Governor General Payette Doesn't Care About the Rules... or the Canadian Armed Forces

It is unfortunate that our Commander-in-Chief thinks that the lowly Canadian Forces Decoration (the C.D.), which rank and file members of the Canadian Armed Forces earn and wear with pride, is not worthy of being worn for an important national event like the Speech from the Throne. Does Her Excellency not like the red and white ribbon in the colour of our national flag or the gold coloured multi-sided disc? Why has the poor C.D., been relegated to a sock drawer at Rideau Hall for today's ceremony? 

The Canadian Forces Decoration
Good enough for members of the Canadian Armed Forces
but not good enough for
Julie Payette, CC, CMM, COM, CQ, CD.

In advance of today's event in Ottawa we received more than thirty emails speculating on just what newfangled manner Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, would find to wear her gongs... well she has opted for a rather lazy approach, one that is disrespectful to members of the Canadian Armed Forces. Her Excellency has adopted the "jewellery method" of wearing medals. The Jewellery Method demands that you simply "wear whatever looks nice," as opposed to following the rules so clearly defined by the Office of the Governor General.

Governor General Payette & her first speech from the throne,
medals all wrong again. It's clear she just doesn't care about the rules. 

For today's event, December 5, we see the Governor General wearing the insignia of Companion of the Order of Canada (C.C.) and Chevalier of the Ordre National du Quebec (C.Q), ... but what about her actual group of medals, with the 2012 Jubilee Medal and Canadian Forces Decoration? Obviously a provincial honour is more important to our Commander-in-Chief than serving as the head of the Canadian Armed Forces. Had she simply worn her medal group all would have been fine. She just needed to put her medal group where she has her Ordre of Quebec bow. The ultimate offence is that she places more importance on her C.Q., than she does on displaying her role as Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces. 

Exceedingly rare photo!Governor General Payette in a rare moment of
almost following the rules.

As readers, and anyone in the CAF will know, the Canadian Forces Decoration (C.D.) is awarded to members of the Canadian Armed Forces after 12 years of service (12 years of undetected crime as it is often put jokingly). The Governor General gets this medal when they are appointed as Governor General to signify that they also serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces. 

To the right above we have an exceedingly rare photo showing Governor General Payette wearing her medals ALMOST correctly. She just needed to shorten her Order of Canada ribbon and all would have been fine (or put her C.C. on a bow). Is it really too much someone who gets two free houses, staff, travel and more than $300,000 a year to follow the rules that her office is suppose to uphold and regulate? 

Despite this snub to the CAF it could have been worse. The Governor General could have decided to wear  her NASA Medals! 

Surprisingly few Remembrance Day 2019 offences reported, so no posting was required this year.

When everybody’s somebody, nobody’s anybody! D-Day 75th and the brass hats

We made it through the various D-Day commemorations without Governor General Julie Payette showing up wearing her NASA Medals or breaking any medals wearing rules which is a relief.

Canada's two highest ranking medals wearing offenders. The Governor General Julie Payette -- known for wearing totally unauthorized Space Trip Medals from NASA, and Honorary LGen Richard Rohmer, who loves to wear every pin and bauble in his sock drawer -- even unauthorized ones. 

That being said, we had a flood of emails asking about the sash being worn by Honorary Lieutenant General Richard Rohmer, who has been featured on this blog several times before. As we have noted in the past, we have great respect for the Honorary Lieutenant General’s valorious service in the Second World War and his contributions to Canada over his long and highly accomplished lifetime. 

What we take issue is with his penchant for wearing his medals incorrectly – and wearing unauthorized medals. An officer, gentleman and an one of Her Majesty’s Counsel Most Learned in the Law (he is a lawyer and a Queen’s Counsellor) one would assume that Rohmer would know that even he has to follow the rules and regulations set out by the Government of Canada as managed by the Governor General’s Office. No sadly he does not, so during the 75^thanniversary of the D-Day landings the CBC and other networks were full of images of Honorary Lieutenant General Rohmer parading around wearing a mystery sash, too many neck gongs, at least one unauthorized/ unrecognized medal and some weird looking pin with a trillium on it.

First let us address the mystery red sash. What is it? Has Rohmer been made a Grand Cross of the Legion d’Honneur or a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath or a Knight Grand Commander of the New Zealand Order of Merit– it is none of these as they are worn over the right shoulder and not the left. A search of the Canada Gazette, where all authorized foreign decorations and orders are listed when they are properly awarded to Canadians, fails to reveal that Rohmer has been awarded anything new. Could it be that as an honorary Lieutenant General, Rohmer has decided that he can wear an CAF Infantry Sash over the left shoulder given his years of service in the CAF? 

Now let us examine Rohmer’s impressive group of mounted medals.

Rohmer's mounted group of medals.

Right beside his St. John Ambulance Long Service Medal (black and white ribbon with 3 bars), there is a blue ribbon with a yellow stripe – it looks much like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Long Service Medal – yet Rohmer never earned the RCMP LSM, so it is not that. A search of Rohmer’s Wikipedia page reveals it could be the United States Navy Distinguished Marksman Ribbon which he earned long ago, but that award doesn’t come with a medal. So it must be the Toronto Emergency Medical Services Long Service Medal. Totally unauthorized for wear along with officially granted federal and provincial honours, this lustrous medal is struck in high quality aluminum foil and dipped in clear nail polish to give it an impressive shine. 

The Toronto EMS Long Service Medal 

Of course the wearing of this medal along with officially granted federal and provincial medals is a violation of Order-in-Council 1998-591; but hey, Rohmer is already breaking a host of rules (only two neck badges are to be worn in RCAF DEU) covered in A-AD 265 Canadian Armed Forces Dress Instructions, that everyone else is supposed to follow if they are wearing a CAF uniform, but it seems having a load of gongs and a heavy brass hat means you are immune from the rules or a watchful RSM or even our  Chief of Defence Staff.

Then there is the badge on the pocket that Rohmer is wearing above his Order of St. John breast star. There is the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation, and RCAF Ops Wings which are all legitimate and authorized, and then the mystery oval pin. It looks like some sort of Ontario awards with a white trillium – 75 years of safe driving of a motor vehicle? 75 years of residency in Ontario? The award for not picking trilliums in Ontario? Just what is this mystery badge? 

All this is written fully expecting a number of irate emails from readers chastising us for DARING to question such a notable and well regarded veteran. Well even the highly accomplished and high ranking are open for criticism if they break the rules the rest of the Canadian public are supposed to follow. 

This is all best left to Rohmer himself. In a January 2019 article carried in Zoomer Magazine. Rohmer notes “I’m the most highly decorated citizen in the country. It takes me 20 minutes to put the medals and decorations on.” Well aside from the grandness of the statement (one would never expect to hear the great Canadian exemplar of medal wearing, Major General George Pearkes, VC, PC, CC, CB, DSO, KStJ, MC, CD, CdeG, to utter such a phrase), I think you get the general idea (pardon the pun) that the General knows exactly what he is doing when he puts on a uniform – be it is RCAF, Ontario Provincial Police or Toronto EMS uniforms. 

Without Further Comment; Daniel Woolf

A few readers sent us this photo of the now former President of Queen's University, Dr. Daniel Woolf, wearing what appears to be the United Nations Korea War Medal. Given that Dr. Woolf's biography states he was born in 1958, we are not quite sure how he managed to serve in the Korean War with US or Commonwealth troops. 

UN Korea War Medal

Woolf all dressed up with Arthur McDonald, a Companion of the Order of Canada, who also received the Nobel Prize;  it is a bizarre image. This photo was taken in December 2015 with Professor McDonald was presented with his Nobel Prize. 

One can only imagine what the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, who knows a thing or two about medals, thought of the Canadian university administrator parading around with a lone medal he could not have possibly earned. Not exactly an effective way of looking "important" in a auditorium filled with a few Heads of State and some of the most highly honoured/decorated people in the world. Perhaps a university scarf of jersey would have been a more effective way of announcing the crowd "look at me, I'm important too." 

You really shouldn't wear medals you didn't earn, even if you're putting them on the right hand side of your jacket. 

ViceRegal Report Card 2018

This report is a bit late, but it will certainly be of interest to our loyal readers. It is that time once again to grade the various professional medal wearers; the Governor General and the Lieutenant Governors from across Canada. We won't look too deeply into the sad situation of the Governor General here. On the whole the Lieutenant Governors are doing a solid job of wearing their medals correctly. 

Off to the Magic Show?
The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta,
the Hon. Lois Mitchell.

The main offender in the provinces is Alberta's Lois Mitchell who seems to enjoy wearing all sorts of different capes! Rule number one of wearing robes/capes/mantles, you don't pin medals on them and you don't wear mayoral or Order chains over top of them -- unless you want to look really really strange and desperate to appear more important than you are. You also don't wear multiple Orders on bows. Where is a slightly knowledgeable ADC or RSM when you need one?

As we saw in a previous post Alberta really does seem to be the "wild west" of wearing medals and wearing all sorts of fake municipal and provincial medals.

The new Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Tom Molloy, is a quick study and after his installation seems to have corrected the "olympic medal" style of wearing his neck gongs. Great improvement here. 

Lieutenant Governor Molloy at his Installation.
OC worn "Olympic Style"

Lieutenant Governor Molloy wearing his SOM and insignia correctly.
Our most improved student. 

Similarly the news Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, Janet Austin is doing a great job wearing her medals -- not sure what the deal is with the Presidential salute though! Of course there remain a few outliers -- the LG of Prince Edward Island doesn't seem to wear medals at all. 

The Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Great at wearing medals.
But... what's with the Presidential Salute? 

This is the most solid report card we have had since we started this blog in 2010 in an effort to combat the habitual rule breakers. 

With Bob Paulson gone as Commissioner of the RCMP the wearing of unapproved/fake medals (aside from the Governor General according to media reports) has come to a end for the time being at the top of Canada's national police force.