The Canadian Navy has decided it will review its drug-testing process after a military court heard that as much as one-third of the crew on a Pacific-based Canadian ship were regularly using cocaine, according to a report.
In total, three crewmembers aboard the HMCS Saskatoon have been found guilty of trafficking cocaine and a fourth charged with the same offence.
Jason Ennis, 24, was one of four crew members of HMCS Saskatoon charged after the military launched an undercover sting operation targeting the ship.
- Ennis was charged with two counts of trafficking and two counts of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline under the National Defence Act. One charge of trafficking was stayed and he was found not guilty of the other. He was found guilty on one of the conduct charges and the other was stayed.
Ennis, who was convicted last week, told the court between 10 and 12 members of the 31-member crew used cocaine frequently during the time of the investigation, which took place in January, 2006. However, he denied using the drug on the ship himself.
Earlier this year, two sailors were convicted of drug trafficking charges. Sonya Robert, 27, pleaded guilty to selling half a gram of cocaine to a military undercover drug officer. Brenda Murley, 28, pleaded guilty to the same charge and both were fined $500. A military court convicted Ennis last week of one count of trafficking cocaine and ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine.
He and three others have been discharged by the Canadian Forces.
The fourth person charged with drug trafficking has been identified as Petty Officer Robert Carlson, the ship's senior non-commissioned officer. At the time of his arrest, he was the ship's coxswain and in charge of military discipline.
He is also charged with having "behaved in a disgraceful manner," according to The Canadian Press. A court martial has been set for October 10.
"There's a goodly level of concern with regard to the circumstances and a lot of smart people are putting their heads toward whether there needs to be changes to the random drug-testing program," Lt.-Cmdr. Gerry Pash, a spokesman for Maritime Forces Pacific, told The Globe and Mail Monday.
"Certainly there was an element of surprise with regards to the number of people relative to the size of the crew," Pash told The Globe.
"The Canadian Forces has a zero-tolerance rule with regard to the use of drugs, recognizing that members of the Canadian Forces are put in positions of trust and drug use is not compatible with military service."
HMCS Saskatoon is one of the navy's six maritime coastal defence vessels in the Pacific fleet, based at CFB Esquimalt. It is armed with a 40 mm rapid-firing cannon and two .50 calibre machine guns.
Last fall, random drug tests on soldiers in Gagetown revealed a startling number of them tested positive.
"The military is taking this very, very seriously. Obviously people have to be held back from that, but they have a manning problem in terms of manpower so the zero tolerance that used to be the case when you look at staffing these rotations in Afghanistan, keeping the navy ships fully manned, it becomes problematic in itself," Scott Taylor, publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine, told CTV's Canada AM.
With files from The Canadian Press
