Independent Review of the Service of Canadian Soldiers

For two years now, Valour in the Presence of the Enemy have been asking for a Military Review Board to review the services of Canadian Soldiers from the past and present to investigate whether of not their service was under represented by the Honours and Awards system in place. In particular Private Jess Randall Larochelle whose service on October 14, 2006, garnered him the second highest medal (Star of Military Valour), but due to recently discovered new evidence we feel that he should have his case reviewed and if that review deems fit to upgrade him to the Canadian Victoria Cross. Along with Jess we have identified 27 other Canadian dating back to World War I that we feel have been overlooked for various reasons including social biases of the times such as race, religion, gender and mental health. We have organized numerous campaigns to try to get this Review Board initiated by the government. Petition E3636 sponsored by MP Niki Ashton, and MP Erin O'Toole's Unanimous Consent Motion. The latter of which received support from all parties except the Liberal Party of Canada. We are hoping that this email drive culminating on November 11, 2022, will show the Members of Parliament just how much support there is for this cause and that they would support a private members bill starting this Review. We ask for you to support this by emailing this letter that we drafted to Members of Parliament across Canada so that we can show them the full extent of our grass roots movement.

This letter will automatically be sent to your MP, the Prime Minister, The Defence Minister, and The Minister of Veteran's Affairs.

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Dear [recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here],

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I am writing this email on behalf of the Non Profit Valour in the Presence of the Enemy. On October 14, 2006, while manning an observation post, Private LaRochelle’s position was overwhelmed by more than 20 Taliban insurgents. Larochelle was manning a C6 machine gun, and his actions on that day were directly responsible for the success of the fire fight. That has been a benchmark for past Victoria Cross recipients. We humbly ask you support an independent review, starting with Jess and scoping where else it should look.

Through MP Niki Ashton, we initiated Petition E3636 on November 2, 2021 and at its conclusion there were 14,129 signatures. We have also received quite extensive media coverage with over 30 news stories in CBC, CTV, Global, Legion Magazine, among others.  True Patriot Love, Wounded Warriors, and The Royal Canadian Legion and it’s more than 250,000 members among other charities and organizations have also endorsed our campaign. We have also received endorsements of dozens of military associations, among them The Princess Patricia Light Infantry Regimental Association, The Royal Canadian Regimental Association, The Royal Canadian Artillery Association, and the CSOR Regimental Association.

This campaign has attracted the attention of former Brigade and Battle Groups commanders Colonel (Retired) Robert Walker Task Force Commander, Colonel (Retired) Alain Gauthier Task Force Commander ,Colonel (Retired) Ian Hope Task Force Commander and  Lieutenant General (Retired) Omer Lavoie Task Force Commander (eye witness). All of whom have endorsed a review of Jess Larochelle. Admiral (retired) Mark Norman, who sat on the 2012 review board, has issued a statement indicating that there were biases that clouded the aforementioned review. Members of Parliament the Honourable Harjit Sajjan, the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, the Honorable Erin O’Toole have publicly issued statements supporting Private Larochelle.

Member of Parliament Niki Ashton has sponsored petition E3636 and we have been in contact with other members of parliament such as NDP MP Rachel Blaney,  Conservative MP Frank Caputo, the Chair of the Defence Committee the Honourable John McKay, and Jess’ own member of Parliament the Honourable Speaker of the House Anthony Rota. We have also been receiving endorsements from across Canada from municipalities: first it was Jess’ own home town of North Bay and then other cities followed their example. Ottawa, Kingston, and Timmins unanimously passed resolutions of support with dozens of other resolutions to follow.

We take this request seriously and so do our peers. Since our inception on November 10, 2021 our social media presence has attracted almost 20,000 Canadians. It is through this movement that we have been able to garner the amount of support that we have. People like Captain (retired) and Brewer Mike Harrison, Afghanistan veteran and Ottawa City Councillor Matt Luloff, Captain (retired) James Simmonds and thousands more approaching their regimental associations, municipalities, elected officials and local Legions. The month of January 2022 alone saw us reach over 1,000,000 Canadians, thanks in large part to the over 150,000 likes, shares and comments on our content. Through this non for profit we have started a movement of hope.

In June of 2022 there was a unanimous consent motion put forward by MP Erin O'Toole which had support from all parties except the Liberal Party of Canada. We are greatly disappointed that such a cause would be denied, especially when we worked so hard with the other previously mentioned members of that party. Let us be clear, Jess is sick. HIs health is deteriorating and time is of the essence. In July the official government response to Petition E3636 put out by MP Brian May was 290 words and not one of them mentions Jess Larochelle by name. This kind of callousness is unacceptable and not indicative to the values of Canada.

Because of all of this support from across this great country we again ask you as Member of Parliament that you would support a Private Member's Bill  to direct an independent review, starting with Jess and scoping where else it should look. As Valour in the Presence of the Enemy has identified 27 other Canadian Heroes whose service should be reviewed. Some of which were denied immortality for their Race, Religious Beliefs and Gender. Others were not properly recognized for the stigma of Mental Health. We need to rectify these shortcoming as to truly reconcile with our past. These soldiers gave all, and the least we can do is properly recognize them.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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