Page 20 - CCCA61_2013

CCCA_V7No1_Profiles-FIN_CCCA 2/12/13 4:30 PM Page 20 Profile By Kim Covert T he price of a goat seems like a strange bellwether for the state of a war. But for Canada’s military lawyers serving in the former Yugoslavia, the rising cost of livestock was a sign that things were getting better. Major-General Blaise Cathcart discov- ered this when he served as legal adviser to UN peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslavia in 1994 and 1995. Along with advising on issues relating to mission man- date and use of force, one of the duties of Canadian Forces JAG officers on deploy- ment in a conflict is to settle civil claims. But there were none during his early deployment, says the current Judge Advocate General, who also served as adviser to the Canadian Task Force Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2000. “People were in survival mode. They didn’t have time to complain about property damage.” When claims did start to come — dead goats and chickens,damaged property,and more serious accusations about the behaviour of Canadian Armed Forces personnel — it was a signal that “things were starting to improve” for people in the region.“They were able to turn their attention to more than just their personal MIKE PINDER and family security,”he says.It meant they 20 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association SPRING 2013