Close X
Saturday, November 23, 2024
ADVT 
National

Afghan war hero with PTSD faces bail hearing in ongoing legal nightmare

Darpan News Desk Canadian Press, 12 Sep, 2014 11:27 AM

    OTTAWA - A former Canadian soldier who received one of the country's highest decorations for bravery faces a two-day bail hearing in Cornwall, Ont., in an unfolding legal nightmare that has ensnared his parents.

    Collin Fitzgerald, 35, a former master corporal who received the Medal of Military Valour during a perilous battle in Kandahar, was charged in June with criminal harassment and intimidating a police officer.

    Fitzgerald, who was also charged the following month with breaching his bail conditions, suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and has spent more than a month at the Royal Ottawa Hospital.

    Fitzgerald, of Morrisburg, Ont., saved the lives of three platoon mates by dragging them from their burning armoured vehicle during a Taliban ambush in May 2006.

    He took his release from the military a few years ago, but has since faced a number of legal problems.

    Fitzgerald's father, Bryan, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly not getting out of the way fast enough when the OPP took his son back into custody last July.

    He says police consider his son a threat to public safety and claims they've been harassing him.

    "He is not a threat to society by any means," Bryan Fitzgerald told The Canadian Press prior to Friday's hearings. His son's doctors have signed a letter to that effect, he added.

    Fitzgerald was re-arrested in July for allegedly breaching an earlier bail condition that required him to go nowhere near the home he and his ex-wife own in nearby Iroquois, Ont. — an allegation his father disputes.

    Police allege multiple witnesses saw Fitzgerald in the vicinity of the house one night in late July, but his father insists the two of them were at his home together on the night in question.

    Bryan Fitzgerald says he presented police with video evidence of his son's whereabouts, but they refused to look at it.

    The young soldier has led a troubled life since returning from Afghanistan.

    Fitzgerald was beaten up at a bar in his hometown south of Ottawa in March 2007, just months after receiving the military's second-highest decoration for bravery.

    He was arrested six years later following a five-hour standoff with police at his home in Iroquois.

    Fitzgerald is separated from his wife and receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress.

    His father says that, until recently, he co-operated with police whenever they made inquiries, or were looking for his son, but that ended in June with the latest series of arrests and the eventual charges against him.

    Bryan Fitzgerald claims to have done nothing wrong and denies allegations that he obstructed the arresting officers, who raided his home in full tactical gear.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    B.C. Government Will Not Enter Binding Arbitration To End Teachers' Strike

    B.C. Government Will Not Enter Binding Arbitration To End Teachers' Strike
    VANCOUVER - British Columbia's government has turned down a proposal to try to end the province's teachers strike, rejecting a suggestion to enter into binding arbitration.

    B.C. Government Will Not Enter Binding Arbitration To End Teachers' Strike

    Jim Prentice Wins Alberta Tory Leadership And Will Be Next Premier

    Jim Prentice Wins Alberta Tory Leadership And Will Be Next Premier
    The 58-year-old former Calgary MP handily defeated former provincial cabinet ministers Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk in a vote overshadowed by computer and phone foul-ups that left some members saying they were unable to cast a ballot

    Jim Prentice Wins Alberta Tory Leadership And Will Be Next Premier

    Rob Ford Publicly Addresses Decision To Enter Rehab, Says Only He Made Decision

    Rob Ford Publicly Addresses Decision To Enter Rehab, Says Only He Made Decision
    TORONTO - Rob Ford says the decision to enter rehab this year was his and his alone. The Toronto mayor brought up his decision to enter an Ontario rehab facility during a speech to at a business conference in Toronto on Saturday.

    Rob Ford Publicly Addresses Decision To Enter Rehab, Says Only He Made Decision

    Nine-year-old Boy Steals Saskatoon City Bus, Smashes Second Bus And Parked Car

    Nine-year-old Boy Steals Saskatoon City Bus, Smashes Second Bus And Parked Car
    SASKATOON - A nine-year-old boy has a lot of explaining to do after taking a city bus for a joyride in Saskatoon.

    Nine-year-old Boy Steals Saskatoon City Bus, Smashes Second Bus And Parked Car

    Canadian Ebola mobile laboratory team heads back to Sierra Leone

    Canadian Ebola mobile laboratory team heads back to Sierra Leone
    TORONTO - Canada is sending its mobile Ebola laboratory back into action in Sierra Leone. The Public Health Agency of Canada says the team left on Saturday to resume running a lab that supports an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.

    Canadian Ebola mobile laboratory team heads back to Sierra Leone

    $50-million Lotto Max jackpot won by Ontario ticketholder

    $50-million Lotto Max jackpot won by Ontario ticketholder
    TORONTO - There is one winning ticket for the $50-million jackpot in Friday night’s Lotto Max draw. The ticket was sold somewhere in Ontario.

    $50-million Lotto Max jackpot won by Ontario ticketholder