Stolen Valour Canada was advised by a number of parties that there was a potential issue with the medals that Mr Lafontaine, a former Gunner and Supply Technician, had been photographed wearing.
SVC does not act upon unsubstantiated intelligence or malicious tips that are often initiated as a result of petty jealousy, marital misadventure or, sheer vindictiveness. We won’t waste any staff effort on someone’s “gut feel” nor do we do participate in witch hunts. Tipsters must provide evidence (pictures, news articles, social media links) of their concerns before we can move forward.
Prior to investing any research effort into what has the potential to become a wild goose chase; we contact named individuals in order to provide them with an opportunity to sort out the reported situation. Our hope, they would take advantage of our offer to protect his reputation and silence this issue once and for all.
To that end, we asked that he provide us with the documentation that would prove his entitlement to the Special Service Medal – ALERT (May-Aug 94), UNPROFOR (Jan-Jun 95), UNMIH (Jun-Nov 96) and the Canada 125th Medals.
Of particular concern to us, his claim of being held, along with a Corporal as a “hostage” by the Serbs for 31 days in 1995.
SVC is well aware of hostage incidents involving Canadians that occurred in the UN’s Bosnia-Herzegovina Command including those involving Canadian Army units in Bosnia (GT 12e RBC, RCD BG, 3 R22eR and Canadian UN Military Observers) over the course of the UN Protection Force mission.
There is no open source evidence that CF personnel were held in excess of one month by any of the warring factions. However, given the press coverage of actual hostage events, it’s difficult to believe there’s absolutely no record of the event Lafontaine describes…
Mr Lafontaine quickly sent us a copy of his Military Personnel Records Resume (MPRR) dated 6 August 2003 however, there were a number of anomalies that caused us some concern. Now, these anomalies could be easily explainable administrative errors or, more ominously, could it be an attempt to deceive us by providing an altered document?
When the anomalies were questioned, Lafontaine’s response followed an entirely predictable path,
(1) Feigned cooperation,
(2) Indignation, denial and veiled threats of legal action when asked to clarify our specific concerns,
(3) Removal of photographic evidence of medallic fuckery™ from social media accounts, and
(4) Followed by blocking us from those same accounts.
An interesting response particularly, after he willingly sent SVC his MPRR… Was it because we questioned his claims?
Former MCpl Lafontaine’s work in the veterans community, for which he has been formally recognized by the Minister of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Affairs Ombudsman doesn’t earn him a pass on his highly suspicious operational narrative.
The puck is clearly in his end of the rink, he can either produce independently verifiable documents that will support his claims or, he can apologize for his medallic fuckery™ and commit to surrendering his bogus medals and insignia.
***Update 17 Sept 2018***
Lafontaine, in a now pulled French language radio interview, admitted that his hostage story was a complete fabrication and that he purchased the UN Haiti medal and added it to his group. He has yet to cowboy up in regards to the medals he wore indicating service in Alert, Bosnia (UNPROFOR), along with the Canada 125th Anniversary medal, the Chief of Defence Staff Commendation and a Commander’s Commendation..
Stolen Valour dénonce l’imposture du vétéran de Québec Daniel «Fonfon» Lafontaine
14 Canadian Forces members gave their lives in support of operations at CFS Alert.
12 Canadian Forces members gave their lives “in the service of peace”during the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) mission in the Balkans.
One CF member died “in the service of peace” during the United Nations Mission in Haiti.
Lafontaine insults their service and sacrifice with his military themed fairy tales…
Lest We Forget