Citizen Columns

Citizen Columns >> Answer (September 28th, 2007)

Question

A young soldier has been asked to torture a prisoner believed to have knowledge of an imminent, massive attack on Canadian soil. If you were a military chaplain, what guidance could you offer the young man when he comes to you with moral doubts about this?

Answer

The young soldier and the chaplain must both work within the Canadian military justice system. This has its own set of assumptions that differ significantly from civilian life, as outlined by the Office of the Judge Advocate General for the Canadian Forces. These include subordination and obedience to authority: "The obligation to obey all lawful commands, including those which might lead to death or serious injury and the potential to be penalized for failing to do so".

So the young man's dilemma revolves around the question of whether torture is a lawful or unlawful command. Canada signed the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment, or Punishment. This obligates Canada not only to prevent torture but to agree that an order "from a superior officer or public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture." The Supreme Court of Canada declared that an unlawful command is "an order which shocks the conscience of every reasonable, right thinking person". Torture, under most circumstances, falls into this category. So I would advise the soldier, first of all, to place this question in the context of the legal protection he receives for disobeying an unlawful order.

However, if torture is eventually deemed to be lawful in some extreme situations, and the soldier's conscience rebels at this, he would need to be prepared to resist the order, since the Christian is called to a higher standard of behaviour, despite the consequences. Indeed, in the ancient church taking someone's life as soldier in combat, however legitimate, subjected the Christian soldier to a period of being forbidden to receive communion. And there are many soldiers in the early centuries of the Christian church who suffered martyrdom rather than follow orders to worship the emperor.

Father John Jillions