Clayton Matchee

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Master Corporal Clayton Matchee (born 1965) was a Canadian soldier and a central figure in the Somalia Affair.^[1]

A member of the Cree Flying Dust First Nation reserve, Matchee is one of five children. He joined the Canadian Forces in 1984, and moved into the elite Airborne Regiment in 1988. The regiment was sent to participate in the humanitarian mission in Somalia in 1993.

On March 16 a sixteen year old Somali teenager, Shidane Arone, was captured trying to steal from the Canadian compound. He was placed in the custody of Matchee, who bound him and proceeded to beat him with his feet, batons, and fists. Matchee was joined by Private Kyle Brown and the guards posed for photos with Arone's battered body. An investigation found that sixteen soldiers entered the bunker where the beating took place and that Arone's screams would have been audible throughout most of the camp. Matchee was arrested two days later, and coincidentally held in the same cell in which Arone's body had been found^[2]. On March 19th, he attempted suicide by hanging himself with a drawstring from his jacket. He was discovered and brought to the National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa. He survived, but suffered massive brain damage as a direct result. His parents and wife Marj maintained that it was not a suicide attempt, but a bungled attempt to murder Matchee.^[2]

He was ruled unfit for trial and has spent some years in Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, close to his home town of Meadow Lake. A larger scandal erupted over the systemic problems in the military and the attempt to cover up the events. This led to the eventual dissolution of the Airborne and a sharp decline in the reputation of the entire Canadian Forces.^{[citation needed]}

There was speculation that mefloquine, an anti-malaria drug the troops were taking, known to trigger psychotic symptoms in sensitive individuals, played a role in Matchee's actions.^[3]