Sheep Dog AT said:
To a point but if my superiors aren't ethical then why should the troops. Lead by example.
I think this is mostly correct, but it might be a bit over the top (although I am in agreement with most of what you have said so far). I really don't believe there is a pandemic of unethical behaviour going on in the CAF. In fact, we are probably better off in that department than we have been in a long time.
I began my service in 1974, and ended it in 2012. During that time, I can safely say we went through a period where unethical and actually illegal behaviour (at all rank levels) had become far more commonplace than it is now. Gen Menard was not the first CAF GOFO to be caught misbehaving, by a long shot. He was, in my opinion, one of the few to be dealt with appropriately. In my opinion, it was the inevitable result of a large institution falling into a rut with a lack of public scrutiny and accountability. At least now we talk about it openly, and widely recognize it as wrong.
Although I'm no longer in uniform, I work very closely with uniformed CAF folks every day, and I know that, without exception, at all rank levels, they are shocked, infuriated and frustrated by this outcome, and by the repetitious nature of the accused's behaviour. They don't see such behaviour as routine, or "OK", or acceptable. This reaction, I think, is a very good thing.
Do we (sorry..."the CAF"...hard to break old habits...) still have corrupt, unethical people? It would seem that you do. Power, position and all of those things that go with rank are always going to corrupt people whose character is inadequate to the task. Dealing with that problem is only the job of the military justice system in the very last resort. It is really, IMHO, a professional issue to be dealt with by the chain of command, long before it slides to the sad end we have seen in the Miller case.
I learned (slowly, and the hard way) that if you have problems with people in the military, you have two choices. Fix or fire. By "fix", I mean you do everything you possibly can as a leader to have that person correct their behaviour and rise up to the expected standard, and stay there under their own steam.
By "fire", I mean just that. Bring the full power of the administrative system, as quickly as possible, to bear to get that person out of that position or if necessary (and it often is...) out of the service. This is difficult, often slow and frustrating, but you must line up your ducks and stick with it.
There is no third option called "ignore and hide", but how many times have we all seen that done, from Cpl to LCol?