Ottawa
The latest Canadian Armed Forces investigation into the drowning of four Royal Military College cadets in a nearby river in 2022 has concluded their deaths “were not attributable to military service.”
Dangerous use of personal vehicle was a factor in 2022 tragedy, according to previous investigation
Andrew Foote · CBC News
· Posted: Jan 30, 2024 12:27 PM EST | Last Updated: 32 minutes ago
A portrait of Officer Cadet Jack Hogarth, one of four victims of the April 2022 incident, is placed on display during a celebration of life and graduation ceremony at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., three weeks after his death. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)The latest Canadian Armed Forces investigation into the drowning of four Royal Military College (RMC) cadets in a nearby river in 2022 has concluded their deaths “were not attributable to military service.”
Around 2 a.m. ET on April 29, 2022, a vehicle carrying four officer cadets, all in their graduating year, entered the water off Point Frederick, a peninsula between Kingston Harbour and Navy Bay on the St. Lawrence River in Kingston, Ont. The city is home to the RMC campus.
The four cadets were later identified as Andrei Honciu, Jack Hogarth, Andrés Salek and Broden Murphy.
While few details about the incident were known, foul play was quickly ruled out. A military office would later confirm the four had drowned, and the dangerous use of a personal vehicle was a factor in their deaths.
Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner, Kingston Police and the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS) — the independent investigative arm of the military police — all worked to find out more.
Maj.-Gen. D. Craig Aitchison, commander of the Canadian Defence Academy, also ordered an internal summary investigation, one of two types of administrative investigation the military typically launches after the death of a member. They’re not meant to assign legal or civil blame, nor mete out punishment.
That summary investigation was the subject of a news release from the Forces on Tuesday.
It said investigators looked at whether there were “service-related circumstances” involved in the tragedy, and whether there had been any “applicable preventative measures.”
There were no service-related contributing factors and “the deaths were not attributable to military service,” according to the news release.
Authorities pulled the vehicle from the St. Lawrence River on April 29, 2022. (CBC)It said none of the victims was on duty, and did not mention any recommendations around preventative measures. CBC has requested the full report.
There have been calls for a coroner’s inquest into what happened. CBC has reached out to the coroner’s office Tuesday for comment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Foote has been covering Ottawa-area news for the CBC since February 2013 after graduating from Carleton University. He can be reached at andrew.foote@cbc.ca.
With files from Dan Taekema
