Military cops guilty of “wrongdoing and incompetence” in suicide case: Kenney

OTTAWA – Defence Minister Jason Kenney says a report by a federal watchdog has clearly demonstrated military police were guilty of “wrongdoing and incompetence” in their investigations, and he promises to fix that.

He was responding to questions before a Commons committee Wednesday about the scathing findings of the Military Police Complaints Commission, which conducted an exhaustive investigation into the handling of Cpl. Stuart Langridge’s suicide.

The watchdog said it identified “serious flaws” in three separate investigations into Langridge’s death, and painted a portrait of a police service where officers were unsupervised and even lacking in basic policing techniques.

The report included 46 recommendations for improvement, the vast majority of which were rejected by the Canadian Forces National Investigative Service, which oversees military cops.

Kenney told the all-party committee that he’s only read a summary of the report, but what he has seen is “unacceptable” and promised to meet with the provost marshal.

Col. Rob Delaney, the head of military police, apologized to the family, but a statement from their lawyer on Wednesday called it “completely insincere.”