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Unlimited Liability - Soldiers and Unlimited Liability

daftandbarmy

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In case anyone was wondering....

Unlimited Liability - Soldiers and Unlimited Liability
https://www.militaryethics.org/Unlimited-Liability/15/

Military members are routinely asked to perform tasks and respond to things that ordinary members of the civilian population are not expected to do. Military members are exposed to significant risk of physical and mental impairment, forced to take medications, unable to refuse medical treatment (even if they do not believe it is the most appropriate treatment), are subjected to medical experimentation (not always with full consent), and can even be required to sacrifice their life for the benefit of others.

"Lengthy posts and fully quoted articles are posted here. Link to these large posts in the regular boards."
https://milnet.ca/forums/threads/128700.0.html

 
A good and interesting article which reminded me of my work with the ill-fated Reserve Force Employment Project which ran in 2000-2001 to try to streamline various rules and regulations respecting reserve service.

At the time there was a movement within the project to reduce the three classes of reserve service (A, B and C) and there was much discussion (and much misunderstanding) respecting the terms "unlimited liability" and "limited Liability". The confusion went so far as the implementation of a very short-lived CANFORGEN being issued to try to implement the concepts.

Many on the team were of the misconception that all regular force members had/were on unlimited liability service at all times while reservists were on limited liability service until and unless they were on Class C (or maybe even Class B) call-out.

I wrote a very lengthy legal opinion respecting this subject, but in short, and without divulging the contents of the opinion, the terms/concepts of limited vs unlimited liability are not what separates the primary reserve force from the regular force and should never be used as such. Instead the statutorily mandated distinction between the regular force and reserves comes from NDA ss15(1) and (3) which provide that the regular force component consists of those people "enrolled for continuing, full-time military service when not on Active Service" and the reserve force component consists of those who enroll for "other than continuing, full-time military service when not on Active Service."

In fact when you take a look at the description of unlimited liability in the article above, it is quite clear that every reservist has consented to unlimited liability from the date of enrollment because the government can, at any time, and without the reservist's consent:

1) place him/her on Active Service pursuant to NDA 31;

2) call him/her out on service pursuant to NDA 33(2)(b); and

3) call him/her out in service in aid of the civil power pursuant to NDA s 275.

One should never confuse the very liberal policy the CF uses to ask reservists to volunteer for hazardous duties with the legal power that the government does have to compel such service.

To add to the above article, the CF has argued "unlimited liability" on a number of occasions before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In the case of of Hebert v. Canada (Canadian Armed Forces) [1993] C.H.R.D. No. 14, this concept was explained by a witness for the CF as follows:

[the witness] also reinforced the concept of the unlimited liability of a member of the CAF, namely that when you put on the uniform and swear the oath whatever happens up to and including death is a logical consequence of that.  The result is that anyone is liable to go anywhere when required by the CAF.  No one is given a choice. You go where you are sent, either because your unit has been selected or as an individual augmentee or reinforcement.

I expect that the erroneous term "limited liability" still floats around the halls of NDHQ when discussing reserve service or reservists in general--bad ideas die hard.

:cheers:

(edited to add the word "continuing" in the s 15(1) and (3) provisions. Sorry, it was late at night when I typed the original. The "continuing, full time" concept is really critical.)
 
FJAG said:
A good and interesting article which reminded me of my work with the ill-fated Reserve Force Employment Project which ran in 2000-2001 to try to streamline various rules and regulations respecting reserve service.

:cheers:

From 2005, for reference to the discussion,

unlimited liability?
https://army.ca/forums/threads/34520.0/nowap.html
2 pages.

OP: "How does one rationalize/accept willingly offering oneself up for unlimited liability?"
 
What is the legal definition of "unlimited liability"? There seems to be no legal term other then for a business sense.
 
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