Former base logistics officer Nord Mensah was found guilty of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline. (Credit: Royal Canadian Navy).
A former base logistics officer at CFB Esquimalt was found guilty of having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate at a court martial on Monday.
Nord Mensah pled guilty to the charge of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline. The two charges of disgraceful conduct and conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline were dropped after a joint submission.
Mensah had a sexual relationship with a woman directly under his supervision two years ago, the court martial heard.
The incidents were reported to have taken place between Aug. 13, 2015, and Sept. 5, 2015. Mensah, who is married with five children, did not report the relationship, which is required under the National Defence Act.
He will be fined $2,500 and will receive a severe reprimand. Mensah left the navy before the court martial.
“There’s specific orders and regulations out there in the military that if you’re engaged in a sexual relationship with somebody who is in your chain of command, you’re required to report it to help prevent an adverse work environment because things such as unit cohesion, unit morale are quite important within the military context,” Lt.-Cmdr Sally Torani, the prosecutor on Mensah’s case.
“It doesn’t mean you can’t have these types of relationships, it’s just that there’s an onus on your report them, which he didn’t do.”
Torani said they also expect commanding officers to uphold the regulations and orders within the military.
Mensah joined the navy as a logistics officer in 2000. He sailed the HMC Ships Ottawa and Vancouver as an assistant logistics officer and logistics officer respectively.
His operational support experience includes stints as the fleet logistics operations officer for Canadian Fleet Pacific, senior fleet logistics officer for Canadian Fleet Atlantic, Sea Training Logistics Officer in both the Pacific and Atlantic fleets, Canadian Special Operation Forces command logistics operations officer and special operations forward logistics officer with JTF-2.
He was also the officer commanding the Contract Management Cell in the Mission Closure Unit for Operation ATHENA, the Mission Transition Task Force in Afghanistan.
“Today was an example of exactly what we are trying to get rid of in the Canadian Armed Forces and that’s any toxic environments where harmful and inappropriate sexual behivour is witnessed, cultivatived or otherwise. I think today we have one less person working for the Canadian Armed Forces that I guess fit that mold,” Capt. Jason Boyd, the base commander at CFB Esquimalt, said.
Alexa Huffman
