Sheila Fynes displays her the Sacrifice Medal awarded to her son, Corporal Stuart Langridge, in Ottawa on April 26, 2012. Cpl. Langridge died by suicide in 2008.DAVE CHAN/The Globe and Mail
The mother of an Afghanistan veteran who took his own life seven years ago says the military's refusal to disclose its response to an inquiry into her son's death deprives her of what she wants most of all – an acknowledgment that things went wrong and will be changed.
The Military Police Complaints Commission announced Thursday it will challenge a move by the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, the head of the military police, to block the force's response from being included in the final report of the inquiry into the death of Corporal Stuart Langridge. That report is scheduled to be released Tuesday.
"We are going to be given a report where the really important piece of it is going to be completely redacted," Cpl. Langridge's mother, Sheila Fynes, said in a telephone interview.
Knowing that the government recognizes its mistakes and is taking steps to correct them is all that matters now, said Ms. Fynes. "It's about their behaviour at this point. And they have just given a stunning example of their arrogance," said Ms. Fynes. "I think the Canadian public should be concerned."
More than 90 witnesses testified over 60 days at the Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry which wrapped up in early 2013.
The commission's interim report was handed to the military police on May 1, 2014, for a response that was expected to include any ways the findings will change how the Defence Department operates. That response was received by the commission in December, but it was cloaked with a "protected" designation intended to prevent the publication of sensitive information that could cause "grave injury."
This week, the commission applied to the Federal Court of Canada for a judicial review arguing that Canadians have the right to know how the military will react to what has been learned.
Rob Nicholson, the Foreign Affairs Minister who was the defence minister when the commission completed its interim report, said the military's response is being kept secret out of concern for Cpl. Langridge's family.
"I think the decisions with respect to the family's interests are taken into consideration on every one of these cases," Mr. Nicholson told reporters. "Our interest is reaching out to them and doing what we can to comfort them and assist them in that, and that's what the government will continue to do."
But Ms. Fynes dismissed that as absurd.
"To me, he just ratcheted it up another level because it was such a ridiculous thing to say," she said. "How are they protecting our family? We are the people who put it all out there."
Cpl. Langridge, who was 28 when he died, was a tank gunner in Lord Strathcona's Horse, an armoured regiment based in Edmonton. He had, by all accounts, been an accomplished soldier until he returned from Afghanistan in 2004 when he started to suffer from depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that were never officially diagnosed.
Cpl. Langridge started drinking and abusing cocaine and made five attempts to kill himself. The military put him under suicide watch, but he was found hanging from a chin-up bar in his barracks in March, 2008. His parents did not learn about a suicide note he had left for them until 14 months later.
The complaints commission inquiry was presented with deeply personal evidence including records of Cpl. Langridge's drug use and a video of his lifeless body, which had been hanging for hours before it was cut down.
"We let that be shown at the hearing to make our point. And then they turn around and they can't even let us …" said Ms. Fynes, her voice trailing off. "This is probably the most hurtful thing in a long time that they've done to us. And then to turn around and say, well, they are doing it to protect us?"
Michel Drapeau, the lawyer for Ms. Fynes and her husband, Shaun, said the military's decision to keep its response secret is an affront to the Canadian justice system.
Under normal circumstances, he said, anything received by a court, including the Military Police Complaints Commission, is made available to the public to support an open system of law. What the government has done, said Mr. Drapeau, "just goes against every notion that we have in Canadian democracy of the role of courts and tribunals."
Ms. Fynes has also been denied repeated requests to see a report from the 2009 board of inquiry into her son's death. Friends have urged her to let the matter go.
But "we're not the only family who are having terrible issues surrounding the death of their son or daughter or wife or husband," she said. "The easy thing would be to stop. That would be the easy thing to do, for sure. But we can't do that."