By the Canadain Press
Monday, July 28, 2008
Col. Serge Labbe was promoted to brigadier-general on July 2, the same day as the chief of the defence staff change-of-command ceremony. The promotion will be retroactive both in pay and rank to July, 2000.
Once a rising star of the Canadian Forces, the 1992 Somalia scandal cut Labbe's career off at the knees. Canadian troops tortured a teenaged prisoner to death, and shot a civilian in the back. The Somalia commission of inquiry later found that Labbe had failed in his duty as a commander to ensure his troops understood the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners and the rules of war.
NDP defence critic Dawn Black says that given Labbe's involvement in the scandal, she finds the promotion shocking.
However, Scott Taylor, publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine, says Labbe carries 15 medals and has had a "pretty stellar career" as a colonel.
Source: Canadain Press, July 28, 2008