Major Barry Armstrong sits motionless under the watchful gaze of television cameras as he waits for the Somalia Inquiry to resume after a break in Ottawa, on March 12, 1996. Dr. Armstrong died in Thunder Bay in May at the age of 72.John Hryniuk/Reuters
Major Barry Armstrong, the Armed Forces surgeon who blew the whistle on abuses committed by Canadian soldiers serving in Somalia in the 1990s and helped touch off a scandal that rocked Canada’s military establishment, has died at the age of 72.
“Barry Armstrong, at high risk to his military career … did what was required by his medical oath and by his commission as an officer in the Armed Forces,” said Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces, who first met Dr. Armstrong when the doctor testified before a judicial inquiry into the Somalia affair that was ordered by the federal government.
Mr. Drapeau, who now practises military law in Ottawa, believes that what Dr. Armstrong did was noble. But instead of bringing Dr. Armstrong universal recognition and respect, his disclosures unleashed a barrage of personal attacks and effectively ended his military career.
Soft spoken and with a strong sense of morality, Dr. Armstrong was also a complex individual who later ran into professional problems when he returned to civilian life.
It all began in 1992 when the government of prime minister Brian Mulroney agreed to take part in a U.S.-led relief mission in Somalia under UN auspices. The only troops available came from the Canadian Airborne Regiment, paratroopers who were trained in combat, not peacekeeping.
Arriving in the African nation in December, 1992, the Canadian soldiers immediately had serious challenges securing their own base and had to deal with locals who broke in looking for food. On March 4, Canadian soldiers placed food and water near the compound’s external fence and waited in the dark for would-be intruders.
When two young Somali men crawled through the enclosure and grabbed the food, the Canadians ordered them to stop. The men attempted to run away and were shot. One of them, Ahmed Aruush, died. Dr. Armstrong conducted a postmortem and determined that he had been shot in the back at close range. Yet the military insisted the killing was justified.
Twelve days later, Shidane Arone, a 16-year-old Somali detainee, was beaten, tortured and killed by Canadian soldiers, with the incident photographed by his abusers. A Canadian journalist on the scene reported on the incident after he saw Master Corporal Clayton Matchee, one of the alleged abusers, being carried away on a stretcher.
MCpl. Matchee had attempted to commit suicide using his boot laces after being arrested on suspicion of causing the teen’s death. Dr. Armstrong had managed to cut him down and save the Canadian soldier’s life but not before he suffered brain damage and was found unfit to be court-martialed. A fellow soldier, Private Kyle Browne, was found guilty of manslaughter, sentenced to five years and expelled from the military.
Dr. Armstrong wrote a letter to his wife, Jennifer, describing the execution-style shooting on March 4 and alleged racism among soldiers in the regiment. He also suspected the incident was being covered up by his superiors to protect then-defence minister Kim Campbell, who was running for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.
Although the couple decided to keep the story to themselves so that Dr. Armstrong could raise it within the chain of command, Jennifer was upset about a suspected cover-up and decided to tell all when she got a call from a reporter at the Toronto Star. “It wasn’t my story, it was Barry’s story,” she recalled later, so she decided to quote from her husband’s letter. The revelations became headline news.
Dr. Armstrong was initially upset with his wife over her disclosure but in the end, agreed that Jennifer “did the right thing” and continued his crusade for the truth to come out. Dr. Armstrong was rushed back to Canada in part because of fear he would be harmed by his fellow soldiers. The scandal didn’t stop. The new Liberal government disbanded the Airborne Regiment in 1995 and later ordered a full judicial inquiry into the Somalia deployment. After 16 months of hearings, much of it painting the military in the worst possible light, the Chrétien government shut down the inquiry, but not before Dr. Armstrong testified.
The inquiry’s 2,000-page report was a devastating critique of Canadian Forces leadership, alleging “evasion and deception” in the handling of the affair. Dr. Armstrong was exonerated, with the report stating that the “chain of command covered up its undeniable responsibility for the March 4 incident, avoided public responsibility and possibly set the stage for a 16-year-old Somali boy to be tortured to death 12 days later.”
Many of the doctor’s military colleagues never forgave him. “Armstrong followed his conscience and brought out the fact that these guys had murdered Somalis in cold blood and he was the one who was ostracized and punished,” said Scott Taylor, publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine and author of a book on the Somalia scandal.
Barry Armstrong was born on July 20, 1951, in St. Boniface, Man., the eldest son of Henry Barry Armstrong and Elizabeth Armstrong. His father was a manager for Hurtig Furriers in Winnipeg and the family moved to Calgary to open a new outlet when Barry was a boy. His mother was a teacher.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at University of Calgary and studied for a master’s in environmental studies. He completed his course work but when asked to modify his master’s thesis, he declined to do so and dropped out of the program, according to his wife.
He entered medical school at University of Calgary and joined the military, which paid for his studies in return for a promise to serve after graduation. While working as a resident in Calgary, he met Jennifer, a medical librarian, and the two were married in 1980. He completed his surgical residency at University of Toronto.
Dr. Armstrong served for three years at the Canadian base in Lahr, Germany, and later transferred to Valcartier, outside Quebec City. He served in the Gulf War and in the Balkans as well as Somalia.
After leaving the military in 1997, Dr. Armstrong moved to Dryden, Ont., where he was the sole surgeon in the town of 7,500. But in 2001, he was again at the centre of controversy.
After allegations were made of professional misconduct and incompetence, Dr. Armstrong’s hospital privileges were suspended and the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons began a disciplinary investigation. The case divided the town sharply, with Dr. Armstrong’s defenders claiming he was the victim of a smear campaign.
Dr. Armstrong demanded a hearing and threatened a $10-million lawsuit. In the end, he came to an agreement with the College. Dr. Armstrong agreed to stop practising independently as a general surgeon without additional training. The hearing was cancelled.
He moved to Thunder Bay where he worked as an surgical assistant, acting as the second pair of hands in the operating room under supervision of a lead surgeon. Dr. Ian Dobson, an anaesthetist at the Thunder Bay regional hospital who worked with Dr. Armstrong, described him as personable and “a good colleague to work with.”
“He was a life-long student of medicine, very interested in all aspects of surgery,” Dr. Dobson told The Globe and Mail. Dr. Armstrong was also a hard worker, a team player who would help clean up the operating room and take out the garbage. He would also stock the fridge in the nurses’ lounge with food.
He was an inveterate traveller, visiting all seven continents, and was an enthusiastic hiker. He took up snowboarding in his 50s.
Dr. Armstrong retired in 2021 and soon began to experience cognitive issues. He was diagnosed with dementia, which progressed rapidly. He died in Thunder Bay on May 13. Dr. Armstrong leaves his wife, Jennifer; his children, Karen, Marie and David; his sisters, Patricia and Alison; and four grandchildren.
Ms. Armstrong knows that even 30 years later, there are still people who are upset that her husband blew the whistle. But she has no regrets. “It was wrong. It was murder. It still works me up.”
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