Colonel’s fractured family ‘appalled’

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This article was published 12/02/2010 (5905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Col. Russell Williams, the Canadian Forces base commander who is charged with two murders and two separate sexual assaults, showed little interest in repairing the fractured family life that followed him since he was young.

Williams, 46, grew up amid great accomplishment but also instability, say several members of his family on both sides.

Two years ago his mother, Nonie, and brother, Harvey, reached out to Williams in a bid at reconciliation following his parent’s divorce, the second time the fast-rising military man’s home life was torn asunder.

“Our relationship with him was broken off in early 2001 when our mother’s divorce from my stepfather caused a deep rift between him and my mother and myself,” said his brother, Harvey Williams.

“We rarely had any contact until two years ago when my mother and I tried to find a way to repair the family rift. We have had only minimal contact with him in the past two years.”

“We were shocked and appalled to learn of the crimes with which Col. Williams is being charged,” he said in a written statement, calling it “alarming and distressing news.”

Similarly, relatives of Williams’ stepfather, Jerry Sovka, an eminent nuclear scientist, described a family that maintained little contact.

Relatives of Sovka say the scientist’s globe-spanning travel with high-profile jobs — including his current position as a senior official with ITER, an international megaproject to create an experimental thermonuclear reactor in southern France — have meant little connection.

Family matriarchs and patriarchs have been telephoning kin with the shocking news that the man at the heart of the allegations is a relative. But most have only vague memories of Williams as a child.

Even with the distant connection, it remains a shock.

“Our prayers go out to our extended family during this difficult time,” said Jason Sovka, Sovka’s nephew.

Born in England, Williams was still young when his father, David, split with his mother and the youngster continued to live with his mother and his new stepfather, Dr. Jerry Sovka.

From 1980 to 1982, Williams completed his high school education at Upper Canada College while boarding at the sprawling private boys school.

While at UCC, Williams was a prefect, whose job was to mentor younger boys, and went by the last name Sovka with the abbreviated first name Russ.

School officials only realized the connection on Wednesday. The current vice-principal, Innes van Nostrand, who was in Williams’ graduating class, said “most people from our time at the school would remember him as a diligent, responsible, serious hard-working guy who was really good at the trumpet as well.”

“The stories and the allegations in general have been pretty shocking for everyone in the broader community, and I think any time anyone would find a situation where someone they went to school with was being implicated… the shock is compounded,” he said.

Williams graduated with a degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto in 1987 before embarking that same year on a military career while returning to his birth name Williams.

While his family life and schooling meant a low profile and quiet existence, in the military he shone.

“He was what we call ‘a streamer,’ ” said a ranking Canadian military officer who did not wish his name to be published. “He was getting groomed, fast-tracked.

“When you’re the commander of the largest airbase in Canada at that age, it says you’re going somewhere.”

— Canwest News Service