A defence lawyer for one of three reservists accused in the beating death of a homeless man suggested yesterday that the Canadian Force's culture of "drill hard, train hard, play hard" may have played a role in two of the soldiers getting drunk that night.
John Rosen, who represents Corporal Jeffrey Hall, now 24, was questioning Major Peter St. Denis, a key witness at the trial of the three young men.
In August, 2005, Major St. Denis was a captain with the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, a reserve infantry regiment with its armoury in Moss Park in downtown Toronto, when Paul Croutch was found badly beaten and unconscious behind the bench where he had been sleeping.
The 59-year-old man, who often slept in the park, died later in hospital.
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Cpl. Hall, Private Brian Deganis, now 23, and Cpl. Mountaz Ibrahim, now 25, all members of the same regiment, are pleading not guilty to second-degree murder in Mr. Croutch's death and to an additional charge of assaulting a female eyewitness who is slated to testify next week.
Major St. Denis, who is also a former officer with the Peel Regional Police, told the jurors that both Cpl. Hall and Pte. Deganis seemed intoxicated - were slurring their words, smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes - when he encountered them in the early hours of Aug. 31 just outside the front doors of the armoury.
Pte. Deganis was cursing the "fucking bums" who frequent the park and threatening to "take them on," while Cpl. Hall was physically holding him back, he testified.
Soldiers from the Queen's Own and other reserve regiments had just finished a joint training exercise with a German parachute regiment in Petawawa.
On Aug. 30, with the Germans slated to fly home the next day, Major St. Denis had organized an informal farewell dinner at a nearby beer garden for the visitors and a small group of Queen's Own soldiers, with other members invited to join them afterward for drinks.
But the encounter with Pte. Deganis and Cpl. Hall at about 4 the next morning was just one of several the major had with one or another of the three soldiers in the following minutes.
He had just put out that fire, he thought - telling the soldiers to "go to ground" (that is, go to sleep) or go home - when he came upon Cpl. Ibrahim in a stairwell "in a heated discussion" with another soldier who was a friend. Major St. Denis stepped in between the two men, and Cpl. Ibrahim left, and the major returned to his office in the armoury.
But within short order, he heard another "ruckus" at the rear of the building, where soldiers park their vehicles, and came upon Cpl. Ibrahim trying to "entice" a warrant officer from an artillery regiment also based at the armoury into an altercation, and heard him saying, "Yeah, yeah, fire for effect asshole." The phrase is used to describe the artillery, from behind the front lines, firing their big guns, but can be a derogatory one when used so sneeringly by an infantry soldier.
This time, it was Pte. Deganis who was trying to defuse the situation, putting himself between Cpl. Ibrahim and the warrant officer.
But Pte. Deganis also had an open beer in his hand, Johnny Cash was blaring from his truck, and all the truck lights were on, and, furious, Major St. Denis yelled, "This is fucking ridiculous! This is bullshit!", and ordered Pte. Deganis to throw his beer in the garbage and move his truck back into a proper spot.
Then, he said, "I basically said not to move that truck again," and repeated his order for the three young soldiers to "go to ground or fucking go home."
It was when he again returned, briefly, to his small office that he realized that he hadn't taken the keys to Pte. Deganis' truck, and thought to himself, "I betcha they're gonna try and get back in that truck," so he went to the rear of the building to check.
The truck was still there, so Major St. Denis made another round of the parade square where the German soldiers were sleeping, trying to spot the three and get the truck keys. He also looked out the front doors, now hoping to see the soldiers getting into a cab.
But then he heard a vehicle moving at high speed, and saw the truck tearing out of the driveway that leads from the rear parking lot and nearly collide with a car at the first intersection it came to on Queen Street East.
He had another soldier call one of the three on a cellphone to tell "them to pull that truck over, or we're going to be calling the police."
A second call, a second warning, and Major St. Denis was satisfied the situation was resolved.
Mr. Rosen suggested he had been "sloppy" to invite "the rest of the crew to drink" at the restaurant, and that he should have imposed limits on how much his soldiers could drink by saying something like, "We don't want to embarrass the regiment."
But the major said they were adults. Cpl. Hall and Pte. Deganis were 21 at the time, Cpl. Ibrahim, 22.
"Drinking is a part of military culture, isn't it?" Mr. Rosen asked at one point.
"Not today's military," Major St. Denis said. "Not the 2005 military."
He agreed, with a smile, that the regimental messes haven't been banned, that there is a "beer elevator" at the armoury to service them, and that when, for instance, a soldier is promoted, a little bell is rung at his mess and he is expected to buy a round of drinks.
But for all that, he said, drinking isn't encouraged.
The trial continues on Monday.
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