Murray Brewster · CBC News

· Posted: May 29, 2026 12:55 PM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The federal government has agreed to establish an independent review board for military honours including the country's highest battlefield decoration — the Canadian Victoria Cross.

The parliamentary secretary to the minister of national defence, Sherry Romanado, made the announcement Friday in the House of Commons.

"Honouring bravery and sacrifice and service to Canada is among our government's most solemn responsibilities," Romanado said in response to a question.

The awarding of combat medals, she said, has long been subject to a thorough and rigorous review by the military.

WATCH | Government announces creation of review board:

"I can confirm that the government agrees to the establishment of an independent military honours review board to review the Afghanistan veteran cases where new evidence may suggest where the criteria for the Victoria Cross may have been met," Romanado said.

The decision comes following a multiyear, grassroots effort by a number of Afghan war vets to see the case of Pte. Jess Larochelle reconsidered.

In the fall of 2006, while severely wounded, Larochelle singlehandedly repelled an overwhelming Taliban assault on his combat outpost west of Kandahar. He was recognized the following year with Canada's second-highest citation for bravery in combat — the Star of Military Valour.

The decision Friday comes after years of mounting pressure — both political and within the veterans community.

The Senate and several provincial legislatures including Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have passed motions asking for the independent panel to be established. Similar motions are under consideration in P.E.I., Newfoundland and talks are underway in Manitoba.

An online campaign led by members of the Facebook group Valour in the Presence of the Enemy has argued for years that Larochelle's actions deserved to be recognized with the Canadian Victoria Cross.

Larochelle died in 2023 after suffering many years of poor health.

Bruce Moncur, a retired corporal who was wounded in Afghanistan, has been at the forefront of the online campaign. He was very pleased, but said there was still a lot of work ahead with the establishment of the panel and review itself.

"It's sort of like the D-Day landing. I want to go all of the way to Berlin," Moncur said, in reference to the Allied landings in Normandy which heralded the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

"We are very optimistic that this is going to move in a direction that we feel is finally going to give these men and women the respect and the honour that they deserve."

The Commons veterans committee recently passed a motion calling on the federal government to establish the review panel.

Retired corporal Bruce Moncur, right, has been at the centre of the campaign to award the Victoria Cross to Afghan war veterans. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

In addition, Liberal MP Pauline Rochefort, who represents Nipissing-Timiskaming, the region where Larochelle grew up, sponsored a petition with over 16,000 names on it that calls for the soldier be posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. The the deadline for the Liberal government to respond to the petition was Saturday. 

Speaking before the veterans committee last month, Rochefort said the recognition was important given how U.S. President Donald Trump has distorted and dismissed the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Moncur said it was important to get provincial legislatures involved in the discussion, even though military awards and honours are strictly a federal matter.

The objective, he said, was to get the Senate and at least two-thirds of the provincial legislatures — at least seven of the 10 provinces, representing at least 50 per cent of the population — behind the motion in much the same manner as a constitutional amendment.

Moncur said that level of support would be something the federal government couldn't ignore.

"It's a symbolic measure in which we could show them that had this been a constitutional amendment that it would have passed," Moncur said.

The Canadian Victoria Cross (VC) is this country’s highest military honour. It was created in 1993, but has never been awarded.

The British VC, on the other hand, has been presented to Canadians and other Commonwealth soldiers for extraordinary gallantry since the mid-19th century. The last time a Canadian earned that distinction was during the Second World War.