Friday, September 12, 2003
Original Story in Full
Whig links rot fast so…
“Ottawa demands $64,000 from former RMC cadet”
By Jennifer Pritchett
Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 07:00
Local News - When Jimmy Hughes entered Royal Military College as a young recruit four years ago, he wanted to become a top-notch infantry officer.
But 68 days before he was to accept his diploma in May, he was kicked out of the military and the Defence Department slapped him with a $64,000 bill to cover tuition and other RMC expenses.
Hughes didn’t graduate.
Shocked and angry, he hired a lawyer to help him fight the military because he feels that forcing him to repay the college for an education he isn’t getting credit for is unfair.
“My life has changed,” said the Prince Edward Island native, who has spent the last six months working as a bouncer at The Brass, a downtown pub.
“How do you pay for a Porsche when you’re 23 years old when you have no education? Like what kind of job pays for that? I have no employable skills. I am an infantry officer. I can go to Africa and teach little kids how to fight, but I wouldn’t do that.”
Hughes, a self-confessed bad boy who frequently got into trouble for not following RMC rules, said the college is using him as a whipping boy, an example to demonstrate what happens to cadets who misbehave.
“They really are trying to prove a point with me,” he said. “They are saying that if you’re like me, you’re going to get it.”
He is particularly upset that he has watched fellow cadets at RMC become involved in serious scandals – several of which have resulted in criminal charges – and those cadets have not been billed for their education after they were booted out.
“I know people who’ve been charged with assault and kicked out and they didn’t get the bill,” he said. “It makes no sense.”
Hughes, who studied history at the college, admits he was not the model officer cadet, but he said he has never done anything criminal.
“I’m a good fella, but I always get into trouble for dumb little things,” he said.
In an interview this week with The Whig-Standard, he spoke candidly about his misadventures at RMC.
For Hughes, getting into hot water started almost as soon as he joined the military five years ago. Over the course of his career, he got himself into trouble for everything from drinking in the college dorms to giving new recruits alcohol to plagiarizing.
He said his reputation for trouble started even before he became a cadet at RMC. When he was doing his prep year in Quebec he got into a fight while socializing with his buddies. For that, he ended up being charged under the National Defence Act for drunkenness and conduct unbecoming an officer.
“So I came in [to RMC] with a bad note,” he said.
That set the tone for the rest of his time at the college.
Within days of arriving at RMC, he was caught drinking in the dorms. During his second year at the college, he was caught firing a flare into the water near Kingston Mills. For that misdemeanour, he got into trouble for misusing property and was fined $400.
In his third and fourth years, Hughes said he continued to be disciplined for not showing up for classes, physical training and medical appointments.
“And then I get into fourth year and they see all these little things that add up to a big file and they put me on counselling and probation,” he said. “I was a bad kid, but if I was at any other university, the stuff I did would be considered nothing.”
The final straw for Hughes came in March when he was caught plagiarizing a psychology paper. Within days, the chain of command at RMC found out about the cheating and he was kicked out. He was moved to a barracks at CFB Kingston and banned from campus.
“I know you shouldn’t cheat and to be an officer in the forces, that shouldn’t be in your values,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done it.”
It would be a mistake he would pay for dearly.
With less than two months to go before graduation, Hughes didn’t finish his courses or write his exams.
“I was screwed,” he said.
He was placed in the maintenance department and forced to do labour work, including repair jobs inside his fellow cadets’ dorm rooms such as washing their windows.
He was ordered to repair bleachers on the parade square in the days leading up to graduation day.
“I was supposed to be graduating fourth year and standing as an officer getting an award [for being the cadet with the top physical training scores] and I’m painting bleachers on the parade square,” he said.
“They had me set up chairs for the convocation and at 5:20 a.m. – the parade started at 7 a.m. – they had me set up the chairs for the officers in the parade. This was supposed to be my parade. They even wanted me to stick around and pick up the chairs when people were walking off the parade square and I said, ‘I can’t do this. Have a heart and let me go.’ I couldn’t handle that. It is frigging painful.”
He will never forget the pain he felt watching his friends graduate.
“I can’t even express it,” he said. “It’s a deep hurt that will never go away. I see my friends graduate and they’re off to start their careers and I didn’t get to walk through the arch with my buddies. I will live through it, but stress at the time was an all-time high.”
Despite the hurt and disappointment that came with getting kicked out and losing his career, Hughes has come to terms with the fact that he was released from the military for being a troublemaker, a cheat and a poor student.
“I understand that with all the stuff against me that it was a decision they had to make,” he said. “Maybe it wasn’t the right decision because I would have been a good infantry officer. As soon as I was released, I had 30 letters of recommendation from people that I did courses with, from captains and other officers – all sent to the director of cadets.”
But after the last several months, Hughes isn’t sure he believes in the military or in RMC any longer.
“I can’t stand the school,” he said. “I know what it stands for and what it should stand for, but it is not what it should be. There is a certain set of values that the college stands for, but the people in charge have let things slide to the point where it’s out of control. It’s way too far gone.”
He also takes exception to the fact that cadets at RMC have to go through similar disciplinary processes for minor and major offences.
“There are some things like the credit card fraud [that some cadets committed] that are pretty huge, but the problem is that the little things like missing a class we’re still being charged for that under the same legal procedure as the major stuff,” he said. “It’s kind of hard for a kid.”
Hughes, who will officially be released from the military today, plans to leave Kingston around the middle of the month and return home to Prince Edward Island. After visiting his parents, he plans to travel to Japan to teach English.
His honourable release will prevent him from joining a reserve unit for two years, he said.
“I’m trying to figure out where I’m going, but it’s like a shock. I had it all figured out. I wanted to be an infantry officer and to serve in the Canadian Forces.” Now, he said, that’s not going to happen.