Three Canadian Soldiers Dead in Latvia Within 15 Months: A Pattern of Silence from National Defence

Breaking: Third Canadian Soldier Dies in Latvia as Questions Mount

By Kevin J.S. Duska Jr., Prime Rogue Inc
January 30, 2026

Preface

First, and foremost, Prime Rogue Inc and its partner The Signal Cage provide their condolences to the families of Gunner Sebastian Halmagean, Warrant Officer George Hohl, and Captain Aaron Wideman. They are Canadian heroes who gave their lives defending Canadian values, which are human values, and whose service we must never forget. Over the course of the investigation described below, Prime Rogue and the Signal Cage will proceed in a manner that is respectful of the families of these three heroes, and will not solicit any undue attention in relation to them. May these Canadian heroes rest in peace.

Another Tragic Canadian Armes Forces Death in Latvia

The Department of National Defence confirmed late Friday that Gunner Sebastian Halmagean died Thursday near Riga, Latvia, becoming the third Canadian Armed Forces member to die during Operation Reassurance in just over a year.

The 27-year-old artillery gunner from Hamilton, Ontario, was on his first overseas deployment, having served in the Canadian Armed Forces for nearly three years. He was posted to the 4th Artillery Regiment (General Support), Royal Canadian Artillery, based at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick.

DND’s announcement, released after business hours on a Friday evening, in the tradition of the Friday Night Dump, provided no cause of death, no circumstances, and only the vague assurance that “there is no indication this incident poses an increased threat to the safety and security of our deployed members.”

It’s a statement that’s becoming grimly familiar.

A Timeline of Deaths and Institutional Opacity

October 13, 2024: Captain Aaron Wideman

• Status: Off-duty death in Riga
• Age: Career officer who joined in 2013
• Background: Previously deployed to Ukraine on Operation Unifier (2019)
• Investigation: Latvian State Police with CAF Military Police support
• Details Released: None beyond “off-duty” and location
• Current Status: Investigation reportedly concluded January 2026; cause still not publicly disclosed

September 2-5, 2025: Warrant Officer George Hohl

• Status: Reported missing September 2, found deceased September 5
• Age: 20-year CAF veteran
• Background: Vehicle Technician, 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, Edmonton
• Investigation: Latvian Military Police with CAF MP support
• Details Released: None initially
• Truth Emerged: His widow, Michelle Hohl, publicly disclosed in January 2026 that he died by suicide, calling for open discussion of military mental health

January 29, 2026: Gunner Sebastian Halmagean

• Status: Died near Riga on first deployment
• Age: Nearly 3 years of service
• Background: Helped fight Newfoundland wildfires in 2024; “immensely proud” to serve (per father’s social media)
• Investigation: Latvian Military Police with CAF MP support
• Details Released: None beyond location and investigation status
• Current Status: Active investigation; no timeline for information release

Prime Rogue Inc. Investigation: The Statistical Reality Behind “Routine” Deaths

This article is the first in an ongoing investigative series examining mortality rates, institutional transparency failures, and mental health support adequacy for Canadian Forces deployed to Latvia. Prime Rogue Inc., in collaboration with OSINT News Publisher the Signal Cage has filed comprehensive Access to Information requests and will publish findings as data becomes available.

The Numbers DND Doesn’t Want You to Calculate

Between October 13, 2024, and January 29, 2026—a span of just 473 days—three Canadian soldiers died during Operation Reassurance in Latvia. With a weighted average contingent of approximately 1,700-2,000 personnel deployed during this period, this translates to a mortality rate of 1.36 deaths per 1,000 personnel per year.

At first glance, this may seem like dry statistics. It’s not.

These numbers reveal a peacetime NATO mission experiencing death rates that exceed both civilian mortality and the Canadian Armed Forces’ own peacetime average—all while maintaining near-total institutional opacity about causes, circumstances, and systemic factors.

Higher Than CAF Peacetime Average

Operation Reassurance’s death rate (1.36 per 1,000 per year) is 14% higher than the Canadian Armed Forces’ overall peacetime mortality rate of approximately 1.2 per 1,000 per year.

Read that again: A single focused deployment in a stable NATO ally nation is experiencing higher mortality than the CAF average across all personnel, all locations, and all contexts.

The CAF peacetime rate includes:

• Training accidents
• Vehicle collisions
• Medical emergencies
• Mental health crises
• Natural deaths

It’s a baseline that captures every type of peacetime military death across approximately 68,000 active personnel spread across Canada and multiple deployments worldwide.

Operation Reassurance—a mission characterized as “deterrence” and “assurance”—is exceeding that baseline.

39% Higher Than Canadian Civilians

For Canadians aged 20-44 (the primary demographic for deployed military personnel), Statistics Canada reports a mortality rate of approximately 0.98 per 1,000 per year.

Operation Reassurance personnel are dying at 1.39 times the rate of their civilian peers back home—a 39% elevation.

Put bluntly: Young, physically fit, trained military personnel deployed to a peaceful NATO ally are dying at significantly higher rates than the general Canadian population in the same age group.

This isn’t combat. This isn’t a war zone. This is Latvia—a stable European democracy, NATO member since 2004, EU member since 2004, with modern infrastructure and medical facilities.

Yet Canadian soldiers there are dying faster than civilians in Canada.

26% of Afghanistan’s Combat Death Rate

During Canada’s 12-year combat mission in Afghanistan (2001-2014), 158 Canadian personnel died, yielding a mortality rate of approximately 5.27 per 1,000 per year—a rate driven by IEDs, firefights, suicide bombings, and combat stress injuries.

Operation Reassurance’s rate (1.36 per 1,000) represents more than one-quarter of the Afghanistan combat death rate.

While significantly lower than active combat, this comparison is sobering for a mission officially described as “deterrence,” “capacity building,” and “enhanced forward presence.”

Personnel are dying at more than one-quarter the rate of Canada’s most intensive recent combat deployment—a deployment that had:

• Comprehensive mental health screening protocols
• Embedded mental health professionals
• Combat stress injury recognition and treatment
• Public accounting of every death
• Parliamentary oversight and debate
• Media transparency and family support systems
• Lessons-learned processes after every casualty

Latvia has none of that despite running at more than a quarter of Afghanistan’s casualty rate.

The Institutional Response Gap

Here’s what makes these statistics damning rather than merely concerning:

Afghanistan (5.27 per 1,000/year):

• Every death investigated with public findings
• Causes disclosed to families and public
• Mental health support extensively documented
• Regular parliamentary briefings
• Media embeds providing oversight
• Comprehensive after-action reviews

Latvia (1.36 per 1,000/year):

• Zero causes of death publicly disclosed
• No investigation timelines provided
• No mental health utilization data released
• No parliamentary briefings on deaths
• No media access to bases or personnel
• No public lessons-learned process

The death rate is 26% of Afghanistan’s. The transparency is 0%.

One Death Every 158 Days

If the current rate continues, Operation Reassurance will experience approximately one death every 158 days.

Over the mission’s renewed three-year mandate through 2029, this projects to approximately 7 additional deaths—seven more families receiving Friday night press releases with no details, seven more investigations producing no public findings, seven more opportunities for DND to learn nothing and change nothing.

What “Routine Peacetime Losses” Actually Means

When pressed about Latvia deaths, DND will likely characterize them as “routine peacetime losses” or “within expected parameters for deployed operations.”

The statistics prove otherwise.

These deaths are occurring at rates that are:

• ❌ Not routine (14% above CAF peacetime average)
• ❌ Not expected (39% above civilian mortality)
• ❌ Not adequately supported (approaching combat-level rates without combat-level support systems)

A mortality rate elevated above both military peacetime averages and civilian populations demands:

• ✅ Transparent investigation (What are the contributing factors?)
• ✅ Comprehensive mental health review (Is support adequate for deployment stress?)
• ✅ Systemic analysis (Are conditions contributing to elevated mortality?)
• ✅ Public accountability (What is being done to reduce deaths?)

Instead, DND provides boilerplate statements and institutional silence.

The Investigation Ahead

Prime Rogue Inc., in collaboration with the Signal Cage, is pursuing the following lines of inquiry through Access to Information requests and investigative research:

Mental Health Support Adequacy:

• Actual vs. stated mental health professional staffing levels in Latvia
• Service utilization rates (Are personnel accessing support?)
• Barriers to care (What prevents help-seeking?)
• Pre/post-deployment screening effectiveness

Operational Stress Factors:

• Deployment tempo and rotation schedules
• “Tripwire force” psychological burden
• Separation from family support systems
• Isolation in foreign deployment environment

Institutional Response Patterns:

• Media relations decision-making for death announcements
• Investigation duration and outcomes (public vs. private findings)
• Lessons-learned processes (Are they happening?)
• Comparison with allied nations’ transparency practices

Comparative Analysis:

• How do other NATO contributors to Latvia handle death transparency?
• What are mortality rates for other contributing nations?
• What support systems do other nations provide?

This investigation will document whether Canada’s elevated mortality rate is accompanied by elevated institutional accountability—or whether soldiers are dying at higher rates while receiving less transparency than they deserve.

The statistical analysis is clear: Something is wrong in Latvia. The question is whether DND will acknowledge it, investigate it honestly, and fix it—or continue the pattern of institutional opacity that serves everyone except the families of the fallen.

---

Methodology: Mortality rates calculated using weighted average deployment of 1,700 personnel over October 2024-January 2026 period (accounting for contingent growth from ~1,600 to ~2,200). Canadian civilian mortality rates from Statistics Canada (2021, ages 20-44). CAF peacetime rates from Defence Research and Development Canada reports (2010-2020 average). Afghanistan casualties from Department of National Defence official records (158 deaths over 12 years, average deployment 2,500 personnel).

Prime Rogue Inc., in collaboration with the Signal Cage will publish updates to this investigation as ATIP responses are received and additional data becomes available. If you have information relevant to this investigation, contact us through secure channels at [contact info].

The Pattern: Institutional Stonewalling by Design

The Canadian Department of National Defence has deployed the same playbook for all three deaths:

1. Delayed disclosure (Wideman’s death took days to announce publicly)
2. Weekend/after-hours releases (Halmagean announced Friday night)
3. Minimal factual content (location, rank, investigation status only)
4. Identical boilerplate language about “no increased threat”
5. No timeline for information release
6. No accountability mechanisms

When Michelle Hohl broke the silence about her husband’s suicide, she articulated what many military families fear: “If I don’t speak openly about [George’s] cause of death, I feel like I’m inadvertently suggesting there’s something shameful or worth hiding about it.”

Her courage in demanding transparency stands in stark contrast to DND’s institutional reflex toward opacity.

Operation Reassurance: Canada’s Largest Overseas Mission

Approximately 2,000 Canadian Armed Forces members are deployed to Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance, Canada’s contribution to NATO’s enhanced forward presence on the alliance’s eastern flank.

The mission, renewed by Prime Minister Mark Carney in August 2025 for another three years through 2029, represents Canada’s commitment to deterring Russian aggression in the Baltics. Canadian forces lead the NATO Multinational Brigade-Latvia, with troops from over a dozen allied nations.

The mission includes:

• Combat units at Camp Adazi
• Aviation Battalion at Lielvārde
• Headquarters elements in Riga
• Support personnel across multiple locations

It’s a high-operational-tempo deployment with regular exercises, training rotations, and the stress inherent to being a “tripwire” force on NATO’s eastern edge.

Mental Health Support: The Questions DND Won’t Answer

The Canadian Armed Forces publicly promotes robust mental health support systems:

• Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) program for resilience training
• Pre- and post-deployment mental health screenings
• 24/7 Canadian Forces Member Assistance Program
• Operational Trauma and Stress Support Program
• Mental Health Nursing Officers deployed to Latvia

But the critical questions remain unanswered:

1. Are deployed members actually accessing these services?
2. What barriers exist to seeking help while deployed?
3. How many mental health professionals are stationed in Latvia?
4. What is the ratio of mental health support to deployed personnel?
5. What follow-up occurs after concerning pre/post-deployment screenings?
6. How does stigma affect help-seeking behavior in high-readiness units?

Michelle Hohl’s public statement suggests the system failed her husband. The institutional silence suggests DND has no interest in examining whether these are systemic failures.

The Latvian Media Silence

As of this publication, Latvian media outlets—including LSM.lv (Latvia’s public broadcaster) and Delfi.lv—have not reported Halmagean’s death.

This is notable given that:

• Previous Canadian soldier deaths were covered by Latvian media
• Latvia’s military police are leading the investigation
• The death occurred on Latvian soil
• Canada leads the NATO brigade stationed in Latvia

The information vacuum extends to both Canadian and Latvian sources, raising questions about coordination between the two nations’ defence establishments regarding public disclosure.

The ATIP Trail: What We’re Requesting

Prime Rogue Inc. is filing Access to Information requests for:

Immediate Requests:

1. All correspondence between DND and Latvian authorities regarding Halmagean’s death
2. Investigative reports related to all three Latvia deaths (Wideman, Hohl, Halmagean)
3. Mental health service utilization data for Operation Reassurance personnel (2024-2026)
4. Pre-deployment and post-deployment mental health screening results (aggregate data)
5. Mental health staffing levels in Latvia (2024-2026)

Systemic Requests:

6. All communications regarding public disclosure decisions for soldier deaths overseas
7. Media relations protocols for announcing CAF member deaths during operations
8. Reviews or assessments of mental health support adequacy for deployed personnel
9. After-action reports from previous soldier deaths in Latvia
10. Correspondence regarding family notifications and information sharing

Follow-up Investigations:

11. Incident reports for all deaths, injuries, or serious medical events during Operation Reassurance (2017-present)
12. Reviews of mental health program effectiveness for deployed personnel
13. Any internal assessments of suicide risk factors for deployed CAF members

We expect the standard delays, redactions, and institutional resistance. The logs don’t lie, but DND will do everything possible to keep them hidden.

What This Means for Military Families

For families with loved ones deployed to Latvia, the pattern is clear and terrifying:

If something happens to your family member, you will be kept in the dark.

The institutional default is opacity. Investigations drag on with no public accountability. Causes of death become state secrets. The only way families learn the truth is if they fight for it—or if, like Michelle Hohl, they decide to speak publicly despite institutional pressure to remain silent.

This is not transparency. This is not accountability. This is institutional self-protection masquerading as “respect for investigations.”

The Questions That Won’t Be Answered (Yet)

Why won’t DND disclose:

• Whether these deaths are connected to deployment stress?
• What mental health resources were accessed by deceased members?
• Whether any warning signs were documented?
• What lessons have been learned?
• What systemic changes are being implemented?

The answer is always the same: “investigation ongoing,” “respect for family privacy,” “operational security.”

But operational security doesn’t prevent disclosure of suicide statistics. Family privacy doesn’t prevent discussion of systemic issues. And investigations that never produce public findings aren’t investigations—they’re cover-ups.

As Canada remilitarizes because of the existential threat posed by the United States, and as Canadian Civil Defence grows as a priority,

Next Steps: Continued Coverage

Prime Rogue Inc. will continue tracking this story through:

1. ATIP requests documenting institutional response patterns
2. Engagement with military families seeking transparency
3. Analysis of Latvian investigation outcomes when/if disclosed
4. Comparison with allied nations’ transparency practices for deployed personnel deaths
5. Tracking of mental health policy changes (or lack thereof)

We will publish updates as information becomes available through official and unofficial channels.

For Military Members and Families

If you or someone you know is struggling:

• 988: Suicide Crisis Helpline (24/7, call or text)
• CAF Member Assistance Program: 1-800-268-7708
• Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-268-7708
• Family Information Line: 1-800-866-4546 (24/7)

If you have information about mental health support gaps, institutional failures, or other concerns related to Operation Reassurance, you can contact us securely through our encrypted channels.

Your story matters. The truth matters.

The logs don’t lie—even when institutions do.