‘Extraordinary valor’: Petition asks for review of Afghanistan vets for Canadian Victoria Cross

Article content

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.”

Article content

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.

Article content

“I don’t know what the future holds, but I do believe in trying,” the Liberal MP said.

Article content

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.”

Article content

Two Canadian soldiers were killed and three others were wounded in the attack.

Article content

Article content

“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.”

Article content

There’s now a “richness of detail” about that incident that the military didn’t have at the time, Hillier said.

Article content

“Jess volunteered to go up in that tower by himself.”

Article content

Jess Larochelle with Retired General Rick Hillier. Hiller is one of many high ranking veterans who is making the case that Larochelle, who died in 2023, should be awarded Canada’s Victoria Cross. Photo by Submitted

Article content

Larochelle also urged his commanding officer not to send anyone else up to the observation post, said the former general.

Article content

“It makes a fuller story, and in my view, probably would tip the balance in the Victoria Cross,” Hillier said.

Article content

“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.’”

Article content

Hillier chaired the Canadian Forces Honours and Awards Committee during the Afghan war.

Article content

“We believe that we are not perfect, and therefore a review would be right and appropriate,” said the former general.

Article content

Article content

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.

Article content

“Every time we tried to do it with Trudeau, he just would squash it,” Reed said.

Article content

There are 20 Canadian Victoria Cross medals sitting at Rideau Hall waiting to be awarded, he said.

Article content

Under the current system, there’s a window of a couple of years after military action to look at medal recommendations, Reed said.

Article content

But Canada doesn’t have the mechanism in place to look back at older recommendations, he said.

Article content

“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.

Article content

“It’s been important for a long time. It’s taken us five years to get it to where it is today.”

Article content

Article content