news Legion and NDP want sale of war medals outlawed.

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Legion and NDP want sale of war medals outlawed.



Thu Apr 30, 5:16 PM





By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press


OTTAWA - The country's largest veterans organization came out Thursday in support of a federal NDP bid to outlaw the sale of war medals.

The Royal Canadian Legion said the heroics of Canadian soldiers and police officers don't belong on the auction block.

"We would like to see a law that stops the sale of Canadian war medals in Canada," said Bob Butt, the legion's communication director.

Nova Scotia New Democrat Peter Stoffer, the party's veterans affairs critic, is upset about the pending sale of a Victoria Cross awarded to a First World War soldier.

Robert Shankland was one of three soldiers who all lived on the same street in Winnipeg and who all won Commonwealth's highest decoration for military valour.

The city renamed the street Valour Road.

His medals are expected to be auctioned off privately very soon and Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has already said that the federal government will not allow them to leave the country.

Stoffer, who has lobbied for 10 years to ban the sale of medals, said the federal government must go further and simply halt such sales.

"The Governor General gave these men and women medals in honour and recognition for service to their country," he told a Parliament Hill news conference. "She did not give them $100 bills to be hanging from their chest."

Selling the Order of Canada is banned under federal legislation and the honours bestowed on soldiers and police officers should be no different, Stoffer added.

With the war raging in Afghanistan, hundreds of soldiers have received medals for their sacrifice, including the Military Star of Valour. The Conservative government recently introduced the country's own version of the Victoria Cross for heroics on the battlefield, but thus far no one has been awarded the decoration.

Stoffer said he's talked to many young veterans who would be upset to find their medals auctioned away on EBay after their deaths.

Under a legislated ban, the medals could be given as gifts to private individuals - or families. But ideally Stoffer would like to see the honours given to museums or local legions, where they can be displayed.

Thompson reassured the Commons that Shankland's Victoria Cross - won in a desperate battle with the Germans at Passchendaele 1917, would not be leaving the country. But he refused to support a legislated ban, suggesting that it infringes on individual property rights.

"At the end of the day, other governments have grappled with this as well with the selling of these medals and it's really a balancing of interest between the Canadian public and the rights of owners," said Thompson.

It's not the first time there's been a mad scramble to save medals belonging to a Canadian soldier. In 1998, a private collector paid $400,000 for the awards given to war poet Col. John McCrae, who wrote In Flanders Fields. They were eventually given to a museum.

Aside from auction houses, military memorabilia collectors are increasing being drawn to online sites, such as EBay. On Thursday, bids were being taken for Military Medal awarded to Canadian Pte. Stewart Spiers of the Winnipeg Grenadiers. The asking price was $799.99.