Author arrested Under Scape Goat Charges

MONTREAL–An ex-commando was arrested just 24 hours before the release of his candid memoir about life in Canada’s elite Joint Task Force 2, leading his co-author to suggest authorities are trying to discredit the book’s claims.

Denis Morisset was preparing to do publicity for his book detailing secret missions in Afghanistan, Peru and even an Ottawa bank, when he was arrested Tuesday and charged with contacting two minors with the intent of committing sexual crimes.

Morisset appeared in court yesterday as his French-language book was released in Quebec stores.

The military said the book is a threat to national security, while Morisset’s publishers called it the only public, first-hand account about the inner workings of JTF2.

Morisset, who says he was a member of the special forces unit for eight years, was preparing to do publicity for his Nous Étions Invincibles (We Were Invincible) when he was arrested.

“The coincidence is strange,” said Morisset’s ghostwriter Claude Coulombe. “Why do this on the eve of the book’s publication?”

Nous Étions Invincibles traces Morisset’s ambitious beginnings with the JTF2 from its inception in 1993 to his disillusioned transfer in 2001. Though vague on dates, the book contains startling revelations about the obscure unit’s purported activities at home and abroad.

Morisset claims JTF2 was called as backup in a hostage-taking at an Ottawa bank in 1994. The force’s commanders told them it was a good opportunity to put their training in practise and ordered them to “eliminate” the hostage-takers.

In Morisset’s telling, the commandos entered the building, shot the suspects, then left – leaving Ottawa police to take care of the hostages.

One of its most damning allegations may be that six JTF2 members have committed suicide over the years.

Jean-Claude Larouche, the book’s publisher, says he received a letter Monday from the Department of National Defence warning the book’s publication could threaten national security.

A spokesperson for the department echoed those concerns.

“Mr. Morisset’s book is an unauthorized account of the Joint Task Force 2,” said Lt. Isabelle Riche.

“Such publications have the potential to endanger the safety of JTF2 members and their families. They can also jeopardize the effectiveness of operations by disclosing sensitive and classified information.

“In order to mitigate those risks, all members of JTF2 sign a non-disclosure agreement upon leaving the unit.”

In his book, Morisset says the unit helped take out more than a dozen Shining Path guerrillas after they took Canadian ambassador Anthony Vincent and a host of other dignitaries hostage on Dec. 17, 1996.

All the militants and one hostage died in the raid 126 days into the standoff.

Morisset says a mission to Afghanistan some time prior to 2001 was ordered by CSIS without government permission. The fact-gathering mission about a cease-fire along the Tajikistan border ended when the soldiers were caught in a firefight between the two sides, writes Morisset, adding he was shot in the knee.

Morisset has faced legal trouble before. In 2003, not long after he left the military, he served a 14-month prison sentence for similar sex charges. But he claims in his book he was conducting a probe for CSIS into government employee use of the Internet for pornography and, although innocent, was ordered to admit the crimes.

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