A BOARD OF INQUIRY INTO A KILLING YEARS AGO BY CANADIAN SOLDIERS IN AFGHANISTAN FINDS THE INVESTIGATION AT THE TIME WAS DONE ‘INFORMALLY AND SUPERFICIALLY, WITHOUT WITNESS STATEMENTS.’
Perception grew of brass ‘trying to sweep’ issue aside
The Canadian military either ignored or failed to properly investigate allegations the country’s special forces violated rules about the use of force during the Afghan War, a board of inquiry has concluded, fuelling a perception among soldiers their leaders were trying to cover them up.
At one point, the board’s report reveals, military police considered laying charges against Canadian special forces commandos over allegations they failed to report the execution of an Afghan by U.S. forces.
The allegations about wrongdoing by members of the Canadian military’s counterterrorism unit, Joint Task Force 2, and the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) were made more than a decade ago. They sparked first an investigation by military police, then a review by a board of inquiry. A heavily censored version of the executive summary of the board’s report is only now being made public, more than two years after it was delivered to the Chief of the Defence Staff.
Though much of the 63-page summary was censored before its release this week in response to an access to information request — the body of the report so far remains secret — the unredacted portions are damning in their appraisal of the culture of the units and the professionalism with which the complaints were investigated. When it came to allegations of violations of the rules of armed conflict and the use of force, “there was a tendency for CANSOFCOM and JTF2 to conduct these investigations internally, informally and superficially, without witness statements and records that would facilitate later examination, review and oversight,” the board of inquiry found.
“Investigations concerning allegations of violations were done differently, and to a lower standard, than other types of investigations at CANSOFCOM and JTF2.”
There was a reluctance to involve military police or legal officers or conduct any formal investigations, which fuelled the perception among commandos “that the chain of command was not serious in investigating the allegations and that it was trying to sweep the whole issue aside,” the report said.
The allegations against JTF2 came from one of its own soldiers, who has never been publicly identified. The commando alleged that during the Afghan war a JTF2 member gunned down an unarmed Afghan man who had raised his hands in surrender. Additional allegations held that Canadian special forces personnel failed to report an Afghan’s execution by U.S. forces who had accompanied JTF2 on a raid. The JTF2 soldier complained to his commanders, but according to a CBC report the soldier was sent home to Canada the next day.
After special forces command failed to conduct a proper investigation, in June 2008 the JTF2 soldier took his concerns to the ombudsman, who informed military police. Police launched what they called Project Sand Trap to investigate the allegations. The first phase examined the allegation that a member of JTF2 gunned down an unarmed man, but in 2011 military police concluded there was no evidence to suggest Canadian Forces members had committed any criminal act.
A second phase of Sand Trap looked into the allegations that U.S. force executed an Afghan. Police did uncover details about the execution, which were passed to American authorities, military sources told Postmedia. It is not known whether the U.S. investigated it further.
The investigation also found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by any members of the Canadian Forces in that incident, military police said in a news release in 2011. But the board of inquiry report suggests that claim might not be entirely true. It said “charges were contemplated,” but that the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service did not follow through, the reason for which is censored from the report.
The board of inquiry was convened in February of 2009 to look at some of the information police had gathered and was submitted to senior leadership in the spring of 2012. For four years the report was reviewed by various organizations within the military, until June 2016 when it was signed off on and closed by Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance.
The report was not released publicly, but in July 2016 media outlets requested it under the Access to Information law. The Forces continued to hold on to the board of inquiry report for another two years, while legal officials stripped the document of details of the alleged wrongdoing.
Department of National Defence spokeswoman Ashley Lemire told Postmedia boards of inquiry are designed to allow the Canadian Forces to better understand issues and improve its operational effectiveness.