RADOPSIGOPACISSOP said:From what experience I've had participating in some of the spots on a summary trial and investigation I would recommend any friend in that situation to keep quiet, answer no questions, and take the DI NCOs offer of council when you have to sign the sheets.
Does anyone know if answers to questions by superiors that were not witness prior to the start of a DI become inadmissible if the person elects to take their "right to remain silent"?
Normally you don't have a right to remain silent when the SSM sees a burning hole in the ground where the MLVW used to be and starts calmly enquiring as to the nature of the events that led to the incident.
My inclination would be towards feeling that as soon as an NCO forms a reasonable suspicion that a service offense has been committed and they are going to question a person they suspect of committing it, that statement should be read their caution. And I don't mean the NCO rolling his eyes and saying "I have to read this to you... yadda yadda yadda... now answer the damn questions."
The fact that COs and delegates still have the powers granted by the summary trial system is something, I think, many in the military take completely for granted without realizing how very contradictory it is to the standards of due process in the rest of society. Everything is stacked against a soldier, particularly a junior soldier, when they are in front of a summary trial- as was wisely stated earlier, it is not about 'justice', it is about 'discipline'- yet the results have judicial significance. There are a number of other career fields where an applicant may have to divulge "Have you ever been convicted of an offense under any federal statute?" and where the person asking may not have any clue about how dramatically different summaries under the NDA are compared to the entirety of the rest of Canadian law.
I remain conflicted on the system. I see the need for it, or for something like it, but I also see dramatic flaws. I am obviously biased on this particular subject by the somewhat different perspective I have on matters of law and justice by virtue of my current career, and I admit my time as a SNCO is quite limited, so I lack proper perspective on the necessity of the summary system from the subunit command team's standpoint.