The push to establish an Independent Military Honours Review Board and consider awarding the Canadian Victoria Cross continues to move forward.
A petition, which garnered over 16,000 signatures, to establish the review board, was presented to the House of Commons by Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Pauline Rochefort on Wednesday.
“It was a moving day in Ottawa as soldiers who served in Afghanistan and many military dignitaries with a connection to the honours already bestowed upon Restoule’s Jess Larochelle gathered in Ottawa,” she says, adding guests of honour included Jess’s mother Anna, and brother Andrew, who received a warm standing ovation at the day’s luncheon.
In Afghanistan in 2006, Larochelle defended his position against overwhelming Taliban forces with a broken back and other injuries.
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“As petition e-6661 was read before the House of Commons, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Minister of National Defence David McGuinty stood and acknowledged the Larochelle family and the invited veterans in the gallery,” she says. “Overall, at events held during the day there appeared to be receptivity to the formation of an independent review process for the late Private Larochelle and for others who acted with valour.”
Rochefort says the government is required to respond to petitions within 45 days of being presented.
Some provinces, including Ontario, are echoing calls for a national review board.
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Former Chief of Defense Staff retired General Rick Hillier says a fair and honest, independent review should be announced by this government and take place.
“We believe this is good for Canada,” he told a media conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. “People will serve our nation in the future based on how we treat our veterans now.”
Hillier also offered up why he believes the Canadian Victoria Cross, created in 1993, hasn’t been awarded yet.
“We’re Canadians. We are not good at recognizing people across our country, most of our heroes end up with feet of clay for some reason, and we don’t tend to take their stories to use them to inspire all of us to be better,” he says. “If Jess Larochelle was American, if Willie MacDonald was American, if Rick Stacey was American, we would’ve had movies.”
All three have been awarded the Star of Military Valour.
The petition calls on the government to begin with a review of Larochelle’s case, whose actions in Afghanistan in 2006 have been cited by senior commanders and witnesses as meeting the standard of Canada’s highest military honour.
Hillier says Larochelle volunteered to cover his post, turned down being relieved, was badly wounded, and more.
He says in October 2006 they debated whether Larochelle’s actions warranted a Star of Military Valour or the Canadian Victoria Cross.
“What we had to go through truly was a two-paragraph citation,” he says, adding they now have the ‘richness of detail’ around what Larochelle did and went through.
“I think that we did err. We did get it wrong,” says Hillier.
He says Canada doesn’t have a review process right now, and that’s what they’re asking the federal government to implement.
Larochelle passed away in 2023.
