The Rt. Hon. Mary Simon: An INAUSPICIOUS start

Seven months after bidding farewell to the worst Governor General, and one of the biggest medal offenders in Canadian History (wearing unrecognized NASA Medals, and the Order of Canada and other honours as jewellery) we have a new Governor General installed. The seven months with the Chief Justice, Richard Wagner, as Chief Administrator of the Government, was marked by not one single medals offence. Wonderful work!

Richard Wagner: A model "almost GG"

Now we have the installation of Ms. Mary Simon (formerly OC, OQ and some Jubilee Medals), who is now a Companion of the Order of Canada (CC), Commander of the Order of Military Merit (CMM) and Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces (COM), and Her Excellency, has decided to just freelance on the wearing of medals. Oh it is so sad to see the new Governor General disobeying the rules, rules which she is supposed to uphold. Following the ignominious example of Julie Payette at her installation in 2017, she has opted to just wear her Order of Canada and not her commemorative medals. We are off to an inauspicious start. Starting her tenure breaking the medal wearing rules means either she has followed the Payette route and hired a bunch of friends to advise her, there is no one left at Rideau Hall to advise a Governor General, or after three years of constant mental beatings by Julie Payette, the advisors have all lost their ability to advise OR most worryingly, that the new Governor General just doesn't care.

So what was she doing wrong? Well we are delighted that she is wearing her CC on a bow, but where are her commemorative medals -- those humble little gongs that several hundred thousand Canadians have earned since Canada 125 in 1992? Given how long Her Excellency has been in the Order of Canada she should at least have the Golden Jubilee Medal 2002, and Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012? For more than 300k a year you think you would be able to at least pay attention to these sorts of details. 

Payette and her benefactor Justin Trudeau, 2017
Not wearing her commemorative medals,
just like Ms. Simon on installation day 2021

First day on the job, Mary Simon already breaking the rules. 

Is it such a big thing to ask that a Governor General wear their orders, decorations and medals correctly? There are lots of good current examples of people weaning them correctly. Take for instances, the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, The Hon. Russell Mirasty, SOM, MSM. He gets how to wear his medals correctly, why can't the Governor General?

A model medal wearer:
Lieutenant Governor of Saskatcewan Russell Mirasty

We can only hope that such media luminaries as Colby Cosh, who referenced our blog in an article in the  January 22, 2021 National Post, is paying attention to the "protocol nerds" (his phrase), who are flagging yet another potential rule ignoring Head of State. 

Now that we have a Governor General, even if she did wear her medals wrong on her big day, we can hope she will correct the offence. We can also hope she will get to work and promptly strip Julie Payette of the undeserved honours of the Order of Canada, Order of Military Merit and Order of Merit of the Police Forces. The sooner we can forget all that happened between October 2017 and January 2021 the better. 

Bye Bye Offender-in-Chief, Julie Payette: Time to hand back your CC, CMM, COM and CD

The departure of Julie Payette as Canada's Governor General and Commander-in-Chief has brought relief to many of us here at Wearing Your Medals Wrong. Her Former Not So EXCELLENcy's approach to wearing Canadian orders, decorations and medals was on par with what the media has exposed as her alleged treatment of staff, volunteers, colleagues, the RCMP protective detail and practically everyone she came into contact with.

Way back in September 2018 we noted that Payette had been parading around Rideau Hall, in front of a group of protocol, medals and heraldry experts, wearing totally unauthorized NASA gum ball machine prizes... errr, we mean "I went to space and didn't die" medals. 

It was with great glee that we note that Colby Cosh of the National Post even picked up on this blog's tracking of Payette's great NASA medal wearing debacle on January 22 in "The Cult of Celebrity has no place in the governor general's office."

Cosh amusingly, but accurately notes; 

"in one of the under appreciated low points of her tenure, to wear her more subtle NASA decorations, eschewing the governor general's Canadian insignia in favour of corporate awards from a U.S. government agency. It was mostly protocol nerds and monarchists who foamed at the mount over that one, but in retrospect I defy anyone to say they didn't have a point -- and it ought to have been noticed earlier..." 

Thank you for this Mr. Cosh. As a group of protocol nerds we appreciate this recognition. Like you we hope the next Governor General will not be a complete and unmitigated Challenger (OV-099) like disaster. 

HAND BACK THE GONG'S PLEASE ! 

We can only hope that the Advisory Councils of the various Orders for which Mme. Payette once served as Chancellor (the Order of Canada, The Order of Military Merit and the Order of Merit of the Police Forces), will cancel/erase her appointment to some of our country's highest honours. There is no question that Payette has brought disrepute upon these Orders in a more public manner than any previous holder of a CC, CMM or COM. Payette should be removed from the three Orders, be required to return her Canadian Force's Decoration and also hand in her Order national du Québec. We can also hope that she will be stripped of the style "Right Honourable" and lastly her coat of arms should be erased, defaced or dis-honoured in some obvious manner. For her Rideau Hall portrait we suggest any number of the hilarious cartoons which her actions have generated from the talented pens of Canada's editorial cartoonists. 

Perhaps there is no more visual way to acknowledge Mme. Payette's disgrace then by fiddling with her coat of arms. A search of the internet (none of us are experts on heraldry although we have some followers who are), reveals that we just have to turn Payette's coat of arms upside down (an Abatement) to show she has behaved in a highly dishonourable way. 

We have gone further and  removed Payette's Order of Canada and Ordre national du Québec medals, along with the motto of the Order of Canada. The grey circle around Payette's shield represents the grey and sadness that she brought to Rideau Hall and the grey state of mental health she left so many of the staff in. This greyness totally encircles Payette's shield. The Crown was also removed, if there were any maple leaves in her arms we would have removed those as well.

This is a very obvious visual way of showing how awful Payette was in every aspect of her service as Governor General, treatment of staff and Canadians. 

Another option is to rewrite the symbolism of her arms, if only that Privy Council Office report didn't contain so many words, we might be able to include direct commentary in the augmented "ignominious Payette arms."