Former special ops soldier says he faced 'retaliation' for reporting alleged killing of Afghan civilians

A former special forces soldier is suing the federal government, alleging he was shunned by his unit and pushed out of the military after he denounced Canadian troops' alleged involvement in the killing of unarmed people in Afghanistan.

The soldier is also naming one current and two former top Canadian generals who he says minimized or failed to adequately investigate Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) involvement in the alleged killings.

Claude Lepage, a former member of JTF2, one of Canada's most elite and secretive military units, filed a statement of claim in Quebec Superior Court last week. He is asking the court to award him nearly $3 million in damages for the treatment he says he received due to his actions as a whistleblower.

The allegations in the court documents have not been tested and neither the Canadian government nor the Armed Forces have yet filed any defence. 

Lepage's statement of claim alleges it was his whistleblowing that led the military to hold two inquiries, known as the Sand Trap investigations, examining Canadian soldiers' actions in Afghanistan and the actions of coalition soldiers serving alongside them. 

It says he experienced "discrimination, retaliatory measures, abuse of rights, serious negligence and numerous violations of his rights … after having reported to his chain of command, the execution of Afghan civilians by members of his unit and by members of a foreign government agency."

A report stemming from the inquiries concluded Canadian soldiers did nothing criminal in Afghanistan. However, it acknowledged that they may have witnessed war crimes committed by coalition troops from other countries. A heavily redacted version of the report was made public in 2018. 

The report decried a culture of secrecy surrounding deadly missions in Afghanistan among Canada's special forces.

Lepage's allegations, now made public in the statement of claim, offer a window into acts of retaliation against unarmed Afghans by Canadian and coalition soldiers and raise questions about the actions of his commanding officers in the face of serious allegations of misconduct.

5 reports of civilian killings

Between 2005 and 2008, while Lepage was in Afghanistan serving as a sergeant in JTF2, the court documents say he reported to his chain of command five instances of Afghan civilians or unarmed people being targeted or killed by members of his unit and members of another government military working on joint missions with the unit. 

The lawsuit alleges the first occurred in December 2005. After a JTF2 helicopter was shot down in combat, Lepage said a member of the unit fired an anti-tank weapon at a civilian residence and then conducted a "dynamic entrance" to surprise and intimidate the people inside.

Then, in May 2006, the morning after JTF2 soldiers were attacked repeatedly during a night operation, members of the unit bombarded several civilian residences, the document says. It says Lepage visited the destroyed homes afterward and met an old man carrying a bag filled with human remains. The man said the remains were what was left of his family.

In the lawsuit, Lepage said that to his knowledge there was no internal investigation into the bombings.

That July, according to the statement of claim, an unarmed man appeared at a JTF2 detachment in Afghanistan with his hands in the air, apparently surrendering amid an operation the Canadian military had dubbed "Bad Doctor." Members of the unit yelled at him not to move, but the detachment's commander then shot the man five times, killing him on the spot. 

Lack of impartiality in internal investigations: Lepage

Lepage says he verbally reported each of these events to his chain of command and kept a journal throughout his time with the unit. The shooting of the unarmed man prompted an internal investigation, but the captain put in charge of the probe, Steve Boivin, was also in charge of the very operation that had led to the man's death. 

Shortly after that, the lawsuit says Lepage met with Col. D. Michael Day, who was then the commander of JTF2, and reported the lack of impartiality of the Bad Doctor investigation as well as violence and aggressiveness from some of his colleagues in the unit against the Afghan civilian population. 

The commander who allegedly killed the unarmed man was subsequently promoted to sergeant. Lepage also denounced this to his chain of command, according to the lawsuit. 

In November 2007, the document says Lepage's colleagues informed him that members of another country's military had targeted civilians during joint missions with JTF2 while he had been away for several months.

The document alleges it wasn't long before Lepage witnessed it himself. In a combat mission on New Year's Day, the lawsuit says Lepage witnessed the execution of an injured Afghan civilian by the other country's soldier. 

The combat mission ended with the deaths of three unarmed people, according to the lawsuit. When a JTF2 colonel was informed of the civilian deaths, Lepage alleges in the statement that the man walked out of the room and did not attend the "debriefing" that followed. 

It says that two weeks later, Lepage again met with Col. Day, who was then in charge of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. Lepage said he wanted to continue participating in combat missions but said he didn't want to be a part of missions that led to the deliberate killing of civilians or people who were unarmed. 

Career unravelling

The next day, the statement of claim says Lepage was sent home without explanation. Back in Canada, he was assigned to JTF2's training cell, and so began the unravelling of his military career and what Lepage's lawyers argue appears to have been efforts by the Canadian military to prevent accountability for the actions Lepage denounced. 

A CAF briefing note obtained by Lepage's lawyers says the sergeant was repatriated to Canada from Afghanistan due to "operational stress injury," but Lepage was never assessed nor consulted any kind of health professional in his time with the unit, according to the lawsuit. 

While Lepage was assigned as an instructor at the JTF2 training unit in Canada, CAF doctors diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They and the head of his unit, Michael Rouleau, later recommended he be listed as a "non-available" member of the Canadian military.  

According to Lepage and multiple doctors quoted in the court document, the disorder was not primarily tied to combat missions but instead to the stress Lepage felt over the lack of action following investigations into the civilian deaths. 

The move slashed his salary by more than half and axed him from the elite unit.

The lawsuit says the military was slow to react to Lepage's allegations of misconduct and details how the CAF only created the Sand Trap inquiries after Lepage sought the involvement of Roméo Dallaire, at the time a sitting member of the Canadian Senate.

In 2009, once the Sand Trap investigations were ongoing, the document says JTF2 chain of command told Lepage he could come back to the unit as a trainer on the condition that he not give his war journal to the Sand Trap inquiry. In the lawsuit, Lepage says he refused this offer because it went against his values.

Lepage's condition improved during and after the Sand Trap investigations and three different doctors said he would be able to return to work, according to the statement of claim. But it says military officials held a meeting without doctors and refused to reinstate him into the unit, according to CAF investigators who later looked into his case.

Lepage alleges in the lawsuit that he was removed from JTF2 in "retaliation" for his speaking out about the unit's involvement in civilian deaths.

Lepage was pushed out: Fellow soldiers quoted

Lepage's lawyers said two of his fellow soldiers in JTF2 recorded sworn statements supporting his allegations. The first was recorded on March 13, 2013, by Master Cpl. Stéphan Poirier supporting Lepage's allegations about the killing of two Afghan civilians during the Bad Doctor operation. Poirier said he and others in the unit had "expressed their profound disapproval" about the violence. Poirier died by suicide in December 2015. 

A second, by another JTF2 member, Sgt. Paul Demers, was registered on Oct. 4, 2018. The statement by Demers reproduced in the statement of claim says he was with Lepage when the two men saw a member of another country's military kill two unarmed Afghan civilians.

It's unclear in what context the statements were recorded.

Both Demers and Poirier stated that it was known in the unit that Lepage was pushed out and treated unfairly after he raised concerns about the unit's actions. Demers's testimony describes how Rouleau would disparage Lepage in front of the unit.

"Rouleau made, in my presence and in front of members of the unit, disapproving comments about Mr. Lepage's behaviour and the fact that he denounced the death of an Afghan civilian," according to the testimony quoted in the document. "Mr. Rouleau implied that the unit disapproved of the fact that [Lepage] denounced the situation and that the treatment Lepage received would apply to those who denounced similar situations." 

Lepage also alleges in the lawsuit that the CAF was negligent in handling his file. Despite three specialist doctors reporting that Lepage was no longer suffering from PTSD and was fit to remain with the CAF, the military medically released Lepage, stating that his PTSD amounted to a permanent medical condition. 

Nearly a decade after he left JTF2 and was released from the CAF, an external administrative tribunal reviewed his case and determined that he had been treated unfairly and acknowledged that his release was "unjustified." The tribunal recommended that Lepage receive an apology, compensation and be recognized as a veteran of JTF2, according to the document.

But it says Lepage received neither. As a result, he has been unable to attend events with other former members of JTF2.

The three commanding officers Lepage named in his lawsuit, Day, Rouleau and Boivin, all went on to work in the highest echelons of the CAF. Day and Rouleau are now retired, but Boivin is currently a lieutenant-general in charge of Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC), essentially overseeing most CAF operations in Canada, North America and around the world. Rouleau previously held that role. 

In response to CBC News questions, Day wrote that the allegations that led to the Sand Trap inquiries have been "consistently refuted" and that airing them has a "direct impact on the well-being of those accused and exonerated of these acts."

"They have repeatedly been proven innocent," he wrote, "and yet once again they will be the victims of media attention that will doubtless dwell on the salaciousness of the fictitious events."

CBC News reached out to the Department of National Defence and Canadian Special Operations Command. A spokesperson said they would not comment as the lawsuit was before the court. CBC News also reached out to National Defence Minister Bill Blair, but did not receive a response. Rouleau did not respond to a request for comment.

Lepage's lawsuit argues that awarding punitive damages would "dissuade and prevent future overreach by the chain of command against Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) soldiers."