The Legions of the Nanny State

On October 5th, Captain Robert Semrau was sentenced by a Canadian Court Martial for shooting a dying Taliban in combat in 2008. He was reduced in rank two grades and expelled from the service--a punishment which is a very harsh one to an officer in Military Law. The Court Martial never should have taken place and will have a direct and dire impact on the conduct of all Canadian soldiers who go into battle in future. For the good of the Service, and for the defence of Canada, the verdict and sentence need to be overturned.

---

Anyone who has a brush with the courts understands that the law and justice are seldom synonymous. They are often at odds. Commonsense, practicality and mercy are often also strangers to the law, and the more legalistic a system becomes the more remote these get. We are becoming a highly legalistic society. This is probably related to the over-abundance of lawyers being pumped out of our educational system and is common in many other Western nations. Legalism is smothering the law More...