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Branded
In an act freighted with symbolism, the Canadian Forces has burned convicted serial killer Russell Williams military kit all his ceremonial and fighting uniforms, as well as shirts, headdress, boots, gloves, rucksacks, and other items of military apparel.The kit was committed to the flames of a roaring furnace at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, which Mr. Williams once commanded, in the early hours of Thursday morning. The bonfire was witnessed by the four military officials who, one day earlier, spent 90 minutes reclaiming the uniforms from the former air force colonels cottage in Tweed, Ont. The wardrobe, including two boxes of military clothing previously shipped from Mr. Williams Ottawa home, was loaded into a minivan and driven to the Trenton base, and stored overnight. Canadian Forces spokesperson Cmdr. Hubert Genest said in an interview that the idea to burn the uniforms had emerged from the bottom up and been endorsed by the chain of command. We did what we felt was necessary, said Cmdr. Genest. It feels right. There was no formal ceremony, he said, and no pictures were taken. Mr. Williams, 47, pleaded guilty last month to 82 fetish break-and-enters and thefts, two sexual assaults involving home invasion, and to the rape and murder of his colleague Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38, of Brighton, and Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville. Now serving a life sentence in Kingston Penitentiary, he has been stripped of his rank and formally evicted from the military the first Canadian officer ever to be so disgraced. Military historians called the burning of his kit unprecedented. Ive never heard anything like that, said Jack Granatstein, director general of the Canadian War Museum. I guess its embarrassment as much as anything...to erase the shame and stigma of Mr. Williams association with the Forces. Its an exorcism. We are exorcising the memory of Russell Williams. Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-11-21 |
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