{"id":591489,"date":"2026-04-09T01:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591489\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T01:49:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:49:31","slug":"the-drive-to-get-jess-larochelle-a-victoria-cross-moves-to-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591489\/","title":{"rendered":"The drive to get Jess Larochelle a Victoria Cross moves to Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Breadcrumb Trail Links<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"breadcrumbs__item-link\" data-tb-category-link=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a><a class=\"breadcrumbs__item-link\" data-tb-category-link=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/category\/news\/local-news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Local News<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-subtitle\">The latest step in getting Jess Larochelle a Victoria Cross for his bravery in Afghanistan takes place in the House of Commons next week<\/p>\n<p>Published Apr 08, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 2 minute read<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"hree people a military ceremony\" class=\"featured-image__image type:primaryImage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PAULINE-BRIC-MIKE.jpg\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" height=\"538\" width=\"717\"\/>Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Pauline Rochefort, Bruce Mocur and Mike Harrison in Restoule for ceremony for Jess Larochelle in Restoule in July. Next week Rochefort brings a petition supporting awarding a Victoria Cross to Jess Larochelle Photo by FILE PHOTOArticle content<\/p>\n<p>Nipissing-Timiskaming Liberal MP Pauline Rochefort will before the House of Commons to present a petition on behalf of the late Jess Larochelle.\u00a0 Larochelle was a Canadian war hero in Afghanistan in 2006. This message came from the MP\u2019s office on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement 2<\/p>\n<p>This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\"><a data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" link=\"\" data-evt=\"click\" data-evt-typ=\"click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/local-news\/jess-larochelles-victoria-cross-drive-gets-some-national-juice\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/local-news\/jess-larochelles-victoria-cross-drive-gets-some-national-juice<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Videos<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am looking forward to meeting with all of the folks who were instrumental in getting the petition to this stage. I am proud to bring awareness to Canada\u2019s brave Veterans, especially in this case, Afghanistan Veterans, and the military families who are the unsung support systems of our Armed Forces,\u201d says Rochefort.<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\"><a data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" link=\"\" data-evt=\"click\" data-evt-typ=\"click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/jess-larochelles-attempt-for-victoria-cross-heads-to-ottawa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/jess-larochelles-attempt-for-victoria-cross-heads-to-ottawa\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mike Harrison is another Afghanistan veteran who has led the charge for years to get Larochelle the Victoria Cross.\u00a0 The Canadian version of the award was created in 1993, none have been award to Canadian veterans for valour in the field.\u00a0 Harrison is looking forward to being in Ottawa in person next week.\u00a0 He was philosophical about the petition reading next week.<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\"><a data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" link=\"\" data-evt=\"click\" data-evt-typ=\"click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/local-afghanistan-war-veteran-closer-to-victoria-cross\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/local-afghanistan-war-veteran-closer-to-victoria-cross<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement 3<\/p>\n<p>This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocracies are living, breathing projects. They grow and learn from mistakes. Our country has made mistakes in the past. We\u2019ve adapted. We\u2019ve apologized. We\u2019ve made steps to make things right.<\/p>\n<p>Veterans of every war since World War II are asking the government to recognize that there have been mistakes and to take steps to make things right. We are asking our country to look inwards, to grow and to award medals for bravery where the acts merit it.<\/p>\n<p>The beauty of Canada isn\u2019t the steadfast adherence to past decisions made bureaucrats- but our ability to stick up for one another and to do the right thing. On 15 April, we are asking the government to do the right thing,\u201d says Harrison.<\/p>\n<p data-async=\"\"><a data-evt-val=\"{\" control_fields=\"\" link=\"\" data-evt=\"click\" data-evt-typ=\"click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/local-afghanistan-war-veteran-closer-to-victoria-cross\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.nugget.ca\/news\/local-afghanistan-war-veteran-closer-to-victoria-cross<\/a><\/p>\n<p>John Hetherington is a local historian who has led battlefield tours (Liberation Tours is the company name) to Europe for over a decade.\u00a0 Hetherington didn\u2019t mince words when asked, at a recent event in Powassan,\u00a0 why no one has been awarded Canada\u2019s Victoria Cross and the fact that Jess Larochelle supporters are still waiting.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement 4<\/p>\n<p>This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFinally (there is movement), it has a taken a lot of pushing and it is still not there. You take a look at a lot of other Commonwealth countries that had troops in Afghanistan, and they have received Victoria Crosses. Australia has (6) awarded them but not Canada,\u201d says Hetherington.<\/p>\n<p>John Cannon is Hetherington\u2019s boss with Liberation Tours.\u00a0 Cannon has made more than 20 trips to battlefield sites across Europe. Cannon echoes Hetherington\u2019s feelings about the Victoria Cross not being awarded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find it odd, it has not been awarded since the Second World War.\u00a0 There are so many acts of bravery that occur. While it\u2019s not for me to say, it is (for) the people in the field and who see these things happen. When they put a name forward and say they believe our comrade here deserves a Victoria Cross, I think the government should be listening.\u00a0 It is a precious award, but it doesn\u2019t have much value if it is never given,\u201d says Cannon.<\/p>\n<p>Article content<\/p>\n<p>Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links NewsLocal News The latest step in getting Jess Larochelle a Victoria Cross for his bravery&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-591489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}