The Queen is no joke. The Diamond Jubilee medals minted to commemorate her 60th year on the throne, however, are.
They’re more than that, in fact: They are a disgrace. And the manner in which they have been handed out is a bona fide scandal, and one deserving of further investigation. Some background, first.
The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, as it is officially known, was “a tangible way for Canada to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country. At the same time, it serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.”
Note the phrase, “significant contributions and achievements.” Nearly 60,000 Canadians would receive the shiny silver medals, the governor general said last year. To do so, one needed to be Canadian, have a pulse, and have made — again, that key requirement — “significant contributions and achievements.”
The distribution of the medals was ultimately determined by the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They won’t say much about what they did to tarnish what should have been a wonderful idea. But tarnish it they did.
For example: A short while ago, the prime minister made certain to give a Diamond Jubilee medal to Jenni Byrne, his party’s campaign manager. (She was in the news again this week, when a Conservative MP stated the buck stopped with Byrne for what he called “deceptive” robocalls recently made in Saskatchewan). What were Byrne’s “significant contributions and achievements,” apart from helping to elect her boss? Hard to say say. No one’s talking.
There’s more. A box of the medals were given to REAL Women of Canada to hand out, like concession stand tokens. Among other things, REAL Women is a group that calls the “homosexual lobby” a “threat” to Canada, and which formerly had a director named Rita Anne Hartmann. As revealed in the Toronto Sun many years ago, Hartmann’s family had extensive involvement with both the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi Heritage Front. REAL Women, meanwhile, has never disavowed their association with Hartmann. Why did they get medals? Again, who knows.
Gary McHale got one, too, in a ceremony earlier this month in Toronto. McHale is an Ontario anti-Native, anti-police activist who has spent time in jail for his misadventures. What’s his “significant contribution” to Canada? No one knows. No one will say.
Out west, a Conservative MP gave medals to a couple of convicted criminals. Out of the 30 medals MP Maurice Vellacott received, one was received by an anti-abortion fanatic, Mary Wagner, who happened to be in jail at the time. Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson, who theoretically oversees the legal system that put Wagner in jail, was asked how such a thing could happen. Ask Vellacott, he said. No one seems to know much, or care.
In London, as the Free Press revealed, a former municipal politician who has been convicted of municipal corruption got a medal, as well. George Avola was honoured this week by Mayor Joe Fontana — who himself is awaiting trial on charges of fraud, uttering forged documents and breach of trust by a public official. How could such a thing happen? Again: No one knows.
It goes on. Separatists. Bankers. Right-wing lobbyists. Murky religious groups aligned with the ruling Conservatives. All have received medals, for no apparent reason. If all of this enrages you, as it does me, take heart. Canada still has leaders like Raye-Anne Briscoe, mayor of Admaston/Bromley, in Renfrew County near Ottawa. A few days ago, Briscoe got a Diamond Jubilee medal from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. She sent it back.
“I am returning this medal,” Briscoe wrote to the federation, “as I am utterly shocked, taken aback and insulted that (you) would make a ‘blanket’ distribution of this honour with a letter that would lead one to believe that they had actually been individually selected.”
It was a “sad and disappointing decision,” Briscoe said. And it was a decision that had “devalued the coinage of the realm.”
Canada needs more Raye-Anne Briscoes.
It doesn’t need the damned Diamond Jubilee medals, however.
UPDATE: on reflection, I have deleted some angry comments I made about Gary McHale which contained cursing. I sincerely apologize to McHale. (I’m going curseless for Lent.) The curse-free question I asked of him I still have, however: why did he not bar the National Alliance and the likes of Paul Fromm from attending his “Freedom” marches? Why won’t he condemn them? He says he is no extremist – and I take him at his word. So why did he not bar extremists when they appeared at his event?
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