The commander of the Canadian military police says withholding a soldier’s suicide note from his family was “inexcusable,” in the wake of a scathing report that highlighted major flaws in the investigation of Cpl. Stuart Langridge’s death.
Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, Col. Rob Delaney, offered “sincere apologies” to Langridge’s parents and said the decision to keep the suicide note under wraps for over a year was “clearly” a mistake.
Speaking to CTV’s Power Play on Tuesday, Delaney also apologized to Sheila and Shaun Fynes for “failing to live up to their expectations” when they demanded an investigation.
The Military Police Complaints Commission released Tuesday its long-awaited report on Langridge’s death and the way the military conducted its investigation.
The MPCC report found no evidence of intentional bias in the military’s investigation, but concluded that it was marred by mistakes, incompetence, poor planning, and inadequate supervision.
The military also made serious errors in the way it dealt with Langridge’s family, the report found. MPCC chair Glenn Stannard told a news conference Tuesday that the soldier’s suicide note was “wrongly withheld” from his family for 14 months, for reasons that were never properly explained.
The report makes 46 recommendations, aimed at improving the quality and supervision of military police investigations and strengthening the military police’s independence.
But the MPCC says the vast majority of them were either rejected or ignored by National Defence – a response Langridge’s mother called “condescending and arrogant.”
Langridge, who served tours of duty in Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, took his own life at CFB Edmonton in 2008 after struggling for years with drug and alcohol abuse. His struggles were later thought to be related to post-traumatic stress disorder, but no formal diagnosis was ever made.
After his death, Langridge’s mother and stepfather launched a formal complaint, alleging that the military police investigation of their son’s suicide was mishandled and that National Defence tried to cover up its poor treatment of Langridge.
Following two other investigations related to Langridge’s death and his parents’ complaints, Sheila and Shaun Fynes went to the MPCC and made a total of 39 allegations against the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, the branch of military police that investigates serious crimes and sensitive matters.
The MPCC found that 15 of those allegations were substantiated and nine were substantiated in part. The other 15 allegations were unsubstantiated.
‘Cruel toll’
The initial investigation into Langridge’s suicide was conducted “without any apparent plan or direction, mostly due to the inexperience of the investigators,” Stannard said.
A subsequent investigation of the Fynes’ complaint about the military’s decision to give authority over Langridge’s funeral to someone else “was conducted without a clear understanding of the nature of the complaint and without asking for necessary legal advice.”
And the 2010 probe into Fynes’ complaints about military negligence was not an “actual investigation,” Stannard said.
Nevertheless, the CFNIS concluded that “the Canadian Forces could not possibly have been culpably negligent in Cpl. Langridge's death as Mr. Fynes had alleged,” Stannard said.
Sheila Fynes told reporters Tuesday that the entire ordeal took a “cruel emotional, physical and financial toll” on her family. She said she’s “very pleased” with the MPCC’s report, but disappointed by the government’s response.
She called on Defence Minister Jason Kenney to implement the recommendations made by the MPCC and restore her family’s confidence in the system.
“Minister, the ball is in your court,” Fynes said.
She later told Power Play that she and her husband are advocating for a “complete overhaul” of the military justice system.
The couple said the military police’s failures, as demonstrated in the MPCC report, show that non-combat, sudden death investigations should be handled by an arms-length police force and a civilian coroner.
“I think that would go a long way to ensure some kind of transparency and honesty for the families,” Fynes said.
Shaun Fynes said the couple’s lengthy and exhausting mission to get answers from the military “has never been about tearing down an institution, but rather trying to make it better for the sake of other families.”
Delaney said the military will be reviewing the MPCC’s findings and recommendations, but stressed that some of the suggestions for improvement have already been implemented over the years.
He said the military has already changed its policies about disclosing soldiers’ suicide notes, and military police investigators have gained a lot of experience since 2008.
In a statement issued earlier Tuesday, Delaney said he recognizes the MPCC identified “a number of problems” with the military police investigation, but “it is important to highlight the fact that the most serious of these allegations, those concerning bias and a lack of independence on the part of the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS) were completely unsubstantiated.”
‘Unacceptable’ attempt at secrecy: Stannard
Before the MPCC’s findings were released, the Department of National Defence had its response to the MPCC inquiry designated as "secret" to prevent it from being included in the final report.
The commission had challenged the military's attempt at secrecy, filing an application in the Federal Court for a judicial review to get it overturned. But last Friday, Delaney removed the so-called “Protected B” restriction on the military’s response, allowing it to be appended to the MPCC report.
Delaney later denied that there was ever an attempt to prevent the inclusion of the military’s Notice of Action in the report.
But Stannard said Tuesday the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal still claims to “be entitled to control what (the MPCC) can and cannot do with the Notice of Action,” as well as impose conditions on the release of such documents or block their publication entirely.
“This is unacceptable,” Stannard said. “The Notice of Action is a statutory document the parties and the public are entitled to see in its entirety.”
For that reason, the MPCC will still pursue its application for a judicial review with the Federal Court, he said.
