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An internal military inquiry into the 2008 suicide of Cpl. Stuart Langridge pins some of the blame on his parents.
On Thursday, Langridge’s parents, Sheila and Shaun Fynes, were given a copy of the Board of Inquiry report that was completed in 2009, a few months after the 28-year-old’s body was found in his Edmonton barracks.
The 1,434 pages contain little analysis of what the military did to help him, blaming his suicide on the end of his relationship with his common-law spouse and his addictions, which it attributed to the break-up of his parents.
The most the report offers is that the young soldier, who did two overseas tours, “was offered numerous treatment options as the health-care team, tried to find an option that suited Cpl. Langridge’s needs.”
It also said he was offered “numerous programs to overcome his addictions and depression” but that he “exhibited help-seeking/help-rejecting behaviour.”
There was little evaluation of the adequacy of facilities, even though the report acknowledged Langridge had to be sent outside of the military medical system because of a shortage of beds.
Instead, the report repeatedly returned to the theme of a broken childhood.
“The board found the main source of stress for Cpl. Langridge was his personal relationship with his common-law wife,” said the analysis. “The divorce of his parents when he was five years old and the subsequent estrangement of his father was a traumatic personal event which left Cpl. Langridge with a fear of abandonment that pervaded his adult life and damaged and destroyed his personal and professional relationships.”
It dismissed what he witnessed Bosnia and Afghanistan as not relevant to his mental health, even though he told military doctors it bothered him.
“There is no indication anywhere in the evidence that Cpl. Langridge was exposed to a traumatic event during his military career,” it said.
Defence Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday he had not read the board of inquiry report, but promised to take action on the findings of the military police commission.
Agencies/Canadajournal
