Court Martial Lawyer - Two

Court Martial Lawyer - Two petty offices charged with sabotage at DND HQ



David Pugliese - The Ottawa Citizen



OTTAWA - Two members of the Canadian military have been charged with sabotage after an alleged incident involving a secure government computer system at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa last year.



The highly unusual charges were laid yesterday by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service in relation to what Defence Department officials are calling an "alleged corruption of a database."



Petty Officer Second Class Sylvia Reid, now based in Victoria, B.C., and Petty Officer Second Class Janet Sinclair, a member of the Maritime Forces Pacific headquarters in Victoria, were each charged with one count of sabotage, one count of conspiracy, one count of mischief in relation to data and one count of willful property damage.



The charges came after a year-long investigation by the NIS and military police, a probe which also involved gathering evidence through computer forensic analysis. The two women allegedly corrupted a classified government database at headquarters in July 2007, according to the military.



"It was a classified government database but as far as the effects of the alleged corruption of the database, I can't discuss that any further," Capt. Paule Poulin, a public affairs officer with the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, said yesterday.



She declined to discuss the motives or circumstances surrounding the alleged incident but added that it is rare for charges of sabotage to be laid But Capt. Poulin added that "this seems to be an isolated incident."



The two women were recently posted from Ottawa to Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in Victoria, Petty Officer Second Class Sinclair is a sonar operator who joined the military in 1987. She has served aboard several ships and was posted to Ottawa in 2004. Petty Officer Second Class Reid is a naval combat information systems operator who joined the military in 1994. She was to have served on HMCS Regina at CFB Esquimalt. But now both will be placed in new jobs at the base until the judicial process is completed. At this point, however, military officials do not know what those jobs will be.



Michel Drapeau, an Ottawa lawyer who co-wrote a textbook on military law, said the charge of sabotage is very serious, particularly coming at a time when Canada is at war.



He pointed out that such a charge would usually be laid against a foreign agent. But Mr. Drapeau, a retired colonel who teaches military law at the University of Ottawa, cautioned that there could be more to this case than the Defence Department is letting on.



"What I find odd is that is a very serious offence but they are being allowed to continue to serve," he said. "I'm surprised they haven't been suspended from duty or put on administrative leave."



Mr. Drapeau, who has also defended soldiers at court martial appeal courts, said the Defence Department has been known in the past to bring down the full force of military law in cases where that might not be warranted. "I've seen it often enough where they're very quick to charge people," he explained. "They could be overplaying the evidence in this case."



The charges have now gone to the director of military prosecution who will decide whether the case should be transferred to a civilian court or heard as a court martial, said Capt. Poulin.



Jay Paxton, press secretary for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, said he could not comment on the case as it is before the courts.



Citing the federal government's Privacy Act, military officials declined to release more details about the women, including their ages or home towns.



Actual cases of sabotage against the Canadian military are rare. In 2004 the water supply at the Canadian base in Kabul was tampered with but military officers believed the incident was the result of a prank gone bad.



In 2002 the military investigated a suspected case of sabotage after sugar was found in the engine oil of a Sea King helicopter. The contamination was found during a routine oil change of a helicopter that had flown from its base in Halifax to an installation outside Victoria, B.C.



During the journey the chopper had made frequent stops at a number of bases and civilian airports. Twenty other helicopters were examined, but the incident was an isolated one, military officials concluded.







Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer - court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.