WRITER PROFILE
Tony Battista served 40 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, retiring at the rank of Colonel in 2014. He served in a variety of staff, command and operational tours at home and abroad, including personal assistant to the Chief of the Defence Staff, professor at Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, senior Military Police Officer at National Defence Headquarters, Air Force Provost Marshal, a year in Afghanistan, and 11 years overseas. After retiring from the CAF, he was the Chief Executive Officer of the Conference of Defence Associations and the CDA Institute for 4 years and, most recently, was an executive with IBM Canada-Federal Government. Tony is a life member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
Articles by this writer
Freelance historian Karen Storwick and her research team, Wartime Friends, were working on a very important project about a little boy who had been found after a wartime battle in Italy. He was cared for by Canadian soldiers after it was determined that he was homeless. It's an incredible story.
It is most unfortunate that the recent MND announcement about sexual misconduct left us with the impression that this is another study to study previous studies! It did not explain things well.
When it comes to criminal investigations, changes to the National Defence Act could remove the possibility and perception of interference by the chain of command, would make the military police accountable to the law, and will go a long way to rebuilding trust in the Canadian Armed Forces.
An objective assessment would recognize that having the Head of Military Police report to the chain of command constitutes a major flaw in accountability. This situation must be tackled head-on as part of the current review of the NDA and the Military Justice System.
