Canadian Forces commander charged with murdering two women

This is horrifying on so many levels. The two women: Jessica Lloyd, who went missing just under two weeks ago, and Corporal Marie-France Comeau, who was killed in November.

The man who has been charged is Colonel Russell Williams, the commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, which is widely known as the base to which Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan are returned.

He has also been charged with two other cases of forcible confinement and sexual assault, and police are checking to see if there are related unsolved cases in other locations where he has lived.

Beyond the devastation of what happened to these women, there is the issue that a man who is holding a position which carries a great deal of power and authority is being charged with these crimes. The phrase "women who serve under him" suddenly becomes much more frightening. 

Also highlighted for me by this story is the way that militaries all around the world maintain a culture of misogyny — how many stories of rape and murder of women by invading soldiers are there? How many female soldiers have been attacked by their male peers? Could this misogyny have contributed to the impunity with which these crimes were committed?

And then there is the reaction of oh, we didn’t know, I’m so shocked, he was such a great guy. Yes, Virginia, great guys sometimes do these things.

"He was just a shining, bright star," said Maj.-Gen. Yvan Blondin, the commander of 1 Canadian Air division based in Winnipeg and Williams’s immediate superior.

"And if you talk to people on the [base], they will probably tell you that they admired the wing commander," Blondin said at a news conference Monday afternoon at Trenton. "He was involved in everything in the community here. Nobody had one thought that something like this could be possible."

A shining star. Yes, and I expect that Jessica Lloyd and Marie-France Comeau were considered shining stars by the people who loved them.

More information.