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The Globe and Mail
Navy commander relieved of duty over Internet porn
By ROBERT MATAS
From Tuesday June 19, 2001.

Vancouver � A top navy commander in the Canadian Forces has been temporarily relieved of his duties for accessing several "Penthouse-like" pornography sites on the Internet with a laptop computer provided to him by the Department of National Defence.

Commodore Eric Lerhe, the 52-year-old commander of the fleet of warships on the West Coast, has been charged under the National Defence Act with conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline.

It's the first time such a senior officer has faced such a charge since the Canadian Forces set up an independent investigative unit four years ago, Major John Pumphrey of the Provost-Marshal's office said yesterday in an interview.

Cmdre. Lerhe told his supervisor about logging on to the sites after it became clear he may have to sit in judgment over one of his subordinates who had been charged with the misuse of a DND computer.

The Defence Department refused to identify the Web sites Cmdre. Lerhe was viewing. The range of penalties for the offence is wide, from administrative discipline to a formal dismissal with disgrace from the Canadian Forces to imprisonment for life.

The charge has startled several observers, including a spokeswoman for a Vancouver women's group.

Pornography changes the way women are viewed, Geraldine Glattstein, executive director of Women Against Violence Against Women, said in an interview.

"It's dangerous for women to be supervised by someone who spends his spare time looking at those kinds of Web sites," she said.

Supervisors who go back to the office after accessing pornographic sites are creating a hostile environment for women to work in , she added. "It certainly does not help make [the workplace] more friendly."

Cmdre. Lerhe, who is married but has no children, joined the Canadian Forces in 1976. He told Vice-Admiral Ron Buck last week that he logged on to the pornographic sites when he was deployed out of the country.

Although he was using a Defence Department computer, he was off-duty and using his personal Internet account, he says in a statement posted on the Maritime Forces Pacific Web site. He was not available for an interview yesterday.

Vice-Adm. Buck said the safety of Canadian navy personnel or ships were never in jeopardy. Cmdre. Lerhe was relieved of his command "because the alleged activity is inconsistent with his position of high trust and authority," he said.

The deputy fleet commander, Captain Dan Murphy, has taken over Cmdre. Lerhe's command responsibilities.

Canadian Forces policy prohibits the use of the Internet to view sexual materials in any form "for non-work-related use, regardless of the legality of the material." Commanding officers are responsible for providing subordinates with guidance on proper Internet use, enforcing compliance and investigating allegations of misuse.

Cmdre. Lerhe spoke to Vice-Adm. Buck after he was briefed on disciplinary proceedings being taken against one of his sailors charged with the misuse of a DND computer.

As the sailor was one of his direct subordinates, Cmdre. Lerhe realized he could be the presiding officer at the summary trial. "For the next 24 hours, I pondered this," he states.

He acknowledged doing what he did in order to ensure he would not be involved in the trial of his subordinate "and to clear my conscience," he says in the statement.

"I fully recognize that my own actions were against the regulations and that disciplinary actions against me would likely follow.

"I accept this. Since then, I volunteered all the evidence needed to progress the charge laid against me," he states.

Major Pumphrey said the charge resulted from incidents in San Diego on April 1, 2000, and April 2, 2000.

At that time, Cmdre. Lerhe was the commanding officer of the Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare Centre in Halifax. He was appointed commodore and commander of Canadian Fleet Pacific in January, 2001.

The Canadian Forces began its investigation in February. The charge will now be reviewed by a military prosecutor, who will decide if the case will proceed to a court martial. Cmdre. Lerhe has been relieved of his post until the proceedings are complete.

In recent years, the Defence Department has dealt with several incidents of members accessing pornography on the Internet.

In 1997, Defence officials documented at least 175 visits to unacceptable sites on its computers, including a site that claimed to have the best "xxx erotica" and a site of sexually explicit teenagers and adult women.

A National Defence physicist pleaded guilty in 1998 to possession of child pornography. About 6,000 pornographic images were found on his workplace computer or on his disks.
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-the patriot-Biography of Commodore E. J. Lehre

By the way, for those of you wishing to surf the web...untracably, go to the following site. Any pages you visit from there will remain PRIVATE.

www.safeweb.com

quote:

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Originally posted by Cree Warrior:
UN F#$*ing beleivable!
Why are personal human rights given sooooo much press, power and validity...EXCEPT when it comes to pornography? Next thing you know it will be illegal for soldiers to have testosterone in their systems!

By the way, for those of you wishing to surf the web...untracably, go to the following site. Any pages you visit from there will remain PRIVATE.

www.safeweb.com

Sua Sponte

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What exactly is so unbelievable? This idiot broke regulations repeatedly and acted in an unprofessional manner. There can be no mitigating circumstances. What possible legitimate reason could he have had for his behaviour? Anyway, I'll bet he will still get his pension.

On an Admiral's salary, he could afford internet at home if he really needed to get his "fix."

The subject matter is really kind of irrelevant - the media seems to be blowing that aspect of it up. Even if he was surfing through gardening sites, the point is that he was misusing government property and doing so on the taxpayer's time.

And I can agree with the sentiments about devaluing women in general by looking at that kind of thing. (Incidentally, women do devalue men in the same ways.) You can't legislate against it, or tell people how or what to think, but you can certainly encourage a standard of professional conduct. The Horny Admiral fell short of the mark, he IS the weakest link ....goodbye!

First, there is an apparent clear violation of policy - unauthorized use of DND hardware/software. However, it was done off-duty and (IIRC from another article) off any DND installation, and any fees resulting were not paid by public funds.

Second, the commodore came forward voluntarily. How often does that happen? The commodore could have scrubbed any files related to the activity from the DND-owned laptop and no one would ever have been the wiser.

What should be done in light of the magnitude of the misdeed and the candour of the commodore? Put another way, how many people have drafted a letter for private purposes on a DND-owned computer or sent email for other than professional purposes either over DND intranet or a public connection funded by DND? Would anyone be upset if the commodore had been surfing, say, Scientology sites?

I'm not sure the vision of a CF run by those who hide their transgressions after all the leaders with any sort of ethical backbone have been run out for their misdeeds, great or small, appeals to me.

quote:

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Pornography changes the way women are viewed, Geraldine Glattstein, executive director of Women Against Violence Against Women, said in an interview.
"It's dangerous for women to be supervised by someone who spends his spare time looking at those kinds of Web sites," she said.
Supervisors who go back to the office after accessing pornographic sites are creating a hostile environment for women to work in , she added. "It certainly does not help make [the workplace] more friendly."

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The whole story really has blown up out of nothing. Sure, I can accept that it was unprofessional to use a DND comp. for personal use, but that deserves like a 5 minute interview with higher and a brief suspension of his access to his laptop, not this media circus. And all the PC hand-wringing about porn has my head spinning. If he was looking at the on-line equivalent of Penthouse, which he could equally have just gone to his local variety store and bought in hard copy, then how is it chargeable? OK, there is a segment of society (made up of the 21st-century equivalent of your corsetted spinster great-aunt) who would have you believe that anything and everything that shows a naked human body is a cause of sexism, war, cancer and the drop in the dollar, but I think the other 99% of us - women or men - regard it as a normal expression of sexuality. Of course, anything depicting sex in the context of violence or coercion would be an exception to that, and would be deserving of criminal charges for that matter, but there's no suggestion that that was what he was up to. The Globe must have had to look pretty damn hard to find that Glattstein woman.

It has been suggested here that the subject matter is irrelevant, and the important part is that he was using DND property for personal purposes.

If that's so, how may people read/responded to this while at work? Do we all then deserve the same fate?

(After all, this isn't an officially acceptable site either...)

Mike Bobbitt
CdnArmy.ca

I am still interested in outcomes. OK, so the commodore did Something Bad. The question in my mind: what are the exigencies of the service?

IMNSHO, if the commodore receives more than a light slap on the wrist and is not reinstated, the lesson others will draw is as follows. If I do Something Bad, I can:
a) conceal the evidence; or
b) report it voluntarily.
The outcome of (a) is that I _might_ be discovered and in that case my career comes to a full stop and I lose my pension. The outcome of (b) is that my career comes to a full stop and I lose my pension. Congratulations; we have just reinforced exactly the sort of career-minded CYA that came out in the Somalia wash.

OTOH, the commodore may already be feeling personally shamed. Others in positions of high responsibility with an ethical backbone will observe and say, "Gee, I don't want that to happen. I'll behave accordingly. And if I do come forward honestly, I should have nothing to fear provided I have only done Something Bad and not Something Evil." Meanwhile, by reinstating him we have to trust that his subordinates will draw the correct lesson:
a) I am led by a commander who did the Right Thing and provided an excellent example of accountability; rather than:
b) Another senior officer gets away, again.

[ 20 June 2001: Message edited by: Brad Sallows ]

The key info you provided which I either overlooked before or wasn't provided originally was the fact that he was on his own time and that he voluntarily came forward.

Pretty ****ty, then, that it hit the front page of the National Post.

I notice that the Sun buried the article in the back of the paper somewhere.

As always, a good lesson not to assume things without knowing the whole story. The world is full of spin doctors.

But the ultimate question is: who, Brad, do you spin for?

Chimo!