This newspaper is generally the only one that will tackle sensitive issues in Cornwall. It’s cost us money, resources, friendships, and even seen myself land in jail on false police charges by a corrupt Police Force that I clearly had not committed. IE, I was charged with making Threatening Phone Calls which a production record (my phone records) clearly showed I never made. Something that Dan Parkinson, Chad Maxwell, & Casey Macgregor have to this date not been held responsible for. (all were directly involved)
Going back to the Legion staying silent over The Glen’s Honourary Poo Bah, Jim Brownell suggesting, while posting using a profile pic of him in uniform “That he’s not his brother’s keeper” while in a hate group, (the military are their brothers (and sisters) keepers; the person at the Legion who gave him the free pass turned out to be the infamous Stolen Valour slimer Arthur Murray.
Now we have Terry Birch, who after getting lauded very recently by City Hall and the Seaway News turns out to allegedly be the next sleaze ball emanating out of the Legion.
Loading ...President Hugh Primeau and his board called a press conference and neglected to invite this newspaper. Wonder why? Could it be because his own son had been under investigation for Stolen Valour as well? Could it be because we exposed the Murray case and their dropping the ball on Brownell?
Why hasn’t the Legion publicly called for the Police to Investigate any of their Stolen Valour slimers?
The Legion of today isn’t the one that was originally intended. Many members have never served, but there are reasons why it’s a crime to impersonate a member of our armed forces.
For the Legion to say it’s not up to them to vet board members or even key members is utterly ridiculous.
This is what Stolen Valour Canada sent this newspaper:
“Here is a synopsis of our work on the Birch file. We are confident that we cave done a thorough investigation which has included direct contact with Mr. Birch to offer him the opportunity to prove us wrong before we went public.
Through the use of open source research including websites, newspaper articles, photographic images, searchable data bases of medal recipients and extracts from online military documents in Canada, the UK and the US we can determine whether an individual is in contravention of laws, rules and/or regulations, and/or the legitimacy of any public claims being made.It was a tedious research that was prompted by a number of red flags.
First his fairy tale of being wounded in action by a FLQ “landmine” in 1970. That claim is an insult to SSM Leja who was gravely wounded in 1963 by a terrorist’s bomb hidden in a mailbox and to Bombardier Perrodou who was killed in a weapons incident in 1970 while deployed to protect NDHQ. Both incidents are well documented in news articles online.
Next, the very sad, sloppy state of his medals raised concerns since no “professional soldier“ would appear in public with medals in that condition. Additionally, the medals hidden under his lapel caused us to have a closer look. Again, no legitimate recipient would hide their medals.
The GG’s web site is a starting point for reviewing national level awards, in Birch’s case only the most recent award of the Sovereign’s Volunteer Medal is listed. As Birch is also wearing the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, one would expect that would be recorded on the site.
The GG’s site is not infallible and we have discovered a number of minor errors (names misspelled, first and last names reversed or names missing) over the years so, we do not use that list as a single source to determine entitlement to low level awards.The names of recipients of the Centennial Medal (1967) and the Canada 125th Medal are not available on-line however, they are listed in the Canada Gazette. We can find no evidence of Birch receiving either of these two medals.
Next, Birch was a Cadet Instructor List / Cadre Officer. Given their training limitation / employment restrictions he would have never deployed to CFS ALERT nor participated in a NATO mission however, he wears the Special Service Medal with clasps indicating he served in those two areas. Interestingly, Birch did not sport this medal until 2010, many years after leaving the cadet movement.
The Canadian Forces Decoration is legitimate based on his length of service as a Cadet Officer, 12 years for the initial award and additional bars added with each increment of 10 years. We believe there may be an issue with the 2nd bar indicating a total of 32 years in uniform but, that requires additional research. “
As for Mr. Birch, we reached out for him and he had every chance to exonerate himself and refused complaining that the Stolen Valour folks refused to identify themselves by name.
Innocent people generally are not that stupid when facing a group like Stolen Valour, and having media reach out them.
What is clear is that those in charge of the Legion clearly do not have honour; do not have a true grasp of what it means to wear the uniform, and truly are not fit for duty.
They need to publicly apologize on their way out as well; to this community and to all of those that sacrificed by wearing the uniform.
Jamie Gilcig – jamie@cornwallfreenews.com
Just a note….. There is no such thing as the Cornwall legion…. It is Branch 297 of the Royal Canadian Legion, Please refer to it as such….Respectfully
Maybe you should ask Mr. Primeau and his exec to act respectfully instead?
Everett perhaps you might mention that to the legion office. Here’s their email,
office@Cornwall-Legion.ca funny that they refer to themselves as Cornwall Legion. While you are speaking to them ask that they correct themselves and honor Branch 297. Probably the best way would be if they stepped down.
Still no charges ever made against either Stolen Valour Execs of this local legion while keeping many of the same executive. Shame. Complete and utter shame.
As a CIC (formerly CIL) officer it offends me that although he should be proud with his years of service working with youth, that it wasn’t good enough. Lying destroys respect.