Clayton Matchee. Photo courtesy flyingdust.net
In 1992, Meadow Lake’s Marj Matchee saw her military husband Clayton Matchee transform from a man who “filled up a room” with his humorous personality and loved spending time with his young daughter, into a man with a quick temper who preferred to stay at the barracks instead of his home.
As Marj remembers it, Clayton told her he was feeling ill effects from a military-issued antimalarial drug he was on long before the 1993 Canadian Airborne Regiment deployment to Somalia shattered the Matchees’ lives.
Clayton took part in the fatal beating of Somali captive, 16-year-old Shidane Arone, while overseas. This act of violence became part of the “Somalia Affair” and led the military to charge Clayton with murder. The national spotlight remained on Clayton and his family after he attempted suicide and was left with permanent brain damage.
“We were getting our lives threatened, and I had to hide my daughter,” she said.
“People were so angry, and blaming him for everything. It was just unbelievable.”
In Marj’s view, the history books have turned Clayton into a “notorious murderer,” which she vehemently disputes. She said Clayton, as a Flying Dust First Nation man, was not racist against Somali people. In fact, Marj said he would ask her to send candies overseas so Clayton could give them to Somali kids.
In the early ’90s, Marj was outspoken about her belief that the psychotic side effects of the anti-malarial drug, called mefloquine, are responsible for his act of violence. Airborne members were among the first soldiers in Canada to take mefloquine pills once a week under an improperly executed Health Canada drug trial.
“They named the days Manic Monday, and Wacky Wednesday, and Freaky Friday. And Clayton’s was Psycho Tuesday. That’s how it made them feel,” Marj said.
Back then, Marj’s voice fell on deaf ears, as scientists were quick to cite the low incident rates of psychosis or other side effects associated with mefloquine.
So, she stopped talking about mefloquine and stopped talking to media.
Just this year, it seems the word mefloquine and its serious possible side effects has caught fire.
The federal committee on Veteran’s Affairs has dedicated hours to hearing from soldiers who report negative impacts of mefloquine, and those stories are supported by a number of experts and researchers from across the world.
This came on the heels of a Parliament Hill hunger strike by former airborne members like Quebec’s Claude Lalancette, which brought the word ‘mefloquine’ back into the political realm.
Earlier in the summer, Health Canada changed its public listing on mefloquine to include permanent “vestibular damage” as a possible side effect. However, federal ministers and the military surgeon general were seemingly unaware of this change when speaking publicly in recent months.
Throughout 2016, anti-mefloquine advocates were growing in strength and gathering testimonials, but it wasn’t until an MBC story came out this fall that Marj saw former Airborne members like Dave Bona picking up the torch on opposing mefloquine’s use.
“It wasn’t just Clayton, there were a lot of incidents with soldiers having negative reactions to this drug,” Bona said. He is among those who say they suffer from the permanent effects of mefloquine.
“My own fire team partner, we had to wrestle him to the ground, take his rifle away from him and tie him up because he went right off the deep end the one day. You know, none of this stuff was ever reported to Health Canada.”
Bona feels the Matchee family has been deeply wronged by the federal government and in the court of public opinion. Last month, he drove to Meadow Lake’s Remembrance Day ceremony to tell attendees about the changing attitudes towards mefloquine.
Now, Marj is has stopped burying “my head in the sand” and wants the public to hear her voice.
“This boy [Shidane Arone] would not be dead today, I believe in my heart, if those soldiers were not on mefloquine. I want them [the public] to know that Clayton wasn’t a murderer,” she said.
“No one can understand just how bad this drug affects a person until they have actually been there and witnessed it.”
Yorkton-Melville Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall is a part of the VA committee, and she’s fighting for the feds to take action to reduce mefloquine’s use. She also said she wants a federal probe into the role of mefloquine in Somalia.
To this day, Clayton’s father Leon has little faith that the feds will do either. He declined an interview request by MBC.
As for Clayton, he has lived off and on in a North Battleford care home for decades and also spends time on his parent’s farm. He has no short-term memory and needs to be taken care of 24 hours a day, Marj said.
“Clayton’s mind is in the past and he looks at me, I’m 54 years old now, I’m not 36. I wonder what it does to him sometimes with that,” she said.
Marj does not see him often, but said she will continue to work “for history to rewrite itself properly” because she would like her daughter and grandchildren to “understand how these horrific things happened.”
At present, it appears the Canadian military will not be changing its stance that mefloquine is just as safe as other anti-malarial drugs available to troops.