During last week, Canadians have been mesmerized by the spectacle of the hitherto respected senior officer in the Canadian Military, Colonel Russell Williams, being sentenced to life in prison for two sex murders and assorted related assaults.
Audiences are conditioned to men leading double lives from fictional variations of the Jekyll and Hyde theme, but this was a real-life drama, and it was amazing. Particularly compelling was a long videotape showing how a skilled investigator trapped Williams into making a confession. When asked afterwards how he felt Williams said, among other things, that he was “disappointed,” meaning, presumably, that he was disappointed that he did not have the means to control the compulsion that drove him to commit these crimes.
It is too soon for forensic psychiatrists and neuroscientists to explain to their satisfaction how, in this case, the sexual drive has gone so disastrously wrong. Once all the relevant facts are known, they will undoubtedly find at least approximations to the answer.
In the meantime, we laymen are entitled to ask ourselves whether we all have microscopic quantities of Russell Williams’ compulsion but, having been duly socialized, have learned to control it. Just as everybody is at least a little bit musical there was, in our lifetime, only one Glenn Gould.
In short, let’s face it: we are all sinners but only a few of us are monsters.
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
In my modest experience as a Military Judge, I quite often heard from those appearing before me that they were “sorry”, and that they “wouldn’t do it again”. All too frequently, it was pretty clear that they were referring not to their offences, but rather to having been caught and punished for them.
In the same vein, I guess I’m cynical enough to wonder what it was that Mr. Williams was “disappointed” about.
Would it not be possible that Jekyll was disappointed but Hyde was not?
To the extent that you accept the Jekyll/Hyde construct in a given case, that possibility would logically have to exist.
Being American and therefore ignorant of the facts on the Canadian ground, I’d speculate that he was disappointed that the sex murders he allegedly committed were not as gratifying as he’d led himself on with. Or more likely, that the punishment he was meted does nothing to scratch that same itch either.
The Canadian itch is no different from the American itch. Neither can compare with the itch Robert and I remember from our childhood:
Peter Kürten (26 May 1883–2 July 1931) was a German serial killer dubbed The Vampire of Düsseldorf by the contemporary media. He committed a series of sex crimes, assaults and murders against adults and children, most notoriously from February to November 1929 in Düsseldorf.
The phenomenon of Williams’s mind and actions is something, objectively – the facts are determined by evidence and a jury.
In people learning about it, beyond those directly affected, it has compelled revulsion and fascination, reflection and responses.
We’re always story-makers around deep events – defining them, and defining ourselves. How do we want the story to play out?
Our responses – emotional, conversational, media, and political – are worth mulling, too.
If he was running for mayor of Toronto and was the only candidate other than Ford I would vote for him.
Is it possible that the closure of the secret Canadian Military Base, ‘Camp Mirage’ (appropriately named) in Dubai at around the same time as the Colonel Williams confessions was not a coincidence? Is the explanation for his being a ‘unique’ case as a latecomer to paraphillic criminal behaviour that he suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome? Immediately prior to the beginning of his crime spree he had been the Commander of Camp Mirage and was promoted to Commander of Trenton. Certainly an explosion of omnipotence might be expected from any one as a result of such a promotion, but perhaps things went to an extreme because what had remained hidden in Dubai and Afghanistan, where he flew and supervised supply missions, was exposed under peacetime conditions. Historically, its well known that it is hard for soldiers to make the transition from wartime to peacetime, and there has been a lot of attention to the difficulties Canadian and American soldiers are having upon their return from Afghanistan. But this issue was not addressed at all in court in regard to Colonel Williams because he did not plead ‘not criminally responsible due to mental disorder’. Why not? Because he was concerned about the impact of his crimes on the Canadian forces as he said in his confession, but which the press paid no attention to? Or was it because of a ‘secret’ intervention in the case by the military in order to prevent the disclosure of such information in a trial. If any of this is more than wild speculation, at least the government of Dubai decided to hold the Canadian Government responsible for its role in these crimes.
That’s a good investigative lead, Mr Bentley.
Since Hannah Arendt’s time, the inherent self-protective tendencies of organizations as such have become better known. The ways they suppress criticism internally and keep polishing their public faces. The large rooms of obscure unaccountability they create for individuals to do evil things while barely recognizing it themselves.
While it’s been keenly observed, confirmed, and pretty well understood, it’s only rarely a subject of effective public policy. Which has to be made by organizations, or by communities. And it can be.
I wonder how much this is a subject in management school education and training?
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” – Hannah Arendt http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hannah_arendt_2.html
Lexicon: group think, whistleblower, scapegoat; narcissism, sociopathology; transparency, accountability; community
To
“The large rooms of obscure unaccountability they create for individuals to do evil things while barely recognizing it themselves.”
Add
How this provides deniability for organization leaders who are otherwise accountable, and so enables the organization to get dirty work done by individuals for its own advantage.
Some individuals will be more susceptible to this than others.
To the Lexicon, add “,witness”
If the suggestion here is that Williams was in some way doing “dirty work” for the advantage of the Canadian Forces, that can only be characterized as an odious fantasy.
Similarly, Mr. Bentley’s “wild speculation” about some form of intervention by the Forces in the working of the civilian criminal justice system is conspiracy theory at its most advanced. In what possible way could the Forces benefit from such an intervention, even if it were possible? Williams was advised and represented by very competent and experienced counsel, and there is no reason to think that what really happened is different from what we all saw.
Fred, I do apologize for causing offence, which I evidently have done here, and is entirely inappropriate to the Sketches community. I bow to your familiarity with this case.
What’s becoming known about organizational behaviour isn’t speculation or conspiracy theory; but it is an entirely hypothetical exercise as far as I know to look at Williams’s specific activities or the due processes of the Canadian military in light of organization theory, like this.
Reflecting, I wish I’d directed my comments to look at how the facts of Williams case might contribute to what’s known in theory about bad behaviour and organizations. Not the direction I took, which was the other way – to look at the Williams events in light of the little I know about organizations in general. Not wise.
At the same time, I’m curious, as in your first comment, about what it was that Mr. Williams was “disappointed” about. It’s a very odd statement from a serial murderer.
If I may speculate about this: maybe he was disappointed to discover that he has in fact been evil. People wouldn’t normally expect to be surprised to find that out about themselves. But someone who is not used to personally feeling much about other people might be surprised, if he or she had been operating for a while in environments where that can pass.
Please excuse my blunder!
I see what you are saying. I am sorry if my conjecture has been irresponsible. It’s good to be kept in check and warned against crazy ‘conspiracy’ theories, but what about the ‘coincidence’ of the closing of camp mirage? Coincidences do occur, I guess. Or perhaps I am mistaken on this fact, I will double check.
The suggestion is not at all that the cdn forces deliberately used Williams to do bad stuff for them knowing that he had criminal tendencies (that never occured to me). At worst, in this sense, he may have been asked to carry out duties as commander at camp mirage that involved questionable interrogation techniques, or he may have taken advantage of the ‘fog of war’ as a cover for his first forays into his lurid world of sex-crime. The exposure to such circumstances may have triggered a nasty reaction in this individual, though the Canadian Forces could in no way predict that he would react in this way, or even be aware of it, until it was too late.
Rather, I am suggesting that, as is often the case, war brings out the bad in people, and that this may have happened with Williams ie., that he suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome in some way. I wonder why this has not been considered in the press coverage that I am aware of. If this is at all true, then certainly the Canadian forces would have had an interest in avoiding any attention being drawn to this possibility. I am aware that it would be legally unlikely that as a psychopath Williams would be able to plead NCRMD (R. v. Oomen), but what about as a victim of PTSD? I am sure that his lawyers advised him with great skill At worst, I suppose, Williams counsel may have had contact with the Canadian forces and, in the interests of ‘national security’, the decision may have been made to cover up and correct what went wrong in this case by quickly ending the public proceedings and closing camp mirage. There was at least one Canadian Forces official who did intervene in the trial – Colonel Williams himself!
Sure, this is conspiracy theoryish, and probably way too much of a stretch. But I don’t think it is irresponsible to raise the question as to whether this case might be considered in connection to the larger question of the psychological damage done by modern warfare, and the ways in which our collective involvement in ‘odious’ wars like Afghanistan are coming back to haunt us. “It will have blood they say, blood will have blood”….
It is fair enough to wonder if ex-Colonel Williams had some combat-induced disorder that contributed to his evil actions. It is bizarre speculation to link the actions with the closing of Camp Mirage in Dubai. Where is the evidence that the fate of that camp had anything to do with the behaviour of the forces stationed there, or passing through there? The only evidence in public view, certainly, is that the Emiratis wanted something of commercial value for having the camp on its territory, and the federal government was not prepared to provide that commercial value (landing slots for planes from the Emirati airlines.) Nothing whatever to do with now-Mr Williams, whose depradations preceded by many months, even years, the decision on the Dubai camp.
Well, why didn’t Cannon meet with the UAE ambassador? Why did the Canadian government let the negotiations fall apart and risk suffering international embarrassment? The CBC reported to day that the Oppositon is suggesting a slack effort on the part of the government to resolve the dispute that has led to the final closure of the base this Friday. Perhaps there was method in this madness.
You are right though, that the police investigation followed a trail of Williams’ criminal behaviour back to 2006, the year he returned to Canada from Camp Mirage. So, his early crimes did precede the Dubai decision, though his most recent, and extreme crimes only just preceded it, and his trial coincided with it. It would be the confession and trial that would have alerted the government to the undesireability of maintaining a base with such a history. No?
On the other hand, why would the government want to bring attention to Camp Mirage at the time of the Williams trial if there was any connection?
I’ve either outsmarted myself, or they are not too smart. Better to cut your losses, perhaps? Maybe they just wanted to do the right thing and clean up the mess once they fully realized how bad it was?
Even if they did not intentionally close down Camp Mirage once Colonel Williams’ confession was public, they should have.
Perhaps it was not an act of contrition on the part of our federal government but an act of God to bring about, in mysterious ways, the closure of a Canadian military base from whose barracks the devil himself was released into the world!