Okay I'll take a stab at this.
As most of you know I'm a retired lawyer and retired reserve legal officer. During my time with JAG I never dealt with this issue so I give the following caveat; what I say below is neither a JAG position, nor a legal opinion but simply my own personal take on the matter.
Section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides that:
"2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association."
QR&O 19.10 provides:
"19.10 - COMBINATIONS FORBIDDEN
No officer or non-commissioned member shall without authority:
combine with other members for the purpose of bringing about alterations in existing regulations for the Canadian Forces;
sign with other members memorials, petitions or applications relating to the Canadian Forces; or
obtain or solicit signatures for memorials, petitions or applications relating to the Canadian Forces."
DAOD 5407-1 provides in part that:
"Right to Complain
12. Any of the following persons may bring a complaint to the Ombudsman, directly and free of charge, where the matter complained about relates directly to DND or the CF
(a) a member or former member;
(b) a member or former member of the Cadets;
(c) an employee or former employee;
(d) an employee or former employee of the Staff of Non-Public Funds, CF;
(e) a person who applies to become a member;
(f) a member of the immediate family of a person referred to in paragraphs (a) to (e); or
(g) a person who, pursuant to law or pursuant to an agreement between Canada and the state in whose armed forces the person is serving, attached or seconded as an officer or non-commissioned member to the CF."
In addition under s 29(1) of the NDA and s 7 of the QR&Os a member has the right to submit a Redress where the member has been aggrieved.
Fundamentally a member's right to bring forward an injustice is through an individual complaint to the ombudsman or by way of a grievance.
QR&O 19.10 does not restrict the right to complain other than in doing so together in a joint process with other serving members. It's a kinder and gentler brother to s 80 of the NDA, Mutiny without Violence.
Mutiny is defined in s 2 of the NDA as "“mutiny” means collective insubordination or a combination of two or more persons in the resistance of lawful authority in any of Her Majesty’s Forces or in any forces cooperating therewith"
The key characteristic of mutiny and QR&O 19.10 is prohibiting actions by two or more members acting together in an unauthorized way or for an unauthorized purpose.
On its surface, QR&O 19.10 violates the provisions of ss 2(b) and (d) of the Charter and in my humble civilian opinion a strong arguable case can be made for the fact that it does and that therefore it should be of no force and effect.
That said, do I think individual, serving members should sign petitions etc advocating change within the CF? -- HELL NO!! -- QR&O 19.10 is a valid, lawful order until a court says otherwise.
I've long been a believer that unless you specifically want to test the system and are prepared to go through a long and arduous process that may cost you money or your career and that you may lose in the end, you should not challenge existing regulations and orders. That may sound like a coward's way out but in my mind when there are options which you can use which do not put you at risk then you should use those.
Nothing prevents each and every serving member to individually file a complaint with the Ombudsman. Here for example you could make two complaints - one against QR&O 19.10 and its prohibition on petitions and one on the actual issue that the petition was in favour of. I'm quite sure that if several serving members filed individual complaints then they would be administratively aggregated into one investigation within the Ombudsman's office in any event.
If the administrators of this site are serving members then I think they need to be cautious about how they manage things so that it cannot be said that they did not "obtain or solicit signatures for memorials, petitions or applications relating to the Canadian Forces". Whether you wish to instil a blanket policy against facilitating links to petitions or simply issuing warnings to members about the provisions of QR&O 19.10 is up to you. In the end it's a question of how much risk you wish to assume.
Once again. This is not a legal opinion but merely my own humble non-legal opinion.
:cheers:
