Michel Rainville
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Captain Michel Rainville was a Canadian soldier who has courted controversy on several occasions for his orders leading to public outcry. He was ultimately acquitted of criminal charges for his actions, but released from military service.[1]
In February, 1992, Rainville led an assault against the guard room at the entrance of the Citadelle in Quebec City, tying up the guards and taking weapons. This exercise to test the security of the installation had been approved by Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Daigle.[2] However, in 2001 Rainville was convicted of kidnapping, assault and death threats when it was revealed that he tortured and sodomised another soldier during the exercise.[2] He was later sentenced to 20 months imprisonment to be served in the community as a result.[3]
On May 15, 1992,[4] Rainville was the officer in charge of an Escape and Evasion training exercise during which Canada's first female infantry officer, Sandra Perron, along with all the male candidates of the Infantry Basic Officer Course, was tied to a tree barefoot in the snow and punched. Although she did not raise any issue with the training, the incident was reported by Perron's boyfriend and upon leaving the Army photographs were leaked to the media, throwing the Canadian Forces into public disrepute, although Rainville defended himself saying that if he hadn't struck Perron, "she would have lost credibility" with other, male, officers.[1]
He also posed for a media photograph dressed in his Canadian uniform to which he added non-regulation knives; he was later characterized as a "Rambo type".[2]
