Editing Lewis MacKenzie (section)

==Somalia Affair==
Lewis MacKenzie was criticised by the Somalia Commission of Inquiry for his contribution to the [[Somalia Affair]] after Canadian Forces in Somalia committed human rights abuses and breaches of international humanitarian law and members of the Canadian command were found to have engaged in a subsequent cover-up.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/57JQTG?OpenDocument&View=defaultBody&style=custo_print|title = International Committee of the Red Cross|date = 3 October 2013}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite news| url=http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/peacekeeping/topics/723/ | title=The Somalia Affair | url-status=usurped | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618013857/http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/peacekeeping/topics/723/ | archive-date=2008-06-18 |work=CBC News}}</ref>

The Commission observed that MacKenzie testified in an honest and straightforward manner; it did not always accept everything that he said but accepted that he offered the truth as he saw it. It found that his superiors' desire to parade his successes as a bona fide hero of the Canadian Forces had impaired his ability to supervise and control matters that were his core responsibilities.

The Commission found that MacKenzie had failed adequately to investigate the significant leadership and discipline problems in the Canadian Airborne Regiment, to inform himself of the problems and to take decisive remedial steps to ensure they were adequately resolved. In addition, it found that he did not adequately monitor the Regiment's training to ensure its development as a cohesive unit or make adequate provisions for the troops to be trained or tested on its newly developed Rules of Engagement and failed to direct and supervise the training of the Canadian Joint Force Somalia personnel in the Law of Armed Conflict for peace support operations.

The Commission further ruled that MacKenzie had important obligations as a commander and so bore responsibility for the failures that attached to the discharge of those obligations. His role was pivotal and despite the fact that he was necessarily absent from his post due to obligations condoned by his superiors, errors in the chain of command below him remained his responsibility and flowed upwards from him to the highest levels of the command structure.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dnd.ca/somalia/vol4/v4c31e.htm 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070212225406/http://www.dnd.ca/somalia/vol4/v4c31e.htm|url-status=usurped|title=Report of the Somalia Commission of Inquiry |access-date=27 October 2020|archivedate=12 February 2007|website=www.canada.ca}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.700365/publication.html |title=Dishonoured legacy : the lessons of the Somalia Affair : report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia.: CP32-65/1997E-PDF |website= Government of Canada Publications|date=July 2002 }}</ref>