Military bullies parents after soldier’s suicide
Parents seek public probe, not board of inquiry
The Canadian military threatened the grieving parents of a soldier who committed suicide with legal sanctions if they did not turn over documents they had collected in their attempts to get to the bottom of their daughter’s death.
Both Rick and Ellen Rogers received a summons in July 2013 to testify at the military board of inquiry into the death of their daughter, Lt. Shawna Rogers, who had been stationed at CFB Edmonton.
The summons came after Lt. Rogers’ parents told the Canadian Forces they did not want to participate and requested that board of inquiry officials stop phoning them at their home in Sharon, Ont.
The summons required the couple to turn over all documents regarding their 27-yearold daughter’s medical health, as well as any electronic records documenting her correspondence and communication, particularly her cellphone records. The military board of inquiry (BOI) also demanded the couple turn over all documents outlining the formal complaints or grievances made by Lt. Rogers against the military.
The punishment for not complying is “less than two years” in jail, according to the National Defence Act.
The military only backed off when the couple’s Ottawa lawyer, Michel Drapeau, filed a court challenge arguing against the summons.
“The board of inquiry is a kangaroo court and we didn’t want any part of it,” Rick Rogers, a retired plumber, told the Ottawa Citizen. “There’s no bigger hell than losing your daughter. We were grieving and they were kicking us while we were down.”
The incident reveals the power and lack of accountability of military BOIs, said Mr. Rogers, who is pushing for a civilian hearing into his daughter’s death.
He and his wife decided not to participate in the BOI once they were informed they would be excluded from most of the inquiry hearings and could not have legal standing so their own lawyer could ask questions.
Mr. Rogers and his wife are trying to get to the bottom of their daughter’s death from a drug overdose in 2012 in Edmonton. But they’re still running into roadblocks from the Canadian Forces.
The couple requested in 2013 that the Alberta government hold the equivalent of a coroner’s inquest into Shawna’s death. Alberta agreed. But that process is still not underway because the Canadian Army won’t turn over the necessary documents, said Mr. Rogers.
The Department of National Defence said in an email to the Citizen that the National Defence Act grants a board of inquiry the legal right to summon any person. “Formal, legal letters are normally used when a BOI would benefit from testimony of individuals outside the chain of command,” the department stated.
“While failure to comply with any summons can technically generate legal action, that power has never been used on individuals not otherwise subject to the National Defence Act, which is to say people who are not CAF [Canadian Armed Forces] members or employees of DND.”
Shawna Rogers joined the military in 2007 and according to her annual reviews was an upstanding young officer. Her downward spiral began shortly after she injured her back during a military exercise in 2008. The back injury was enough for Veterans Affairs Canada to classify it as a partial disability.
Ellen Rogers, a nurse, has obtained some of her daughter’s medical records; she says the dosages prescribed by the military doctor were extremely high and various medical protocols were not followed.
“She didn’t have to become a drug addict if she had a timely and proper medical help,” Ms. Rogers said.
The family paid for some of Shawna’s medical treatments in the U.S. after her request for help paying for medical treatments got stalled in the military’s system.
Eventually, the Canadian Forces began proceedings to release Lt. Rogers from the army, against her wishes. After those papers were filed, her parents say she sank further into a depression, eventually taking her own life.
Lt. Rogers’ parents want a civilian-run investigation to look into the matter because they don’t trust a military BOI to do a proper job.
In an email, DND said the BOI is finished and its conclusions are secret. “The results cannot be divulged publicly, as they contain personal and medical information concerning the deceased,” it said.
Mr. Rogers said he wants an inquiry system to be open and accountable and be able to produce recommendations that will prevent future deaths.
“I’d like to see the military’s code of silence removed,” he said.