Ombudsman urges redress for victims
Defence minister pledges assistance in report’s wake
OTTAWA • For Charles Gutta, Tuesday’s release of the military ombudsman’s report into the fatal accident at CFB Valcartier’s cadet summer camp 41 years ago marked the end of a long, personal mission.
The sergeant in the regular army was in overall charge of the camp on July 30, 1974, and had left the 156 cadets in the care of munitions specialists, who were teaching the teenage boys how to identify various explosives.
After assurances one grenade was harmless, a cadet pulled the pin. Six died and 65 others were injured, many permanently. A few fought for, and got, limited compensation, but most didn’t.
“I was always told, from the time I was a trooper until the rank of sergeant, that if anything happens to you, the army will take care of you,” Gutta, 76, told the Ottawa Citizen soon after reading the report of Gary Walbourne, the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces ombudsman.
“When this tragedy happened,” he added, “I thought ‘I’m not worried, I will be cared for and the cadets will be cared for and life carries on.’ But 34 years later, in 2008, I discovered that nothing had been done for these kids.
“So I started listening to their stories on social media and that’s what got me going. I thought, ‘I have to do something about this.’ ”
“Inexcusable” is how Walbourne described the Canadian Forces’ treatment of the injured cadets and their families.
In his report released Tuesday, he urged National Defence to correct the injustice and give survivors the medical and financial care they deserve but have been denied for four decades.
Defence Minister Jason Kenney issued a statement soon afterward agreeing to all Walbourne’s recommendations, and offering psychological and physical assessments for all those affected.
“Based on these assessments, we will ensure that the affected individuals have access to health care and compensation, where appropriate,” he said.
“I regret that it took 41 years to formally recognize and fully address this tragedy.”
National Defence has set up a help line (1-844-800-8566) and email address (1974@ forces.gc.ca) as a first point of contact.
The summer camp accident led to several investigations, including a coroner’s inquest, that ruled the six cadets, aged 14 and 15, died as a result of negligence.
But at an internal military board of inquiry, the young survivors were forced to testify and respond to questions designed to imply they were responsible for their own misfortune.
“Many of the affected cadets were left with long-lasting and life-altering injuries for which they received inadequate treatment and/or compensation,” Walbourne said in his report.
The day after the explosion, armed military police took many survivors to underground bunkers, where they were interrogated and ordered not to discuss their evidence with others.
“The manner in which cadets were made to testify as if they were adult Canadian Forces witnesses (they were neither) … left many young cadets feeling responsible, distraught and further traumatized,” he added.
Walbourne’s office received its first complaint about the event two years ago; and in the subsequent three months received more than 50 more.
Because his mandate precludes investigations into incidents that occurred before the office was created in 1998, he needed ministerial permission to probe the Valcartier aftermath. Then-defence minister Rob Nicholson gave the go-ahead last May.
With the exception of medical treatment immediately after the accident, cadets received no help.
“Many of those interviewed (by ombudsman investigators) stated that their parents did not launch claims against the Crown on their behalf due to lack of knowledge or the means to do so,” said Walbourne.
He found the Forces paid for the six cadet funerals but offered survivors no further medical help.
Six former CF members who claimed compensation related to the accident under the “New Veterans Charter” have received about $86,000 each during the past few years.
The surviving cadets, many now in their mid-50s, some approaching 60, began meeting for reunions and communicating on social media. Which is when, in 2008, Gutta caught up with them.
He says he is in contact with 90 of the former cadets but is still trying to find 48 others.
Going into meetings with the ombudsman and defence officials Tuesday, he admitted to being skeptical. He emerged in a sunnier mood.
“This is a very happy ending for me,” he said, “The wheels have started turning at last.”