The Haiti Super Thread- Merged

[GAP]

From most of the reports I'm hearing/reading the port corruption is horrendous. This article comes across as a "Don't Worry, be Happy" piece.....

 

[George Wallace]

From most of the reports I'm hearing/reading the port corruption is horrendous. This article comes across as a "Don't Worry, be Happy" piece.....

As it usually is in all the Third World nations that we land up sending Aid.  Is the effort really necessary?  Our Government is now sending more financial aid, and where will that land up?  As a Tax Payer, I would like to know, but I know that there will be no accountability of the people, both here and there, who are handling this.  I chalk it all up to "feel good" money where a minuscule amount will actually find its way to doing some good, the fast majority, however, filling the pockets of corrupt persons.

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from The Canadian Press:

The Canadian government turned down a plea to extend its military relief effort in Haiti after last year's earthquake, says a top United Nations official in Port-au-Prince.

Canada was widely praised for rushing to provide emergency help, including clean water, security and medical care, following the devastating temblor last Jan. 12.

Armed with heavy equipment, Canadian military engineers also cleared rubble and helped Haitians reopen their roads, particularly in the hard-hit areas around the cities of Leogane and Jacmel.

But despite attempts by the UN and local authorities to persuade Ottawa to keep the engineers in Haiti beyond the end of Canada's relief mandate, the military packed up and left.

"I think there was a strong request that they stay on," Nigel Fisher, the UN's head of humanitarian aid in Haiti, told The Canadian Press in an interview from Port-au-Prince.

"Many felt that they wished they had stayed because they were extremely effective." ....

 

[Rifleman62]

Tonight on PBS, the program FRONTLINE:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/battle-for-haiti/

Last year, in the chaos of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, thousands of the country’s worst criminals seized the opportunity to stage a mass escape from the National Penitentiary. One year later, the gang leaders are reasserting control in the capital, threatening the country’s stability. With unique access to the police units trying to hunt down the gangsters -- and revealing encounters with the gangsters themselves -- FRONTLINE examines the uphill fight to rebuild Haiti in the face of deep-rooted corruption and intimidation. The film also offers intimate portraits of the fearful lives many Haitians are living, as the central government and judicial system routinely fail to maintain order. “Haiti is a nation that committed collective suicide some time ago,” the chief of the U.N. mission tells FRONTLINE. If the gangs are not defeated, many now believe a new Haiti cannot be born.

See clips at link above. Please tell all the do-gooders, liberals, and NDPers you know to watch.

Press Release:

FRONTLINE EXAMINES THE UPHILL BATTLE TO REBUILD HAITI IN THE FACE OF GANG VIOLENCE AND CORRUPTION

FRONTLINE Presents
Battle for Haiti
Tuesday, January 11, 2011, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS

On the night of the earthquake that devastated Haiti last January, something happened in Port au Prince, the capital city, which would threaten the effectiveness of international aid efforts and undermine the country’s political stability: 4,500 of the country’s most violent criminals escaped from Haiti’s overcrowded National Penitentiary.

Now, on the one-year anniversary of the quake -- and in the aftermath of Haitian presidential elections that threatened further crisis -- FRONTLINE presents Battle for Haiti, airing Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings). In this hard-hitting hour, FRONTLINE producer Dan Reed films with the beleaguered special police units tasked with apprehending the escaped gangsters. At the same time, Reed captures the daily lives of the despairing inhabitants of the slums and tent cities who are often terrorized by these gangsters.

Reed also tracks down some of the escaped prisoners themselves. “When I got out, I tried to go straight, but I couldn’t,” one of the escapees tells Reed. “The police are after me and all the other guys who escaped from prison.”

The escapees include many of the hard-core criminals, kidnappers and gang bosses who had reduced Haiti to anarchy before being subdued by an all-out military onslaught by the police and heavily armed U.N. peacekeepers from 2004-7. Now the gangsters are largely free to regain control of the slums and the tent cities where most Haitians live, using murder and rape to enforce their rule, as Haiti proves more vulnerable and less well policed than ever before.

Helping battle the escaped gangsters is Mario Andresol, Haiti’s police chief, who had put many of the gangsters in prison earlier in the decade, surviving two assassination attempts in the process. Now, Andresol has to do it all over again. But his force is rumored to be riddled with corruption, and many of his best officers are without homes and living in tent camps. Andresol admits the situation is bad: “It’s chaos out there right now. There is a state of fear because the escapees are murdering, kidnapping, robbing...”

The head of the U.N. mission, Edmond Mulet, tells FRONTLINE that unless the gangsters are controlled and stopped, “all the efforts that the international community is doing on reconstruction, on rebuilding, on development ... will be in vain.”

A special seven-man team of undercover prison officers has been set up to recapture prisoners who escaped during the earthquake, many of whom they know by sight. These undercover officers are central to the success of this mission, along with some U.N. peacekeepers, but they’re so underfunded that they have to pay for their own gas, and they have no money to pay informers for vital information.

FRONTLINE reveals that the battle for the rule of law in Haiti is further undermined by the lack of a working justice system: Ninety percent of the men who escaped from the National Penitentiary had never had their day in court and had spent four or five years awaiting trial in barbaric conditions, where cells are so crowded that prisoners have to sleep on their feet. According to one prisoner, when another dies, he’s simply propped up in a corner so that someone can use his space on the floor. Wealthy gangsters often bribe their way out of the prison with large payments to corrupt judges.

In light of these realities, Police Chief Andresol takes a candidly dim view of the Haiti’s political future: “Honest people don’t go into politics in Haiti. That’s our great tragedy. To be in politics you have to belong to a group of men who think only of themselves, who can resort to killing and eliminating. We need a revolution. Nothing will change if we carry on talking about democracy.”

Battle for Haiti is a Quicksilver Media production for FRONTLINE in association with CH4. The film is produced and directed by Dan Reed. The executive producer for Quicksilver Media is Eamonn Matthews. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS.

 

[57Chevy]

Just recently the French Government said that the Tunisian X pres 'Ben Ali et al' is not welcome on French soil.
But they have been harbouring that abusively corrupt money hungry 'Baby doc' man of Haiti.
Another form of earthquake is about to hit that impoverished nation.
                    __________________________________________________________

Haiti ex-dictator Duvalier could be prosecuted after return to Haiti: UN

GENEVA — The return of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier to Haiti increases the chances that the former Haitian dictator could be charged with atrocities committed during his 15-year rule, the U.N. human rights office said Tuesday.

Groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged Haiti to hold Duvalier accountable for the crimes committed by his secret police, known as the Tonton Macoute, who tortured and murdered political opponents. The former dictator was also notorious for siphoning the Haiti's wealth into his family's pockets until a popular rebellion drove him into exile.

"The country where the crimes were committed is a much easier place to bring charges," Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told The Associated Press.

Before his surprise return home Sunday, Duvalier had been living in France for the past quarter-century.

"I believe there have been various cases brought over the years in France," Colville earlier told reporters in Geneva. "We're checking ... exactly what happened over the many years he's been resident in France and why he wasn't arrested."

Colville cautioned that it is unclear whether Haiti's fragile judicial system is in a position to mount a case.

"As with any arrest and charging you have to have assembled some evidence in an organized fashion to bring a case," he said. "It means having a case prepared sufficiently to warrant an arrest, and then the rest of the judicial procedure."

Meanwhile, Switzerland is poised to permanently seize 7 million Swiss francs ($7.3 million) of Duvalier's money. The funds have been frozen on Swiss bank accounts for years, but a new law — nicknamed "Lex Duvalier" because it was tailored to his case — comes into force Feb. 1.

The Swiss government says it plans to give the money back to Haiti to improve living conditions in the impoverished Caribbean country.

                                (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)

 

[57Chevy]

BREAKING NEWS: Haitian police escorted former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier on Tuesday from the hotel in Port-au-Prince where he had been staying since his surprise return from exile on Sunday.

Duvalier, 59, was taken by police from his room after a senior government official told Reuters he would be questioned by judicial authorities to determine whether he should be prosecuted for stealing from the treasury during his rule.

Full article:

Haitian police escort 'Baby Doc' Duvalier from hotel

                                (Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)

 

[57Chevy]

: the article in previous post has been changed to this updated version  :
                        _________________________________________
Haiti's ex-dictator Duvalier charged with corruption; freed by prosecutors

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier Tuesday left a courthouse here after being questioned by prosecutors, but had to remain at their disposal, his lawyer told AFP.

"He is free, but has to remain at the disposition of justices," the lawyer said, as Duvalier left the building, still not in handcuffs and accompanied by his companion Veronique Roy.

Asked by AFP how he was feeling as he got into a car to drive away after hours of questioning, Duvalier said simply "fine."

Duvalier has been charged with corruption and misappropriation of public funds after being taken from his hotel to the courthouse following his surprise return to Haiti on Sunday, his lawyer Gervais Charles said earlier.

 

[OldSolduer]

I sincerely hope Baby Doc is prosecuted for his crimes. That's all I'll say about him.  :2c:

 

[a_majoor]

Perhaps there is a reason Haiti is in such a state, and perhaps we should simply wash our hands of it:

http://mises.org/daily/5277/When-Capital-Is-Nowhere-in-View

When Capital Is Nowhere in View

Mises Daily: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 by Jeffrey A. Tucker

"With the focus on food and cooking, we can see what it is that drives daily life among the Haitian multitudes."

A Travel Channel episode of No Reservations, a cooking-focused show narrated by Anthony Bourdain, took viewers to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I had heard that the show offered unique insight into the country and its troubles. I couldn't imagine how. But it turns out to be true. Through the lens of food, we can gain an insight into culture, and from culture to economy, and from economy to politics and finally to what's wrong in this country and what can be done about it.

Through this micro lens, we gain more insight than we would have if the program were entirely focused on economic issues. Such an episode on economics would have featured dull interviews with treasury officials and IMF experts and lots of talk about trade balances and other macroeconomic aggregates that miss the point entirely.

Instead, with the focus on food and cooking, we can see what it is that drives daily life among the Haitian multitudes. And what we find is surprising in so many ways.

In a scene early in the show set in this giant city after the earthquake, Bourdain and his crew stop to eat some local food from a vendor. He discusses its ingredients and samples some items. Crowds of hungry people begin to gather. They are doing more than gawking at the camera crews. They are waiting in the hope of getting something to eat.

Bourdain thinks of a way to do something nice for everyone. Realizing that in this one sitting, he is eating a quantity of food that would last most Haitians three days, he buys out the remaining food from the vendor and gives it away to locals.

Nice gesture! Except that something goes wrong. Once the word spreads about the free food — word-of-mouth in Haiti is faster than Facebook chat — people start pouring in. Lines form and get long. Disorder ensues. Some people step forward to keep order. They bring belts and start hitting. The entire scene becomes very unpleasant for everyone — and the viewer gets the sense that it is worse than we are shown.

Here is the scene.

Bourdain correctly draws the lesson that the solutions to the problem of poverty here are more complex than it would appear at first glance. Good intentions go awry. They were thinking with their hearts instead of their heads, and ended up causing more pain than was originally there in the first place. From this event forward, he begins to approach the problems of this country with a bit more sophistication.

The rest of the show takes us through shanty towns, markets, art shows, festivals, and parades — and interviews all kinds of people who know the lay of the land. This is not a show designed to tug at your heart strings in the conventional sort of way. Yes, there is obvious human suffering, but the overall impression I got was not that. Instead, I came away with a sense that Haiti is a very normal place not unlike all places we know from experience, but with one major difference: it is very poor.
"Many people rail against the term capitalism because it implies that freedom is all about privileging the owners of capital. But there is a sense in which capitalism is the perfect term for a developed economy…"

By the time the show was made, the glamour of the postearthquake onslaught of American visitors seeking to help had vanished. One who remains is actor Sean Penn. Although he's known as a Hollywood lefty, he's actually living there, chugging up and down the hills of a shanty town, unshaven and disheveled, being what he calls a "functionary" and getting stuff for people who need it. He had no easy answers, and he had sharp words for American donors who think that dumping money into new projects is going to help anyone.

The people of Haiti in the documentary conform to what every visitor says about them. They are wonderfully friendly, talented, enterprising, happy, and full of hope. Like most people, they hate their government. Actually, they hate their government more than most Americans hate theirs. Truly, this is a precondition of liberty. There is a real sense of us-versus-them alive in Haiti, so much so that when the presidential palace collapsed in the recent earthquake, crowds gathered outside to cheer and cheer! It was the one saving grace of an otherwise terrible storm.

With all these enterprising, hard-working, and creative people, millions of them, what could possibly be wrong with the place? Well, for one thing, the earthquake destroyed most homes. If this had been the United States, this earthquake would not have caused the same level of damage. This led many outsiders to think that somehow the absence of building codes was the core of the problem, and hence the solution is more imposition of government control.

But the reality shows that this building-code notion is some sort of joke. The very idea that a government could somehow go around beating up people who provide shelter for themselves while failing to obey the central plan is simply laughable. Coercion of this sort would bring about no positive results and lead only to vast corruption, violence, and homelessness.

The core of the problem, says Robert Murphy, has nothing to do with a lack of regulations. The problem is the absence of wealth. It is obviously true that people prefer safer places to live, but the question is: what is the cost, and is this economically viable? The answer is that it is not viable, not in Haiti, not with this population that is barely getting by at all.

Where is the wealth? There is plenty of trade, plenty of doing, plenty of exchange and money changing hands. Why does the place remain desperately poor? If the market economists are correct that trade and commerce are the key to wealth, and there is plenty of both here, why is wealth not happening?

One can easily see how people can get confused, because the answer is not obvious until you have some economic understanding. A random visitor might easily conclude that Haiti is poor because somehow the wealth is being hogged by its northern neighbor, the United States. If we weren't devouring so much of the world's stock of wealth, it could be distributed more evenly and encompass Haiti too. Or another theory might be that the handful of international companies, or even aid workers, are somehow stealing all the money and denying it to the people.

These are not stupid theories. They are just theories — neither confirmed nor refuted by facts alone. They are only shown to be wrong once you realize a central insight of economics. It is this: trade and commerce are necessary conditions for the accumulation of wealth, but they are not sufficient conditions. Also necessary is that precious institution of capital.

What is capital? Capital is a thing (or service) that is produced not for consumption but for further production. The existence of capital industries implies several stages of production, or up to thousands upon thousands of steps in a long structure of production. Capital is the institution that gives rise to business-to-business trading, an extended workforce, firms, factories, ever more specialization, and generally the production of all kinds of things that by themselves cannot be useful in final consumption but rather are useful for the production of other things.

Capital is not so much defined as a particular good — most things have many varieties of uses — but rather a purpose of a good. Its purpose is extended over a long period of time with the goal of providing for final consumption. Capital is employed in a long structure of production that can last a month, a year, 10 years, or 50 years. The investment at the earliest (highest) stages has to take place long before the payoff circles around following final consumption.
The Pure Theory of Capital

As Hayek emphasized in The Pure Theory of Capital, another defining mark of capital is that it is a nonpermanent resource that must nonetheless be maintained over time in order to provide a continuing stream of income. That means that the owner must be able to count on being able to hire workers, replace parts, provide for security, and generally maintain operations throughout an extended period of production.
Man, Economy, and State: The Pocket Edition
"The thriving of the capital-goods sector was the great contribution of the Industrial Revolution to the world."

In a developed economy, the vast majority of productive activities consist in participation in these capital-goods sectors and not in final-consumption-goods sectors. In fact, as Rothbard writes in Man, Economy, and State,

    at any given time, this whole structure is owned by the capitalists. When one capitalist owns the whole structure, these capital goods, it must be stressed, do him no good whatever.

And why is that? Because the test of the value of all capital goods is conducted at the level of final consumption. The final consumer is the master of the richest capitalist.

Many people (I've been among them) rail against the term capitalism because it implies that freedom is all about privileging the owners of capital.

But there is a sense in which capitalism is the perfect term for a developed economy: the development, accumulation, and sophistication of the capital-goods sector is the characteristic feature that makes it different from an undeveloped economy.

The thriving of the capital-goods sector was the great contribution of the Industrial Revolution to the world.

Capitalism did in fact arise at a specific time in history, as Mises said, and this was the beginning of the mass democratization of wealth.

Rising wealth is always characterized by such extended orders of production. These are nearly absent in Haiti. Most all people are engaged in day-to-day commercial activities. They live for the day. They trade for the day. They plan for the day. Their time horizons are necessarily short, and their economic structures reflect that. It is for this reason that all the toil and trading and busyness in Haiti feels like peddling a stationary bicycle. You are working very hard and getting better and better at what you are doing, but you are not actually moving forward.

Now, this is interesting to me because anyone can easily miss this point just by looking around Haiti where you see people working and producing like crazy, and yet the people never seem to get their footing. Without an understanding of economics, it is nearly impossible to see the unseen: the capital that is absent that would otherwise permit economic growth. And this is the very reason for the persistence of poverty, which, after all, is the natural condition of mankind. It takes something heroic, something special, something historically unique, to dig out of it.

Now to the question of why the absence of capital.

The answer has to do with the regime. It is a well-known fact that any accumulation of wealth in Haiti makes you a target, if not of the population in general (which has grown suspicious of wealth, and probably for good reason), then certainly of the government. The regime, no matter who is in charge, is like a voracious dog on the loose, seeking to devour any private wealth that happens to emerge.

This creates something even worse than the Higgsian problem of "regime uncertainty." The regime is certain: it is certain to steal anything it can, whenever it can, always and forever. So why don't people vote out the bad guys and vote in the good guys? Well, those of us in the United States who have a bit of experience with democracy know the answer: there are no good guys. The system itself is owned by the state and rooted in evil. Change is always illusory, a fiction designed for public consumption.

"The state strikes only when there is something to loot."

This is an interesting case of a peculiar way in which government is keeping prosperity at bay. It is not wrecking the country through an intense enforcement of taxation and regulation or nationalization. One gets the sense that most people never have any face time with a government official and never deal with paperwork or bureaucracy really. The state strikes only when there is something to loot. And loot it does: predictably and consistently. And that alone is enough to guarantee a permanent state of poverty.

Now, to be sure, there are plenty of Americans who are firmly convinced that we would all be better off if we grew our own food, bought only locally, kept firms small, eschewed modern conveniences like home appliances, went back to using only natural products, expropriated wealthy savers, harassed the capitalistic class until it felt itself unwelcome and vanished. This paradise has a name, and it is Haiti.

 

[GAP]

Canadian aid worker shot in Haiti
CBC News Posted: Oct 28, 2011
Article Link

A Canadian aid worker was shot and another man killed while driving through a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Francklin Guerrier and the driver were attacked by people on a motorcycle, according to Radio-Canada correspondent in Haiti. The driver was killed.

Guerrier, a Quebec retired lawyer, was shot in the collar bone and is recovering in hospital, his brother Eric Piérre told Radio-Canada.

The motive for the attack is unknown.
More on link

 

[medicineman]

And I'm supposed to be surprised because?

MM

 

[Hammer Sandwich]

And I'm supposed to be surprised because?

MM

:rofl:

That's terrible!

 

[FlyingDutchman]

I am sorry to hear about the untimely demise, and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded worker.


With that out of the way, that is horrible and I feel awful for laughing.

 

[medicineman]

:rofl:

That's terrible!

I was there for 5 1/2 months in 2004 - I said that because frankly I'm not the slightest bit surprised...the place is a dump, the narcos still run the place and there are shyteheads running around all over the place with guns.  I'm willing to bet he wouldn't give any stuff to the local mob and so they tried to do him in...at least that's my hope.

MM

 

[Hammer Sandwich]

...snip.....I said that because frankly I'm not the slightest bit surprised.......snip....

And that's exactly why I laughed at your post....I wasn't surprised either, (I do have to tack on a disclaimer that I have spent no time there, I only know what I've seen through conventional media).

HS

 

[The Bread Guy]

Haiti's efforts to restore its disbanded army could deplete resources from more pressing matters in the Caribbean nation, which is still recovering from the massive earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people almost two years ago, a Canadian diplomat said Tuesday.

John Babcock, a spokesman for Canadian Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy, said in an email to The Associated Press that Haiti's decision to create a second security force is a sovereign right but that its formation "seems premature" because of the difficult living conditions that many Haitians still face following the January 2010 earthquake.

"Canada fears that creating a second security force will significantly reduce resources available for Haiti's other important priorities," one of them being the need to strengthen Haiti's national police department, Babcock wrote.

Haitian President Michel Martelly is moving ahead with a plan to restore the national army that was disbanded in 1995, and recruiting an initial force of 500 troops would cost an estimated $25 million.

Babcock said Tuesday Canada wouldn't help pay for a second security force, echoing sentiments of foreign diplomats who told Martelly in October they wouldn't fund the force.

In practice, however, foreign governments are almost certain to help foot the bill. Between 60 to 70 percent of the government's $2 billion budget is paid for by outside sources, and government departments will be required to send 1 to 5 percent of their budgets to the new security force.

The army is expected to be officially restored on Friday, when Martelly issues a decree. Friday is also a national holiday that commemorates Haiti's armed forces. Haiti's government says the army won't take shape until June ....

Associated Press, 15 Nov 11

We have helped with the police force - design/build of a police academy and vehicles.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I suspect that creating an Infantry battalion, support unit and Engineering unit would be a good start for them, it would keep some of the young males employed and busy. A engineering unit would eventually give them the ability to help themselves. The key of course is training the NCO's and Officers.

 

[McG]

From CBC

Col. Bernard Ouellette, who was the chief of staff for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, is under investigation, said Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay, a spokesman for Canadian Expeditionary Force Command.
Lemay said the decision was based on Ouellette's "inability to address a negative environment that lasted a few months, which affected the morale and team cohesion within the Canadian contingent."
The "situation within the team deteriorated," Lemay added

An update on this:

Judge says disgraced top soldier treated unfairly
Court rules commander's firing over alleged infidelity with his assistant was mishandled
Douglas Quan
The London Free Press
28 Oct 2015

Evidence of an affair between Canada's former top soldier in Haiti and his assistant was circumstantial -- he put her up in his room after the 2010 earthquake and there were reports of pink lipstick smudges and frolicking in the pool.

But it was enough for Col. Bernard Ouellette's superiors to strip him of his command and accuse him of showing "leadership failure" for not being able to put infidelity rumours to rest. Now, five years later, a federal judge has ruled the grievance Ouellette filed over his dismissal was not handled fairly and ordered a review by the chief of the defence staff.

"This guy was denied ju stice along the way. He was never restored to what he should've been," said Michel Drapeau, Ouellette's lawyer. "We owe him, as a nation, the sort of recognition and commendation (that should be awarded to) anybody who has done Canada proud."

A spokesperson for the Armed Forces said Tuesday the ruling was under review and no course of action has been decided.

Federal court documents show how things unravelled for Ouellette, who, according to performance evaluations, was "ideally suited for UN missions" and seen as a "role model" and "excellent representative of his country."

Ouellette, then 48, was deployed to Haiti in July 2009 as commander of the Canadian Task Force Port-au-Prince and chief of staff of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the country. His deployment was to last a year.

On Jan. 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude quake struck the Caribbean nation, killing 300,000 people. The UN headquarters, housed in the Christopher Hotel, collapsed. Ouellette lost his entire UN office staff, except for his administrative assistant, Vlora Merlaku.

Later that month, Merlaku moved into Ouellette's room at Canada House 1, a secure building rented by Canadian Forces staff.

According to Ouellette, the place where Merlaku had lived was no longer safe because of escalating gang violence. Ouellette, who was married, insisted that while she occupied his room he slept elsewhere, usually in his office.

But rumours swirled of a romantic relationship.

On March 20, 2010, Maj. Nancy Peters, a public affairs officer, emailed a colleague. What "the man does in his personal time and according to his personal morals are his own business," she wrote, but the sleeping arrangements have made the other occupants of the house "extremely uncomfortable."

Some officers in the UN mission, she said, including Americans, Brazilians and Filipinos, were now calling Merlaku "the wife," "the queen," or "the first lady."

"Our reputation here is quickly deteriorating due to the (colonel) and how he is conducting his personal affairs."

Two days later, Col. Steve Charpentier, assistant chief of staff -- international operations at Canadian Expeditionary Force Command headquarters, spoke to Ouellette. He denied any wrongdoing and said his subordinates were "being a bunch of babies." However, he agreed to move her out when alternative arrangements could be made.

On April 6, 2010, Stephen Peters, commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, wrote to his colleagues to say there was "absolutely no reason" she couldn't move to a cruise ship made available for displaced personnel.

Four days later, Merlaku left the house.

On June 14, 2010, Lieut. Cmdr. Luc Tremblay told colleagues in an email Ouellette was sleeping at Merlaku's apartment.

Tremblay also reported Ouellette was seen with lipstick on his mouth at work and the pair were spotted holding hands and "frolicking" in the pool.

"Did we see them sleeping together? Of course not." he wrote. "However, I have never seen someone sleeping with his secretary in the same room for five months."

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service opened an investigation. Ouellette and Merlaku denied an inappropriate relationship.

On June 28, 2010, Lieut. Gen. Marc Lessard removed Ouellette from command and sent him home. While there was "uncertainty" about whether Ouellette had engaged in an inappropriate relationship, there was still a perception of one "and you have done nothing to dispel this impression," he told Ouellette.

Ouellette filed a formal grievance, arguing his removal was based on unfounded allegations.

The Canadian Forces Grievance Board, in a December 2011 report, said it was "shocked" by the way Ouellette was treated and said his removal was unjustified.

The board found that the military's strict non-fraternization code didn't apply because the policy deals with personal relationships between Canadian Forces members, DND employees and allied force members. Ouellette's assistant was a UN employee. The board further stated that offering her accommodations in his house was not unreasonable given the circumstances.

Further, evidence of an affair never amounted to more than "unconfirmed allegations" and "innuendos."

The board concluded Ouellette was never privy to all the allegations or given an opportunity to respond.

It recommended creating a "public affairs plan" to restore Ouellette's reputation and character.

But more than two years later, in 2014, Gen. Tom Lawson, then-chief of the defence staff, said he disagreed and upheld the original decision to remove Ouellette from command. If Ouellette had a problem, he could take it up with the "final authority" -- who would also be Lawson.

Ouellette appealed to the Federal Court, arguing Lawson did not have jurisdiction and there would be great prejudice if he were to review his own decision.

In a recent ruling, federal Judge Martine St-Louis agreed, referring the case back to the chief of the defence staff, now Gen. Jonathan Vance, for final determination using the 2011 findings of the grievance board.

Drapeau said Tuesday his client is hopeful his reputation will be restored. Since retiring from the Canadian Forces last year after 36 years service, Ouellette has been unable to find meaningful employment, he said.

"He's damaged goods."  

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Should have thought of that before Colonel.  Maybe if he took it on the chin like a man and actually accepted responsibility for his actions he'd be able to find some meaningful employment. 

 

[captloadie]

There were issues regarding his leadership style even before he moved the assistant in. Having done my tour there well after he departed, the rumors still existed. His description of his housemates (which were all subordinate to him) as babies should be indication enough of how things were going. And, at the end of the day, had he just paid her share of the expenses, everyone would have likely continued to look the other way.