Family Day 2013 – Assumption Overload

February 18, 2013 — CFNIS, Joe Grozelle, Mathieu LeClair, Medical Examiner, our fallen soldiers

Matt was also known as HB to his military family

In Memory to Joe Grozelle and Mathieu LeClair on this Family Day 2013. You are embraced and memorialized in many different families, be it familial or corporeal units. We remember, respect and celebrate each of you on this relatively new Ontarian holiday. You will never be forgotten. You will be cherished always.

Family and friends of the late Pte. Matthew Hunter-Brown were at RMC for Remembrance Day 2012. We lay flowers for Joe, Mathieu, and our Matt that day. Matt died November 13th 2011, under mysterious circumstances in Cold Lake, AB, according to CF, and Medley, AB according to the RCMP. He was just 13 weeks into his 24th year. CFNIS were on the scene to investigate one day after evidence was dismantled from CFB Cold Lake barracks. The stories recalled by soldiers interviewed November 13th & 14th, 2011 do not corroborate with pictures taken of the crime scene, by the RCMP on November 13th, and yet the CFNIS were very quick to copy and paste the soldiers’ theories into their reports. Those young soldiers assumed it was suicide. CFNIS was also too quick to take in the assumptions made by these soldiers; soldiers with life span experiences of 20 to 25 years, and not the credentials of employees trained to formulate possible avenues of death.

No pin-point time of death has ever been determined. No coroner or ME (Medical Examiner) was ever dispatched to the crime scene. She (the ME) exercised a personal discretion and determined that her job skill sets were not necessary that Sunday, and instead directed the RCMP to process the scene on her behalf. She was stationed only half an hour’s drive away in Bonnyville. Photos were taken of the crime scene by RCMP officers, but not from the mindset of a coroner’s perspective. All of this activity skued and fueled alternative assumptions, as to what might have happened that day. It has elevated one more case to the level of “mystery“. Those reports are authored by CFNIS. After almost a decade in, from Joe Grozelle’s case, is it any wonder that the parents of our deceased soldiers are wary or cautious about the performance level of our own CFNIS, or their authorship. Our soldiers’ families have every right to question the validity of these reports, and fight for the real stories and the truth, as well as for the integral honour of our fallen soldiers.

We live in a culture of growing social networks, with the ability to copy and paste reports, at speeds not accomplished 30-40 years ago. We are turning into silicone operators in order to accomplish expectations set out by our bean counters in Canada; this financial goal/strategy directly competes with the bottom line of outsourced and low Asian wages, not sustainable as a living wage in Canada. As a result, we are losing our credibility; we are losing the needed skill sets to determine the real outcomes of such death scenes as those of Joe, Mathieu, and Matthew. These are our officers and soldiers that are dying; this during a time, when Canada is not at war. These are our mistakes that we impose upon our Canadian soldiers, while they are at home, amongst us – the Canadian people. These are only a few reports above, I am willing to bet there are too many more; and there will be many more to come, if we do not change this course. Which of you families out there are not a part of this inner circle of families today, but will be by this time next month, next season, or next year?

If Family Day had its first inception in Alberta, it is perhaps more pertinent now that we honour, respect, and celebrate you, as ours to be included in our families, on this day – Family Day. We will embrace you and remember you as part of our families, on this Ontarian Family Day 2013.

In spirithood to each of you,