Military

Minister of National Defence (via Chief of the Defence Staff)
National Defence Headquarters
Major-General George R. Pearkes Building
Ottawa, ON K1A 0K2

19 June 2002

Minister,

Please find enclosed the Final Report for the Board of Inquiry convened to investigate the circumstances surrounding the friendly fire incident of April 17,2002 at Tarnak Farm, Afghanistan. 

Building upon the Interim Report submitted to your office on May 13, 2002, and having completed its formal proceedings, the Board now submits for your consideration a comprehensive response to all finding objectives assigned within the Terms of Reference.  Given the extensive amount of information required to arrive at these findings, it was neither possible nor desirable to include all examined documents and material with the Final Report.  Please be assured, however, that all evidence gathered has been catalogued and will be submitted for proper archival storage. 

As previously indicated to the Chief of the Defence Staff, much of the supporting material is classified for operational security reasons, as is the main text of the Final Report itself.  Nevertheless, to facilitate open and transparent communication with the affected families, the men and women of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, and the greater Canadian public, the included Executive Summary has been crafted to communicate the essential elements and findings of the investigation in an unclassified manner. 

I hope you will agree with me that the unsevered release of this portion of the investigation will reaffirm the commitment of this Board and the Canadian Forces to submit the particulars of this tragic event to the broadest possible public scrutiny, consistent with operational imperatives.  I trust also that this approach will balance the need of the families to understand what befell their loved ones with the desire of the wider public for information on this important national issue, in the most compassionate yet pragmatic manner.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the excellent administrative support that has been provided by all of the staffs with which we have come in contact.  I would also like to highlight the outstanding nature of the cooperation provided to the Board by our comrades-in-arms in the military of the United States of America.  Their sensitivity and compassion in the face of this incident has again demonstrated the unique and valuable quality of our close relationship with our Southern neighbour. 

Finally, I wish to express to you in the strongest possible terms the enduring sense of pride that I have in the men and women of the Canadian Forces.  It is truly in times of adversity that the military is most tested, and this investigation has reconfirmed to me that it is often only the strength of character and purpose that is bequeathed upon soldiers by their families and friends that allows them to carry the day.  If there is any good to come of such a sad occurrence, it is surely this: that the personnel of the Canadian Forces remain unbowed, strengthened by the remembrance of those fallen, and ever committed to the service of our country.

Original signed by