Military doctor Barry Armstrong blew the whistle on soldiers’ crimes in Somalia

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.