Military

On 19 April 2002, at the instruction of the convening authority, the Minister of National Defence, a Board of Inquiry was formed to investigate the injury and death of Canadian Forces personnel during live fire training at or near Kandahar, Afghanistan on or about 17:21:40Z 17 April 2002.  The initial terms of reference are included at Annex A.

The Board conducted its first formal meeting at 0800 hours on 22 April 2002 in the Chief of Staff J3 Conference Room, at National Defence Headquarters.  The Board was provided copies of the Air Tasking Order (ATO), the Airspace Coordination Order (ACO), Special Instructions (SPINS) and various documents.  Later in the day, J3 International staff provided a theatre situational awareness briefing, which included the following areas:

• a background brief on Afghanistan;
• an intelligence brief; and
• a review of the pre-deployment training, deployment and mission of 3 PPCLI BG in Afghanistan.

During the ensuing days, an initial work plan was developed and refined in preparation for the first overseas deployment.  The Board departed late on 24 April and arrived in                                           on 25 April.  After receiving a series of orientation briefings on the morning of 26 April in            , the Board moved to the location of the National Support Unit at                       to view and set up its base of operations for staging into Afghanistan.  Major S. Schrieber, Officer Commanding (OC) Administration Company,

3 PPCLI BG provided the Board with background information on the following aspect of the BG's mission:

• pre-deployment training;
• the mission;
• the deployment; and
• operations to date.

On 27 April, Captain J. MacEachern, Officer Commanding Canadian Forces National Investigative Service (OC CFNIS) Detachment Kandahar, provided an overview of his ongoing investigation into the friendly fire incident.  The next day, Major          , an F-16 pilot from the 27^th Fighter Wing, United States Air Force (USAF), arrived to join the Board.  Major           role was to assist the Board in its understanding of the procedural and technical aspects of the F-16 operations and to aid in effecting liaison with American units.

On 29 April, the Board departed          at 09:00 hours (local) by C-130 for the Kandahar Airfield Facility (KAF) in Afghanistan.  Of note, all times are expressed in Greenwich Mean Time and abbreviated as "Z"; a chart to aid in interpretation of "Z" versus local times in Kandahar, Ottawa and Edmonton is included at Annex C. Upon arrival at the 3 PPCLI BG lines in KAF, the Board received a general brief on the Camp including force protection measures.  An initial 15-minute orientation brief was also provided by Major          , the TF Rakkasan Safety Officer.  From 11:35Z until 17:56Z, four witnesses were interviewed by the Board.

Early the next morning, the Board proceeded under armed escort to the Tarnak Farm Range, the site of the friendly fire incident.  Starting at 04:00Z, the Board commenced a walk through of the site with testimony provided by Captain J. Jasper, the Range Safety Officer on the night in question.  After returning to the KAF at about 06:30Z, the Board resumed its proceedings by taking additional evidence from Captain Jasper in order to clarify observations made at Tarnak Farm.  Before adjourning later that day, sworn testimony was taken from another eight witnesses.

The Board's proceedings recommenced the next morning 1 May at 06:00Z.  Sworn testimony was taken from three more witnesses after which the Board members traveled by air to Bagram Air Base, near Kabul.  The trip to Bagram was necessitated by the fact that key witnesses from the 3 PPCLI BG had deployed to Bagram in preparation for other operations.  In addition to the re-examination of Captain J. Jasper, a total of five witnesses were interviewed that same day.

The Board interviewed its last witnesses in the theatre of operations on 2 May in Bagram.  Returning to            later that day, the Board remained there until departing for Canada in the early hours of 6 May.

Upon its return to Canada, the Board and several advisors traveled to Edmonton and interviewed four of the injured servicemen on 8 May.  Unfortunately, the health of Sergeant L. Ford necessitated a later return of the Board.  This took place on 14 May, the day after the Board submitted its Interim Report.

While work continued on the writing of the Final Report, preparations were made to return to the Middle East to interview Major          (the Mission Control Commander aboard the AWACS at the time of the incident) and to visit the Coalition Air Operations Centre (CAOC) at the                                .  While the Board traveled to          and interviewed Major          on 2 June, it was prevented from entering            when visas could not be arranged within the time constraints of the Board's tight schedule for completion of the Final Report.  The Board returned to Canada on 03 June.  The last of the sworn testimony was taken by the Board on 12 June, with the attendance of Lieutenant-Colonel M. Simpson in Ottawa.