Don’t shut out soldier’s parents
OTTAWA Top military brass and military lawyers will have almost total control over the outcome of the inquiry into the suicide of Afghanistan war veteran Cpl. Stuart Langridge unless the final phase of the process is significantly changed, says the lawyer for the late soldier’s family.
Although Langridge’s mother and stepfather, Sheila and Shaun Fynes, are the complainants, neither they nor their lawyer, Michel Drapeau, are legally entitled to see, or comment on, a copy of the interim report and will only get the final report the day it is released publicly.
“The (Military Police Complaints Commission) is investigating their complaints about the loss of their cherished son,” Drapeau said. “No one has a bigger interest in the outcome of these hearings than Mr. and Mrs. Fynes. Providing them with a copy of the interim report should be a no-brainer.
“By the time the Fynes get their hands on the report, it will be fait accompli and be presented to them as a ‘take it or leave it,’ adding yet more aggravation, anguish and sorrow to a family,” Drapeau said.
According to the National Defence Act under which the commission was created, an interim report must be produced by the commission and provided exclusively to various Canadian Forces officers, including the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), the Judge Advocate General’s Office, which is the Canadian military’s legal arm, and the Provost Marshal’s office, which advises the CDS on internal policing.
Drapeau says without an open process, the military can “cherry pick,” and pressure the commission into making changes at the interim report stage and, knowing what the commission’s final recommendations are likely to be, can institute cosmetic changes to blunt the impact of those recommendations.”