Sarah Orton’s life changed forever shortly after 9 a.m. on 21 April 2024.
Alarmed by a series of overnight messages from her husband, Master-Corporal Shaun Orton, she contacted the Military Police to request an urgent welfare check. His messages suggested that he was “spiralling out of control and needing help.”
Master-Corporal Orton had previously served with the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry before transferring to the Intelligence Branch in Ottawa, where he worked as a defence intelligence analyst. He had also completed a one-year deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation IMPACT.
“A welfare check involves police officers verifying the well-being of an individual when there are concerns about their physical or mental health.”
Ms. Orton alleges that the military police repeatedly dismissed her concerns and unreasonably delayed initiating a welfare check.
“And now he's not answering and I'm just wondering if somebody could do a mental health check on him,” she told the MP sergeant answering her call. Her husband hadn’t responded to any of her messages or phone calls for two hours.
Instead of dispatching military police, the sergeant gave Ms. Orton a phone number for her husband’s unit and told her the unit was responsible for his wellness check. It was Sunday and every call she made went unanswered or directly to voicemail, nor could she reach anyone at any of the other numbers she tried. After exhausting every avenue available to her, she turned to the Ottawa Police Service for help.
Ottawa police arrived 10 minutes later and tried to resuscitate him, but MCpl Orton was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Just before 2 p.m. that same day, Ottawa police Constable Parsons called the MP sergeant to ask why a wellness check had not been conducted earlier. He was told that there were only two officers on duty covering the entire National Capital Region, "so we’re very limited," according to the call transcript. Parsons said police were "definitely concerned," and a crisis worker who was by then involved in the case wanted to "go out and do a door knock."
Constable Parsons’ call to the Military Police took place about five hours after Ms. Orton’s first call to the MPs at nine a.m. for a wellness check on her husband. It took more than six hours for military police to finally conduct the wellness check.
Ms. Orton asserts that military police "repeatedly dismissed her concerns."
Military Police Complaints Commission chief Tammy Tremblay, in her explanation for convening a public interest hearing, alleges that when they finally agreed to check on her husband, military police stood outside his house for 45 minutes before going inside.
MCpl Orton’s welfare check became a race against time in which the military police seemed unwilling to leave the starting line. The machinery of the military police slowed to a stop, ignoring that a person’s life hung in the balance.
"[Ms. Orton] also noted that the military police detachment commanding officer sent a priest to provide her spiritual support without asking her permission and even though she had made known that she was Jewish," MPCC chief Tammy Tremblay wrote in her decision.
Ms. Orton found her husband’s 10-page suicide note that military police had misplaced while removing his body. The MPs did not accompany her husband to the hospital nor notify her of his death. Neither did they take a noose or pills from the house as evidence. She had difficulty in obtaining information and updates from the military police.
On 11 June 2024, Mrs. Orton filed a conduct complaint with the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal (CFPM). On 30 July 2024, the CFPM decided to close the file without investigating the complaint in favour of conducting a criminal investigation of the responding military police by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service.
The criminal investigation concluded in March and no criminal charges or service discipline charges were laid, according to the Provost Marshal's office. A Military Police Professional Code of Conduct investigation has now been launched to decide if administrative action should be taken against responding military police, the office said.
In response to an inquiry, The Observatory was told: "A Military Police Professional Code of Conduct investigation was initiated on 18 March 2025 and concluded in September 2025. The subject of the Code of Conduct investigation was subsequently referred to the Military Police Credential Review Board. Consideration by the Board was held in abeyance pending the conclusion of the Military Police Complaints Commission Public Interest Hearing, which concluded on or about 15 May 2026.
"The Military Police Credential Review Board will now proceed with its review and will make a recommendation to the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal regarding whether the member should retain their policing credentials. A date for the Board’s review has not yet been established."
Ms. Orton's complaint also said when military police found MCpl Orton's body, they called civilian police who discovered he was still alive and began first aid.
Complainants may request an MPCC review of a conduct complaint if they are not satisfied with the disposal of the complaint by the CFPM. On 25 September 2024, Ms. Orton took her concerns to the MPCC to review her complaint.
On 30 April 2025, Me Tremblay rendered a decision to hold a rare Public Interest Hearing. The Chairperson cited the following important factors that motivated her decision:
The seriousness of the allegations, which, if substantiated, could amount to a failure in performing a timely and effective welfare check—potentially preventing a tragic loss of life.
The broader systemic implications and public interest regarding welfare checks and suicide response by police.
“The allegations in this case are very serious. Given the significant public concern surrounding the proper handling of welfare checks, suicide interventions, and risk assessments by military police, I determined that a public hearing would be the most effective, transparent, and appropriate means of conducting this investigation—ensuring accountability and addressing broader systemic issues,” said Me Tremblay.
In her complaint, MCpl Orton’s wife claims that delays in conducting a welfare check on her husband, in entering the home, and in administering first aid after his body was found, may have contributed to his death. She further claims that the military police mishandled critical evidence: MPs misplaced her husband’s ten-page suicide note which she found, and failed to collect other evidence in the house, including a noose and pills. She also disclosed that she had difficulty in obtaining information and updates from the military police.
His wife told the commission that he was transported by ambulance to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Military police did not go to the hospital or notify MCpl Orton's wife about his death, she told the commission.
The complaint also said Ms. Orton reported struggling to get updates from military police.
Her complaint alleges military police may have played a role in the death of Master Corporal Shaun Orton in April 2024 by failing to conduct a wellness check sooner and delaying going into his home and performing first aid.
"The allegations in this complaint are serious," wrote the watchdog's chairperson Tammy Tremblay in her decision to hold a public hearing.
"If substantiated, they could amount to a failure to conduct a welfare check in an adequate and timely manner which could have potentially saved a life."
Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms mandates “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
Canada’s military police failed MCpl Orton, like they have failed so many others, including Corporal Stuart Langridge, and Major Cristian Hiestand. Also left hanging from the yardarm of their incompetence and malfeasance are a dozen generals and admirals stigmatized by allegations of wrongdoing for which the military police and its subsidiary, the CF National Investigation Service, could find no evidence.
In MCpl Orton’s case, the military police response functioned like a command structure severed from its troops -- every transmission was received and acknowledged, but none acted upon. While Sarah Orton raced against time, the military police moved with the indifference of a glacier—slow, impersonal, and utterly unmoved by the human tragedy unfolding before them.
Perhaps it is time for the Canadian military justice system to be swept into the dustbin of history as a failed effort; for the military police to be relegated to physical security at DND bases, stations and facilities; for real police work to be left to real police.
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References
Burke, Ashley. “Call Transcripts Shed Light on Military Police’s Alleged Mishandling of Suicide.” CBC News, May 9, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/military-police-watchdog-public-hearing-alleged-mishandling-suicide-case-9.7193432.
Burke, Ashley. “Military Police Watchdog Calling Rare Public Hearing into Alleged Mishandling of Suicide Case.” CBC News, May 21, 2025. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/military-watchdog-public-hearing-alleged-negligence-1.7540068.
Government of Canada, Military Police Complaints Commission. “Decision to Conduct a Public Interest Hearing (MPCC-2024-037).” March 2, 2023. https://www.mpcc-cppm.gc.ca/public-interest-investigations-and-hearings-enquetes-et-audiences-dinteret-public/orton-hearing-audience/pii-eip-2024-037-decision-to-conduct-a-hearing-decision-de-tenir-une-audience-eng.html.
Government of Canada, Military Police Complaints Commission. “Orton Public Interest Hearing (MPCC-2024-037) - Homepage.” January 18, 2024. https://www.mpcc-cppm.gc.ca/public-interest-investigations-and-hearings-enquetes-et-audiences-dinteret-public/orton-hearing-audience/pii-eip-2024-037-index-eng.html.
“Shaun Vincent Orton (obituary) | Beechwood.” July 9, 1979. https://qa.beechwoodottawa.ca/en/services/shaun-vincent-orton.
The Canadian Press. “Rare Hearings Wrap on an Alleged Mishandling of Suicide by Military Police | Canada’s National Observer: Climate News.” May 15, 2026. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/15/news/rare-hearings-wrap-alleged-mishandling-suicide-military-police.
Burke. Call transcripts shed light.
Burke, Ashley. “Military Police Watchdog Calling Rare Public Hearing
MPCC. “Decision to Conduct a Public Interest Hearing.
Burke. “Military Police Watchdog.”
Email: Major Brigitte Van Hende, Public Affairs Officer - Office of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal
