The Somalia Affair and the Transformation of Canadian Military Justice

Global Military Justice Reform contributor Preston Lim has just published  an article in the UBC Law Review, entitled "The Somalia Affair and the Transformation of Canadian Military Justice" (2023) 56:1 (4) UBC Law Review 107.  Preston has been working on this project since 2021, and it builds on his prior scholarship on Parliamentary attitudes towards military justice reform in Canada.

For those unfamiliar with the Somalia Affair, the Canadian Forces deployed a Battle Group based upon the now-disbanded Canadian Airborne Regiment as part of a United Nations (UN) operation.  While the bulk of the Battle Group performed admirably, some troops were involved in disciplinary misconduct and human rights abuses.  Most notably, two soldiers beat to death a 16 year old Somali teenager named Shidane Abukar Arone.  This incident proved to be the catalyst in a series of studies and subsequent reforms.  Preston's article describes how the Canadian government remade Canada's military justice system in the aftermath of the Somalia Affair. Key architectural features of today's military justice system find their roots in this period of reform.

In the wake of the so-called "sexual misconduct scandal" that has gripped the Canadian Forces as of late, Canadian legislators and policy makers may wish to engage with some of the broader lessons that Preston describes.