WATCH ABOVE: The parents of Cpl. Stuart Langridge disappointed a handling of the investigation of their son’s death. Jacques Bourbeau reports. (Mar. 5)
OTTAWA – National Defence has backed down and will not keep secret its response to an inquiry into a soldier’s suicide in 2008.
An order issued by Col. Rob Delaney, the Canadian Forces provost marshal, means that both the family of Cpl. Stuart Langridge and the public will know what action the government intends to take.
A controversy erupted this week when it was learned that the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC) was taking the government to court because military lawyers had declared the response to the commission’s findings a secret.
Defence Minister Jason Kenney said it was an “interim response” by the Dept. of National Defence to the MPCC report.
“I just learned about this situation yesterday and expressed a view that this information should be public,” Kenney told Global News in Ottawa on Friday.
“Frankly, I still have not received an explanation as to why it would have been deemed a protected document, but we felt it would be appropriate for it to be in the public domain.”
The commission, which investigated how military cops handled Langridge’s suicide, is due to present its final report on Tuesday.
Delaney says it wasn’t his intention to be secretive, but he was concerned about the response being presented without context.
Retired colonel Michael Drapeau, lawyer for the Langridge family, says the public will finally get a full answer to questions raised after the young soldier’s suicide in an Edmonton barracks.
With files from Global News
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