Scenario: Not My Problem

Group Size: 4-15

Scenario

You are leading a patrol in a lawless area within your Area of Responsibility (AOR). There is considerable anti-coalition activity, as well as banditry. You search all the dwellings in a village and find a small number of AK-47 assault rifles. You detain the occupants of the respective homes where the weapons were found. The detainees plead with you to release them since they possessed the firearms only to protect their family from bandits and insurgents. However, your directions are clear. Under an agreement signed between Canada and the host nation, any person detained must be turned over to host nation forces. The village elders assert that the detainees will certainly be killed by government forces if not released by you. You feel the villagers might be telling the truth, but then again, you cannot be sure. Unfortunately, you also believe that there is a good chance that the detainees, whether innocent or guilty, might be killed by if you deliver them, as the government forces are known to still use strong-arm tactics to “get information.”

Categories

• Principles: Obey and Support Lawful Authority
• Values: Integrity, Loyalty, Excellence
• Cultural themes: Service Identity, Leadership
• Misconduct types: Not Specific
• GBA Plus themes: Culture, Geography, Race/Ethnicity
• Audience: Canadian Armed Forces

Facilitator’s Guide

Learning Objectives

• Discuss the ethical obligations of “Obey and Support Lawful Authority” in an operational setting.
• Discuss the ethical values of excellence, integrity, and loyalty as well as duty, a professional expectation in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) ethos, in an operational setting.

Facilitation Questions

1. What would you do in this situation? What are the considerations?
   • Allow open discussion from the group.
   • Ethical concerns: You know that if you turn the detainees over to government forces, they will likely be harmed.
   • Personal factors: You would like to believe that the detainees are telling the truth about the weapons. If something happens to them, after you turned them over to the government forces, you will feel responsible.
   • Environmental factors: Your troops are aware of the order to turn detainees over to government forces. Some of them might not share your concerns for their well-being and expect that you will follow orders.
2. What is the ethical dilemma in this situation? 
   • This is a competing values dilemma, where more than one decision, option, or course of action are consistent with different core ethical values and obligations.
   • Although the right course of action is evident based on the orders, your decision might cause harm to these people. Despite clear instruction, you are torn between your responsibility to follow orders and your personal integrity knowing that your actions might cause harm. What are the potential moral injuries that could arise from decisions made in this ethical scenario?
3. What are some potential courses of action that could be taken in this scenario?
   • Option 1: Whether or not you believe them, follow the order. As a result, the detainees might be harmed.
   • Option 2: Believe their story, release them with their weapons and choose to disregard the order. You have disobeyed a legal order and you also have implicated your troops.
   • Option 3: Believe their story and release them without their weapons. You are still disregarding the order; however, you have removed their weapons that could be used against your forces.