Orders to spend money

Some may remember R v Middlemiss, a Canadian military case where Master Seaman Middlemiss was fined and reprimanded for refusing to pay for and attend a mess dinner.

I get that mess dinners are part of the military tradition (in Canada, the UK, the USA and no doubt elsewhere). But a direct order to pay for “compulsory fun” sits uneasily with me. An order to attend a unit team-building event is one thing, an order to spend money is another. One might argue that mess dues and extra messing charges are such an obligation also; one might equally argue that it is perhaps justified to subject officers to different obligations than other ranks.

I also appreciate that in US basic training they do order you to pay for haircuts and for some items of non-issue kit, which also sits uneasily with me. I think the British military technically allows you to bring the relevant items but discourages it.

I still don’t think “tradition” justifies military orders to spend money, other than to reimburse for injuries and damages caused by an offender or to pay fines. Even though this is a long-standing tradition. There must be better ways of supplying trainees with shoe polish and for unit-building.