Canadian navy lieutenant fined, reprimanded for vaping aboard ship
A navy lieutenant has been reprimanded and fined $750 for using an e-cigarette aboard a Royal Canadian Navy frigate.
Lt. Benjamin Gillis pleaded guilty Thursday to conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline at a military court hearing in Victoria.
The 30-year-old combat systems engineer was twice caught vaping in the wardroom of HMCS Calgary in October 2021.
The incidents occurred outside work hours but in the presence of several junior officers, which undermined both morale and respect for the ship's rules against smoking and vaping, the court heard.
After the first incident on Oct. 4, a colleague sent an email reminding Gillis of the ship's standing orders prohibiting e-cigarette use.
Despite the warning, the lieutenant was again seen vaping in the wardroom in the presence of junior officers on Oct. 15. This time, the lieutenant had dialed down the setting on the e-cigarette to emit little to no vapour.
"This is a case of someone who thought he could get around the rules – twice," military prosecutor Greg Moorehead told the court Thursday.
"He thought that by changing the settings on the device he could get around the rules," Moorehead said. "He was already told and reminded of the smoking policy by his superior, and this turns a simple error in judgment into something a little bit more."
Military judge Cmdr. Martin Pelletier heard that Gillis, who enrolled in the naval reserves in 2008 and earned the Canadian Forces' Decoration award for 12 years of service, was posted to HMCS Calgary – his second ship posting – from September 2021 to February 2022.
The judge acknowledged HMCS Calgary has experienced problems with its smoking policy in the past, most notably in January 2020, when the ship's executive officer was removed ahead of deployment to the Asia-Pacific region.
Lt.-Cmdr. John Forbes was found guilty on three counts of misconduct and fined $3,000 for disabling the wardroom's smoke and heat detectors so he could smoke while the ship was in San Diego, Calif.
Gillis's defence lawyer and the military prosecutor provided a joint sentencing submission Thursday, proposing the $750 fine and reprimand, which the judge accepted.
Gillis, who plans to leave the military in March, "demonstrated contempt for a very simple rule," the judge told the court, decrying the "lack of judgment by an officer of the offender's rank."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.