Mythbusting. The Canadian Armed Forces are not a substitute for jail.

You have to wonder how violent this sexual assault was? What was established is that the offender, a member of the Canadian Forces, did not have the consent of his victim and did try to hide the incident. For that he gets 15 months community service, 18 months probation and a $1,500 fine.

A soldier based at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier outside Quebec City was sentenced Friday to 15 months of community service for sexually assaulting a young woman.

April Reign quite properly questions the leniency of the sentence in this case. I will take on the other point.

Provincial court Judge Carol Saint-Cyr rejected the defence's request for an unconditional discharge, which would have allowed Pte. Pier-Olivier Boulet, 22, to serve a tour in Afghanistan.

Oh yeah! That old chestnut! If jail can be avoided my client will dee-dee on down to the recruiting office and join the army right now. Or, in this case, My client is due to be shipped overseas to a combat zone. He's needed by his country and six months in action will clear up this whole thing and return a better citizen. What say you m'lord?

Not. Fucking. Likely.

Thankfully the judge wasn't buying any of it. When is the myth of "military service or jail" going to die? It is neither a valid defence nor a means of mitigating a sentence. The armed forces is not an alternative to prison/jail/punishment for convicted criminals. In Canada it never really has been, but certainly in the last 40 years most recruiters would turn away anybody with a criminal record, particularly where the offence involved any form of assault. Short assessment: Individuals with that kind of character flaw do not make good soldiers/sailors/airmen.

Then this:

The Department of National Defence will have the final word on whether Boulet is allowed to stay in the Canadian Forces.

Canadian Forces human resources officer Michel Arsenault had told Canadian Press that Boulet was a good soldier in his two years of service, but has a 95 per cent chance of losing his job in the military if he emerged from the trial with a criminal record.

Hold it.

Boulet was convicted in February. There has been plenty of time to appeal the verdict. Whether there was the possibility of a discharge or not, the conviction alone is enough in the Canadian Forces to release an individual under Queen's Regulations and Orders 15.01 item 5(F).

The chance of Boulet having his membership in the Canadian Forces unceremoniously terminated should be closer to 100 percent. In fact, it should have happened already.