‘Extraordinary valor’: Petition asks for review of Afghanistan vets for Canadian Victoria Cross
A delegation will be in Ottawa Wednesday urging the Government of Canada to establish an independent body to review cases of heroic soldiers who fought in Afghanistan in order to determine if they deserve this country’s top military honour.
Since it was first created in 1993, “Canada has never awarded its Victoria Cross despite extraordinary valor by Canadian forces during our longest war in Afghanistan,” says the petition signed by 16,523 people.
“Allied nations awarded their highest honors for Afghanistan service: Britain awarded three Victoria Crosses, Australia awarded four, New Zealand awarded one, and the United States awarded 18 Medals of Honor, while Canada awarded none.”
The government has 45 days to respond to the petition.
“Multiple Canadian Afghanistan veterans demonstrated Victoria Cross-worthy actions, including Private Jess Larochelle who defended his position with a broken back against overwhelming Taliban forces, Warrant Officer William MacDonald who crossed open ground under ‘a hurricane of metal’ to rescue wounded comrades, and Master Corporal Sean Teal who rescued fallen soldiers while under direct enemy fire,” says the petition.
“Afghanistan veterans feel their sacrifice has been forgotten, despite Canada’s significant commitment and casualties.”
If the government does establish an Independent Military Honours Review Board to review Afghanistan veterans’ cases, the petition suggests it “begin immediately with Private Jess Larochelle’s case whose October 14, 2006 actions clearly demonstrate ‘most conspicuous bravery .’”
Larochelle was born in Restoule, Ont., and was living there when he died in August 2023.
“I’ve certainly met people in my community who feel that their service was never properly recognized — the 40,000 men and women who served in Afghanistan,” Pauline Rochefort, the MP for Nipissing—Timiskaming in northeastern Ontario who sponsored the petition, said Tuesday.
“The case of Private Jess Larochelle has come to embody this concern.”
It’s important for Canada to recognize sacrifice, said retired Gen. Rick Hillier, who was Canada’s chief of defence staff from February 2005 to July 2008.
“People will serve in the future based on how we treat our veterans today,” Hillier said. “And we don’t particularly have a great track record for our veterans, specifically that came out of Afghanistan.”
Hillier compared the decision not to award anyone a Canadian Victoria Cross during the Afghan war to a figure skating judge who holds back on giving top marks.
“What if something more and greater and more battle rousing comes along?” Hillier said. “And then we’re kind of caught out.”
Rochefort wants “to highlight how we recognize, as a country, courage and sacrifice at the highest level. I find that’s important right now as we seek to recruit young men and women into the Armed Forces, as we face a world where increasingly there seems to be conflict around the world.”
She pointed out that Canada’s Senate as well as several provincial legislatures, including Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia, have passed motions supporting the push to create an independent review process for military honours.
“I don’t know what the future holds, but I do believe in trying,” the Liberal MP said.
According to the citation for Larochelle’s Star of Military Valour, Canada’s second-highest military decoration, he “was manning an observation post when it was destroyed by an enemy rocket in Pashmul, Afghanistan. Although he was alone, severely injured, and under sustained enemy fire in his exposed position at the ruined observation post, he aggressively provided covering fire over the otherwise undefended flank of his company’s position.”
Two Canadian soldiers were killed and three others were wounded in the attack.
“Private Larochelle’s heroic actions permitted the remainder of the company to defend their battle positions and to successfully fend off the sustained attack of more than 20 insurgents,” said the citation. “His valiant conduct saved the lives of many members of his company.”
There’s now a “richness of detail” about that incident that the military didn’t have at the time, Hillier said.
“Jess volunteered to go up in that tower by himself.”
Larochelle also urged his commanding officer not to send anyone else up to the observation post, said the former general.
“It makes a fuller story, and in my view, probably would tip the balance in the Victoria Cross,” Hillier said.
“The fact that he carried on that fight after being injured so badly at the front end — a detached retina, broken eardrum, a concussion, vertebrae in his neck broken, and was unconscious for a period of time,” Hillier said. “As he said to me, ‘It was like Star Wars when I came to. There were lights going everywhere.’”
Hillier chaired the Canadian Forces Honours and Awards Committee during the Afghan war.
“We believe that we are not perfect, and therefore a review would be right and appropriate,” said the former general.
The push to establish an independent honours committee has been underway for about five years, said Kevin Reed, president of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank. Reed and Hillier consulted on the Post’s 2024 Heroes Among Us series outlining potential candidates for the Canadian medal.
“Every time we tried to do it with Trudeau, he just would squash it,” Reed said.
There are 20 Canadian Victoria Cross medals sitting at Rideau Hall waiting to be awarded, he said.
Under the current system, there’s a window of a couple of years after military action to look at medal recommendations, Reed said.
But Canada doesn’t have the mechanism in place to look back at older recommendations, he said.
“With what we know now, there were mistakes made,” Reed said of the absence of any Canadian Victoria Cross medals awarded for heroism in Afghanistan.
“It’s been important for a long time. It’s taken us five years to get it to where it is today.”
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