Canada's military police watchdog issued a scathing report on Thursday over the handling of an investigation into an air force officer who was charged with sexual assault and later took his own life in early 2022.

In the weeks leading up to his death, Maj. Cristian Hiestand told his family no one would listen to his side of the story after being charged with assaulting a woman with whom he had just ended a relationship.

The chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC), Tammy Tremblay, in a report released Thursday, found that Hiestand did have an opportunity to speak to investigators, but declined on the advice of his lawyer.

But Tremblay found military police did not conduct an "impartial and thorough investigation" and overall the investigation suffered from a "rush to judgment and confirmation bias."