CORNWALL, Ontario – On a wet summer afternoon more than 40 years ago, a routine safety lecture at CFB’s Valcartier cadet camp turned into a nightmare for 140 cadets when a live grenade exploded, killing six and wounding 54.
The carnage was witnessed by Denis Labbe, a Cornwall man who to this day can still see the bodies of the dead and hear the cries of pain from those still writhing in agony.
Today he can also see a light at the end of the tunnel, perhaps, for those still grappling with the tragedy.
Ombudsman Gary Walbourne is urging the Canadian Forces, in a report released Tuesday, to correct an injustice and give survivors the medical and financial care they deserve but have, for four decades, been denied.
“After 41 years of fighting and all that…I’m happy for the cadets,” said Labbe, who was a 26-year-old medic at the time of the incident and has carried with him a lifetime of horror. “How many have died? How many have committed suicide?
“They needed psychological help, and some couldn’t afford to pay for it.”
Through the help of a psychologist, Labbe now knows that on that day he carried at least two of the dead bodies through the base hospital at CFB Valcartier, which is located north of Quebec City.
Fourteen-year-old Eric Lloyde, a cadet at the ill-fated training session, had unknowingly set off a live grenade that had been mixed in with a box of dummy grenades. He was killed instantly upon detonation of the bomb.
Other media outlets have reported there was no attempt to deal with the effects of trauma on the survivors. They were isolated from other cadets and, worse, made to feel the accident had been their fault.
In the end, a coroner’s inquest pointed to a “climate of negligence” and found the regular army captain who conducted the lecture criminally responsible.
“If it had happened today, how many lawyers would be on this?” said Labbe. “It was not the fault of the cadets.”
According to the ombudsman’s report, the forces paid for the six cadet funerals but offered no further medical help to the survivors.
Defence Minister Jason Kenney is expected to respond to the report and Labbe is expecting the government to do something.
“It’s an election year too, but I hope they get help,” he said.
