There are many who would argue that “stolen valour” is a victimless crime, this Victim Impact Statement which SVC has obtained after the trial of Mr Grant Grice proves that it’s not…
“Your Honour,
This matter has been hanging over my life for more than a year, and since January it has directly impacted my workplace. During that time, I was forced to continue working in a federal law-enforcement environment alongside the offender, fully aware of what he had done, yet unable to speak about it while the investigation proceeded.
I carried that burden.
As one of your Canadian Armed Forces veterans, the timing of this, immediately after Remembrance Day, is not lost on me. This is the time when we honour real sacrifice. When we remember real service. When we reflect on the men and women who never came home.
I deployed overseas.
I served in places where institutions had collapsed, where lives were lost, and where sacrifice was not symbolic: it was paid in blood.
I stood beside soldiers who gave everything for this country.
Some never returned. Others returned permanently changed.
And yet I stand here because someone chose to steal those experiences, to claim them as his own and to wear medals he did not earn. To do this in the shadow of Remembrance Day is deeply offensive.
Grant Grice wore unearned medals.
He spoke of trauma, death, and fallen comrades as if he had lived through those moments. He told me he jumped off a Canadian Navy ship… in awar zone…to save lives. He told me men died beside him. He delivered these lies with emotion, as though reliving trauma, trauma he never experienced.
These were not mistakes. These were calculated fabrications designed to earn status, sympathy, credibility, and a place in a veteran community he had absolutely no right to stand among.
Those stories are not his to use.
They belong to real people.
Real families.
Real graves.
For those of us who actually served, who carry the weight of deployments, the memories of dead friends, and the ongoing cost of that service… this was not a harmless lie. It was a direct attack on our identity, our history, and the honour of those who never came home.
This caused real harm.
My mental health deteriorated. What had been occasional check-ins with psychological support became weekly sessions just to function. I avoided overtime. I avoided him. I withdrew at work and carried the stress home, where my wife and children felt the impact of something they had no part in.
Your Honour, if someone put on a police uniform and presented themselves as an officer, no one would treat that as trivial. Wearing unearned military medals, inventing service, and doing so while holding federal law-enforcement authority is no different. It erodes public trust, damages the integrity of the institutions we serve, and disrespects every single person who has actually sacrificed for this country.
Grant Grice does not deserve a secret clearance.
He does not deserve the trust placed in him.
He has shown he will fabricate anything, even military service, for personal gain.
I know what my medals represent.
They are not ornaments.
They are tied to hardship, duty, and loss. They remind me of people I will never see again.
Grant Grice wanted the respect without any of the sacrifice.
He wanted the recognition without paying the cost.
Although he has finally entered a guilty plea, after months of delay and only when faced with the consequences of irrefutable evidence, there is nothing in his behaviour that shows genuine remorse. Only self-preservation.
Your Honour, to protect the honour of those who served, to maintain the integrity of the institution I currently belong to, and to preserve the trust Canadians place in those who wear a uniform, a meaningful conviction must stand. We must not send the wrong message: that stolen service is tolerated, that stolen sacrifice is excusable.
This is not about vengeance.
This is about honour, integrity, and accountability; values Canadians expect of their law-enforcement members and values that were violated here.
Thank you, Your Honour.”
