MONTREAL—A Canadian military veteran with post-traumatic stress syndrome killed himself Saturday in a confrontation with police just hours after complaining about the government’s handling of his case.
Carl Jason Dunphy, 39, wrote on his Facebook page Saturday morning that he had been fighting with Veterans Affairs Canada for additional help with operational stress injuries after serving three combat tours in Afghanistan.
“It’s eating away at my resources and my strength. It’s not up to friends and spouses to deal with this because a government organization doesn’t act,” the Edmunston, N.B.-native wrote.
That night, the Sureté du Québec responded to a tip from the Edmunston police force about a suicidal man headed into their jurisdiction.
After tracking the individual using cellular telephone signals to the Quebec town of Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha!, about 70 kilometres from Edmunston, officers found a man in his car with another person.
“The police forced them out of the vehicle, but the man quickly jumped back into the car and turned his handgun on himself,” said a statement from Quebec’s Bureau des Enquêtes Indépendantes, which investigates deaths and injuries resulting from police interventions.
No additional details about the other person in the vehicle or the actions that led up to the incident were released.
The death of Dunphy, who served with the Valcartier, Quebec-based 5e Régiment d’artillerie légère du Canada, has sent shockwaves through the military and veteran’s community.
Paul Nichols met Dunphy in Edmunston during the tail end of a horseback ride across Canada in 2015 to raise awareness about veterans’ issues.
Nichols said in an interview that Dunphy had suffered multiple concussions as a result of roadside-bomb strikes over the course of three deployments in Afghanistan and was left struggling with short-term memory as a result.
“He was just a huge-hearted man who was really just trying to find his way,” Nichols said from his farm in Quesnel, British Columbia. “He told me that he was going to ride for the ones that couldn’t.”
Friend Pierre-Luc Jean, said he was worried about Dunphy after reading his Saturday morning Facebook posting and felt instinctively that it was his friend who was the subject of news reports Sunday referring to an Edmunston man who took his life later that night in a run-in with police.
Dunphy had spoken openly about his experiences during three combat missions in Afghanistan as well as his frustrations getting help from Veterans Affairs Canada.
“I’m not his oldest friend. It’s only two or three years that I’ve known him but it has always been like that,” Jean said in a telephone interview from his home near Quebec City.
“Over the last year he’s been trying to get additional psychological help. He wanted medical help as well as money for his treatments because if he wasn’t able to get help (from Veterans Affairs Canada) he wanted to get it elsewhere.”
A spokesperson for Veterans Affairs Canada said the government could not comment on the particulars of Dunphy’s case both because personal information is protected by the Privacy Act and because the man’s death is under investigation.
“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the deceased as well as those first responders impacted by this tragedy,” Zoltan Csepregi wrote in a statement.
The statement added: “We are working hard to ensure that each and every time a veteran comes forward with a mental health concern, they receive the support they need.”
But Nichols said Dunphy’s death shows that the government’s support network is still failing those who need help the most.
“Carl was in the system through Veterans Affairs. It’s not like he was living in the bush somewhere on his own and decided to (end his life). He was in the system. He was an active veterans’ voice in his community and I think that we could have done better.”
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