Soldiers’ grieving families lack help: Ombudsman
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Report says family services issues still need fixing, especially timely investigations
OTTAWA — Ten years after issuing a scathing report into the Canadian military’s treatment of grieving families, the armed forces ombudsman says family services are still lacking.
In a new report released Monday, Ombudsman Gary Walbourne credits the military brass for making some improvements but says investigations into military deaths and serious injury remain “military centric and difficult to understand for many families.”
Previously, the ombudsman has criticized the military for dragging out — sometimes for years — Boards of Inquiry (BOI) into combat deaths, suicides and serious injury to its members and for ignoring the needs of families.
The family-military engagement needs fixing, says Walbourne in the report Families in Focus.
“The human dimension sometimes gets lost in a process designed for fact gathering, not family engagement,” he says.
“Existing mechanisms surrounding the Board of Inquiry process appear insufficient for those families who are seeking answers while also navigating the emotional fallout from the loss or serious injury of a loved one,” he adds.
Also lacking is sufficient research and understanding of how best to treat bereaved families, adds the ombudsman.
Walbourne is urging family members who have been adversely affected by the military system of investigating death and serious injury to contact his office.
“The death or serious injury of a Canadian Armed Forces member is always a difficult event, and none is more profoundly affected by it than the member’s family,” he says.
“These families need and deserve information, support and assistance to help them come to terms with the loss or injury.”
Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson, who was offered the chance to respond to the report before its release, has agreed to its one fundamental recommendation: That an ombudsman-appointed family co-ordinator be embedded in the military for a trial period of one year.
In his response to Walbourne, Lawson also acknowledged that the BOI process could be more considerate of families.
But Lawson says he’s concerned that “satisfying a family’s information needs” could blunt the effectiveness of BOIs.
He said the family co-ordinator could “help” the military decide on a family-help strategy whether through the BOI process or some other mechanism.
The armed forces ombudsman issued its first report into the poor treatment of grieving families in 2005 when it investigated the response to the 1992 death of Master Cpl. Rick Wheeler, who was run over by an armoured personnel carrier.
The initial investigation into Wheeler’s death was “amateurish” said the ombudsman, and his wife and family were largely forgotten by the Canadian Forces.
Since then, there have been other criticisms of the military’s treatment of families, notably the parents of Canadian Forces Base Edmonton’s Lt. Shawna Rogers, who committed suicide in 2012.
Her grieving parents were threatened with two years in jail by the military after declining to testify at a BOI into their daughter’s death.