Sex-tainted top Canadian commander quits

TORONTO - The top commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, who lost his pivotal job in May after his sexual romps with a subordinate officer and now faces a court martial, has quit the military.

Brigadier-General Daniel Menard was relieved of his duties in Kandahar and ordered home for engaging in “sex in theatre” with his female trooper Bianka Langlois.

According to Canadian Forces, Brig-Gen Menard gave notice last week to be relieved of his current duties at the Military Personnel Management Capability Transformation Project. But his departure from the military will have no impact on his court martial which could lock him behind bars for 10 years and disgraceful dismissal from the military, the forces said.

Langlois, the female trooper involved in sex with her boss, was given an official reprimand and fined $700 in September.

The Canadian Forces (CF) - the joint name for its army, air force and navy - forbid intimate relations between soldiers serving on overseas missions.

An inappropriate relationship as per Canadian Forces rules could be “an emotional, romantic, sexual or family relationship, including marriage or a common-law partnership or civil union, between two CF members, or a CF member and a DND (department of national defence) employee or contractor, or a member of an allied force.”

Menard is the second top commander to disgrace Canadian armed forces this year.

Last month, Russell Williams, top commander of the country’s biggest base at Trenton near here, was locked for life for sexually assaulting and killing two women, including a junior at the base, and 82 fetish break-ins to steal lingerie and panties.

Canada deployed 2,500 soldiers in the Kandahar area after joining the US-led coalition war against Taliban and al-Qaeda in 2002. It has lost mote than 150 personnel so far.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)