three commando knives strapped to his body. Rainville bragged that he and his men were trained in the art of assassination, and could "kill a man in two seconds."

Rainville was not sent home.

Instead he was responsible for the 1993 "turkey shoot" of two "infiltrators" in Somalia — a close-range execution-style exercise that led to killing one of them. According to the Toronto Sun’s Peter Worthington, the killing was the result of a JFT2 "demonstration," led by Rainville, for the benefit of visiting Canadian and U.S. Special Forces in Somalia.

Rainville, while a Captain in the Canadian military, was also charged in a civilian court in Quebec with six counts of torture, kidnapping, illegal confinement, extortion with a firearm, assault and death threats on another soldier in the Canadian army. In February 1992, under Rainville’s command, a military "exercise" was arranged to test security around the Quebec Citadel. The soldiers on guard were not informed of the exercise.

They were ambushed by fellow soldiers donned in ski masks, carrying shotguns and machine pistols, pretending to be terrorists. Two soldiers on guard were stripped, beaten, bound with duct tape, threatened with death unless they co-operated, and one was sodomized with a boton and then a shotgun.

No charges were laid within the military.

One of the victimized soldiers, however, charged Rainville in a civil court. Though there was a media ban on the trial, Rainville was found guilty on the charge of torture.

Also in 1992, Rainville was the commanding officer revealed in the press to have led a military training exercise in Canada in which a woman soldier was tied to a tree and punched.

Rainville has now left the military, but this offers little comfort for the safety and health of the Canadian population. He is apparently a physical education teacher.

According to Eggleton and the Department of National Defence, there is a policy of not discussing any details about the JTF2 personnel for purposes of security. What they have stated is that the elite force is carefully screened and selected.

The Canadian Airborne was keeping the "peace" by torturing and imprisoning innocent citizens in a poor Third World country. The same soldiers are now doing the clean up operation for an imperialist war in Afghanistan.

"Peacekeeping" and war making in the hands of the Canadian forces, and under the direction of the Canadian state, are one and the same.

The facts about Somalia only came to light because of massive public pressure. We should demand that all Canadian troops withdraw from Afghanistan before more innocent victims are tortured and more innocent lives are lost.