The National Defence and Canadian Forces are treating military families like “second-class citizens” and leaving their concerns and complaints to languish for months on end, Canada's defence ombudsman said on Wednesday.
Winding up a 2 1/2-year investigation into the treatment of sniper Master Corporal Graham Ragsdale, ombudsman Yves Côté said defence families deserved more compassion and understanding than they currently receive.
“Bureaucratic answers and form letters are not an appropriate response in situations that clearly require compassion and understanding,” Mr. Côté wrote in the report A Sniper's Battle.
“Family members who have legitimate questions about the health and welfare of their loved ones deserve much better from their government.
“While we cannot sanitize the effects of combat, we can certainly strive to be more open and understanding in our dealings with those suffering from its effects.”
He also called for the defence ombudsman to be given the same legislated powers as other ombudsmen to give him greater access to documents like those withheld for months by the defence department during the Ragsdale investigation.
The investigation was launched after Master Cpl. Ragsdale's father raised serious concerns over his treatment during and after a stint in Afghanistan in 2002.
A sniper with the Third Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry deployed to Afghanistan between February and July 2002, Master Cpl. Ragsdale came home with post traumatic stress disorder.
His father Patrick alleged that his son, and the other snipers in his son's team, were ostracized by their unit, were treated unfairly by their chain of command in a number of ways, and experienced uncalled-for delays in being awarded Bronze Stars by the U.S. Army.
While Mr. Côté found the snipers were “generally treated fairly by the Canadian Forces before, during and after their deployment” the same cannot be said for their concerned families.
The ombudsman found officials did not treat Mr. Ragsdale's concerns in “an appropriate manner or in a way in which any other concerned family member of a soldier injured in operations would legitimately expect to be treated.”
“We have come across a number of cases where family members are treated like administrative problems and handled in an uncaring, bureaucratic way and this is fundamentally wrong,” Mr. Côté said.
The ombudsman's investigative team also “faced considerable resistance” in obtaining documents from the DND, something the office had never encountered before.
“Even though it was the Chief of the Defence Staff who had referred this case to the office, full access to the documents that were requested by investigators was withheld by Defence officials for upwards of 10 or 12 months,” Mr. Côté wrote.
“I am very troubled by the fact that the Canadian Forces continue to treat military families like second-class citizens.”
The ombudsman's office previously examined the treatment of military families in a 2005 special report that followed an investigation into the training death of Master Cpl. Rick Wheeler in 1992.
One of its key recommendations was that family members seeking information need to be treated with compassion and that every effort should be made to apply access-to-information and privacy legislation in an “open and helpful manner.”
“The poor treatment afforded Mr. Ragsdale clearly highlights the need for continued improvement in this important area,” the ombudsman said Wednesday.
Mr. Côté's office is now reviewing the treatment of families whose military loved ones are killed or injured on duty.
With a report from The Canadian Press.
