WATCH: Mike Le Couteur has the details on the independent report as well as the military’s response.
OTTAWA – A report into how the military handled the 2008 suicide of an Afghan veteran says the family of Cpl. Stuart Langridge was disrespected, ignored and given potentially misleading information.
But the Military Police Complaints Commission says it wasn’t done out of bias or a lack of independence on the part of military police.
Sheila and Shaun Fynes have spent seven years trying to find out what happened in the days after their 28-year-old son took his own life in the Edmonton barracks.
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Three investigations came out of the tragedy: a standard one held in the event of a sudden death in the military; one into why authority over Langridge’s funeral went to the person the military considered his common-law spouse; and one on whether the military failed to provide Langridge with the care he needed.
The family alleges that all three investigations were deficient and filed formal complaints about the independence, impartiality, professionalism and competence of the investigators.
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The Fynes sat through nearly every one of the 62 days of public hearings into their complaints, travelling between Ottawa and their home in Victoria, B.C.
In his report, commissioner Glenn Stannard found that some of events the family cited as evidence of bias didn’t happen the way they remembered.
“Many of the complainants’ allegations of bias and lack of independence appear to assume the very fact an investigation was defective or its conclusions were unsound is itself proof of an improper purpose,” the report concluded.
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“In so doing, the complainants mistake outcome for intent.”
But they still deserved better treatment from the Canadian Forces National Investigations Service, Stannard said.
“From the beginning of the 2008 investigation right through to the written briefing three years later, the Fynes were not treated by the CFNIS with the respect and consideration they were entitled to receive,” the report concluded.
“They were often ignored and the information provided to them was at best inadequate and at worst potentially misleading.”
Among the issues raised were the fact the military didn’t disclose that Langridge left a suicide note until 14 months after it was found. It said, among other things, that he wanted a family funeral rather than a full military funeral, which is what was held.
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The military should have personally delivered the note, provided an immediate apology and made a concerted effort to find out what happened, but did none of those things, the report said.
“The CFNIS response to the discovery of the suicide note was geared more to finding a plausible explanation to convey to the (Canadian Forces) and the public, than to providing accurate information or to try and make amends to the Fynes.”
On Tuesday, there was an apology from the Canadian Forces provost marshal.
“On the matter of the suicide note, again, that was a mistake on the part of us that is unforgivable,” said Col. Rob Delaney. “And I again offer a sincere apology to Mr. and Mrs. Fynes.”
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