More on the Beaudry CMAC decision

The Lawyer's Daily reports here on the CMAC decision in Beaudry. Excerpt:

For the majority, Justice [Vital O.] Ouellette wrote that “any limit on a right must be related to the maintenance of discipline, morale and efficiency of the armed forces. In the absence of such a connection, there is no reason why a member would not enjoy the same rights as any other Canadian citizen. Indeed, it would be ironic for those who have the ultimate responsibility of protecting freedom, justice and social equality, at the risk of their lives, to not enjoy these same rights.”

The Beaudry decision effectively shrinks the scope of the military justice system by confining it to dealing with military service offences under the Code of Service Discipline (which are mostly comparatively minor, e.g. disobeying an order) because the court held that courts martial in Canada can no longer try any civil offence — including sexual assault and other Criminal Code offences — which attract a maximum of more than five years’ maximum imprisonment.

Ongoing courts martial have been halted in the wake of Beaudry, and pending charges for serious crimes could [be] referred by military prosecutors to civilian criminal courts.