James Topp To Face Court Marshall For Protesting Mandates While In Uniform

Not seeming to care that Warrant Officer James Topp in his protest, and subsequent march from the West Coast of Canada to Ottawa, was standing up for Canadian Charter rights and values (ie. what he is meant to defend as a member of the military), the Canadian Armed Forces are making Topp face a court marshall under the guise that he has been out of order.

A court marshall at least allows for Topp to have real legal representation rather than simply having a commanding officer make a decision about the legality of his conduct, which was previously going to happen until very recently. 

Topp is being charged by the military for having spoken out twice about vaccine mandates while wearing his military uniform while serving as a reservist. 

These instances are what the military is arguing constitute “conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline” which seems to be a very dark stretch to the idea of members of the military maintaining  “good order and discipline.”

Effectively the military is saying that actual legal discrimination against Canadians is too political for members of the armed forces to speak out about, yet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party can have members of the military kicked out for arbitrary medical decisions.

At the very least because of Topp’s march across Canada, he has made himself into a Canadian celebrity and now can bring increased scrutiny on his court-marshall case.

Convicting Topp and placing harsh penalties on him would no doubt undermine a large portion of the Canadian population’s confidence in the military if it is seen that nobody is allowed to speak up on issues of discrimination, or violations of Canadian values laid out in the Charter.