Inquiry hears military edited soldier’s suicide report

OTTAWA Dogged by increasingly negative media coverage over the handling of investigations into the suicide of Afghanistan war veteran Stuart Langridge the Department of National Defence edited an internal police force report before releasing it publicly and to the soldier’s family, a federal inquiry heard Friday.

The revelation at the Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry was one of several indications that the independence of the National Investigation Service ( NIS), the military’s detective agency, was compromised after Langridge’s parents went public with their grievances.

The military interfered with the report “while preparing it for publication” in a pre-emptive effort to avoid a “sensational fact” getting to the media, said Commission lawyer Mark Freiman.

Throughout the months-long inquiry, a succession of NIS officers have repeated that their agency is fiercely independent and investigates regardless of rank.

The NIS was investigating complaints by Langridge’s mother and stepfather Sheila and Shaun Fynes that the original investigation into their son’s death had been a whitewash to protect the military.

Two of their complaints related to the length of time their son’s body was left hanging in a room at CFB Edmonton — “like a piece of meat,” said his mother — and another about the withholding of Stuart’s suicide note for 14 months.

Sheila Fynes came to Ottawa in late 2010 and held a news conference to air her complaints.