OTTAWA — The federal government is facing mounting calls to establish a military honours review board and to finally award Canada’s highest military honour.
The Canadian Victoria Cross was established in 1993 to recognize acts of valour, self-sacrifice or devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy. It has never been awarded.
On Wednesday, Canada’s former chief of the defence staff, retired general Rick Hillier, led a delegation to Parliament Hill to call on the federal government to review upwards of 40 cases of veterans going back to the First World War.
A petition with 16,000 signatures calling on the government to establish the review board was submitted to the House of Commons Wednesday afternoon.
“This is not about reopening the past, it’s about ensuring that when new evidence emerges, our system allows us to look again,” said Liberal MP Pauline Rochefort as she tabled the petition.
The story at the centre of this push for a Canadian Victoria Cross recipient is that of Afghanistan War veteran Pte. Jess Larochelle. He was awarded the Star of Military Valour for single-handedly fighting off a Taliban attack in 2006, saving his platoon’s position in the process.
“We debated whether or not it was Star of Military Valour or (Canadian) Victoria Cross. But what we had in front of us to go through truly was a two-paragraph citation,” Hillier said Wednesday. As chief of the defence staff, he chaired the Canadian Forces honours and awards committee when Larochelle was honoured for his bravery.
“And at the end, we decided (on the Star of Military Valour), and I’m still not sure that we got it right. Now that I get that richness of detail … I think that we did get it wrong. And I think that if we reviewed that with that knowledge, with the understanding of his battle buddies of what had occurred in that fight, we would have fallen onto the side of the (Canadian) Victoria Cross.”
There is a five-year window to award a Canadian Victoria Cross, starting at the time an action happens on the battlefield. There is no review process — something the delegation behind Wednesday’s press conference is trying to change.
In October 2006, Larochelle and his platoon were helping to secure construction of a road to allow Afghans in the Kandahar province to move their crops — like watermelons and figs — to market, Hillier said.
He said the goal was to turn the local economy toward legal crops and away from the “drug economy.”
As they set up their position, intelligence sources reported a Taliban attack was incoming.
“It was going to be a big and a determined attack,” Hillier said.
The master corporal on the ground instructed the troops to set up at a “mud tower” but couldn’t spare two soldiers, which would have been the norm.
“We never try to put one person where we are going to be somewhat isolated. We always want two or three. But he said, ‘We don’t have enough troops to do that right now. We’re so short-handed. Do I have a volunteer?'” Hillier said.
Larochelle volunteered.
Minutes later, the Taliban attacked.
“Somewhere up to 40 fighters attacking, with a specific focus on that tower where Jess was,” Hillier said. “Jess had at a machine-gun, the C-7 with about 800 rounds of ammunition, and brought fire to bear on the attack, taking out the attackers, breaking up their tactics and actually keeping them away from (his platoon’s position).”
The Taliban fired a rocket-propelled grenade on Larochelle’s position, Hillier said. It hit the tower and threw Larochelle against a wall, knocking him unconscious.
When he came to, he picked up a rocket of his own — an M72 disposable, single-shot launcher — and fired back, breaking up the attack.
Two hours later, a lieutenant commanding the platoon went up to the tower, which had been so badly damaged that he thought no one could be left alive.
“And then a little head popped up, and it was Jess Larochelle,” Hillier said, adding Larochelle declined to be replaced, despite being warned that no reinforcements would be coming until later that night.
“And Jess said, ‘Sir, don’t do that. Don’t impose this on somebody else. I’ve got it. I’m here. I’ll stay,'” Hillier said.
“During the next day, Jess helped his team carry the body of his very good friend, Pte. Blake Williamson, onto the plane for his last trip back to Canada.
“Only after he had helped carry the bodies of his friend onto that plane and paid his last respects did Jess go to one of our combat medics and said, ‘Hey, I’m hurting a little bit.’ Well, hurting a little bit was an understatement.”
Hillier said Larochelle had suffered a detached retina, broken vertebrae in his back and neck, broken eardrums and a concussion.
Larochelle died in 2023.
“This medal wouldn’t just be for Jess and his family, it would be for all of us. And we would all feel like we earned that medal together with him,” said Bruce Moncur, who founded Valour in the Presence of the Enemy in 2020 to advocate for soldiers who were never properly honoured.
A similar petition was presented four years ago but the government at the time declined to act.
Moncur said Wednesday he hopes the government will make a different call this time.
“The reason they gave us in the response to the first petition was they were just happy with the system the way it was. And so now we’re showing them that that’s not a good enough answer,” Moncur said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2026
Nick Murray, The Canadian Press
