Bombardier Connor Chubry reveals he started feeling “spaced out” within 45 minutes of eating a cupcake baked by Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell during a live-fire training task at CFB Gagetown in July 2018.
At first, he figured he was dehydrated, but no amount of water assisted the situation.
He stated he became incoherent, wandering around looking at the trees while on sentry duty, and was unable to attend to his duties.
Chubry revealed he felt high but didn’t think so because he was on a military training exercise.
He claims it wasn’t until a few soldiers assembled and began comparing symptoms that he acknowledged that’s what happened.
On day one of the court martial of Cogswell, three soldiers testified that she overseeing the canteen and had handed out free cupcakes just before lunch on July 21, 2018. All three narrated feeling “high” after ingesting the cupcake.
Cogswell now faces eight charges of handing out a noxious substance to eight soldiers without their permission. She also faces charges of behaving in a disgraceful fashion and committing an act to the prejudice of good order and discipline.
Prosecutor Maj. Élisabeth Baby-Cormier’s opening remarks claimed Cogswell baked the cannabis-laced cupcakes in her home the previous day.
She revealed a number of those who ingested the cupcakes began experiencing symptoms of fatigue, drunkenness, disorientation, and confusion while on a live-fire training exercise.
Baby-Cormier claims Cogswell
“recklessly introduced risk in an already inherently risky activity.”
She stated one of the soldiers scheduled to testify,
“Will tell you that she made a conscious decision in her life never to try drugs. She will tell you that on July 21, 2018, that decision was taken away from her.”
She added another soldier would testify that he had been in recovery for many years following a drug addiction.
Bombardier Dylan Eoll testified that Cogswell, who he initially called her by her maiden name, Fraser — gave him a cupcake when he went to purchase some things from the canteen.
He noted she informed him she made the cupcakes herself and that they were free. He detailed them as chocolate cupcakes, with chocolate frosting and a jellybean on top.
An hour was not done when he said he “started feeling a little weird, like spacey.”
It was a sunny day, so he thought he was dehydrated. However, no amount of water helped.
“Small tasks were becoming harder and harder to do. I felt sluggish. I felt groggy … I just wasn’t fully there.”
He revealed he kept forgetting things, was paranoid and incoherent as if he had been stirred from sleep. He observed another soldier was “making mistakes I’ve never seen her make before.”
Most of the soldiers started noticing similar symptoms and they “all came to the consensus” that they were high, revealed Eoll. They soon figured out that it was the cupcakes because it was the only common thing they consumed.
He stated the training exercise was stopped and they were all sent to a tent to recuperate. The military police started investigating that day, noted Eoll.
Baby-Cormier claims 16 witnesses are expected to testify during the court martial and two weeks have been set aside to handle the case.
