Canada's Top General Denies Soldier's Suicide Tied To Military Service?

If you think that shirking responsibility for military suicides is only an American gimmick, they are doing it in Canada too. This case involves a veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan with PTSD.

Medals wrongly issued after Afghan vet's suicide, Lawson tells parents
OTTAWA CITIZEN
DAVID PUGLIESE,
Published on: July 7, 2015

“He’s clearly saying these medals mean diddly squat,” she said. “What’s next? Are they going to remove Stuart’s name from the Book of Remembrance?”

A photo of Cpl. Stuart Langridge is seen along with his beret and medals. THE CANADIAN PRESS

Canada’s top general has personally written to the parents of a dead soldier to tell them their loved one’s suicide wasn’t the result of his military service and to suggest that the medals issued in the aftermath of the death weren’t deserved.

Shaun and Sheila Fynes of Victoria, B.C., said they were stunned when they received the letter on Monday from Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson.

Lawson told the couple that a military board of inquiry concluded that the suicide of their son, Cpl. Stuart Langridge, in the barracks at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton wasn’t related to his service. In addition, because of that determination Lawson raised the issue in the June 22 letter about whether medals should have been awarded to the parents. The couple received Memorial Crosses and the Sacrifice Medal.

Langridge, a model soldier and veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan, was suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder when he killed himself in 2008.
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