Category Archives: Imposters

Art Leonard – Never a Sergeant, never served overseas, not a jumper!

Leonard came to the attention of Stolen Valour-Canada (SV-C) when we were asked to comment upon photographic images of him attending military and veteran oriented ceremonies in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario. According to multiple sources, Leonard claimed to be a long serving Military Police member who was wounded in action during combat operations in Kandahar in 2003. He also stated he had completed deployed operations in Cyprus and in the Balkans where he witnessed ethnic cleansing and due to the rules of engagement, he was left powerless to intervene.

SV-C conducted a thorough review of all available records including websites, newspaper articles, photographic images, searchable data bases of medal recipients and extracts from military documents in Canada in order to determine the legitimacy of his claims.

The first document we uncovered was the newsletter of Region 2 Canada of the International Police Association dated March 2016. The lead article titled “A Military Veteran’s Personal Journey with Combat-Related PTSD” is a most amazing story detailing the life of a wounded veteran suffering the effects of a penetrating head wound/traumatic brain injury and PTSD. He details his struggle from emerging from a comatose state after aeromedical flight to Canada, his long term rehabilitation and the positive impact a service dog had on his daily life…

Roundup-March-2016-1-1

Unfortunately, his narrative doesn’t match the time line! The first red flag, claiming to have been wounded in action in Kandahar Province in 2003 and, taken to the “military wing” of Mir Wais Hospital in Kandahar City. Anyone who knows of Canada’s experience in Afghanistan, will realize that “MP Sergeants” weren’t in Kandahar Province during that time frame nor were they tasked on missions to arrest criminal/terrorists! In fact, Canada’s main effort was taking place in the Kabul area until December 2005!

Coalition casualties, would have been treated at the then US lead Combat Support Hospital located on Kandahar Airfield… The description of his injuries is amateurish at best, and his story of being held in comatose state for 30 days in a German hospital is a complete fabrication according to individuals who were intimately involved in the movement of wounded Canadian Forces personnel by aeromedical evacuation resources during the time frame!

Secondly, the medals pictured in the IPA article do not match the medals he is wearing, Leonard claims to have served 3 tours in the former Yugoslavia under a United Nations mandate yet, he wears the NATO medal… The article states “Sgt. Art Leonard has been acknowledged for his exemplary military police service with a number of prestigious medals, including: the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD) with bar; the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal; the UNPROFOR medal (3 tours); the Cyprus medal (2 tours) the Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan; and the Canadian Forces Sacrifice Medal [Canadian equivalent to the Purple Heart Medal]”

In his own words, “ My life was haunted with flashbacks, sleepless nights, cold sweats and anxiety from living through some of the darkest, most terrifying experiences that a person could ever endure………despite a chest full of medals for my service, I had hit rock bottom; I had reached a point of not caring to live anymore”. “For a long time I blamed myself for failing as a Soldier. I would think that if I hadn’t been injured my family wouldn’t have left me, and my career in the military would still be intact. Instead, I was left alone ……..fighting to stay alive after several suicide attempts.”

Aware of his on-going struggles with combat-related PTSD, friends from the Royal Canadian Legion in Newmarket, Ontario, realized the positive health benefits a service dog could provide. They contacted Nicole Taylor, founder of United by Trauma, to enquire about a PTSD Service Dog for him – a program United by Trauma offers to first responders, including military veterans, in partnership with In Canis Speramus. In support of this highly decorated military veteran, the Hamilton Police Association generously donated $5,000.00 towards the costs of training a service dog.

The reality

Leonard was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces from 1981-1986. He completed recruit training, was a Naval Ops tradesman for a period of time and then re-mustered to the Military Police. He was posted to CFB Chatham NB where his claim to fame was ticketing the Base Commander’s staff car during an alert!
On completion of his Regular Force service he joined the Reserve Force where he failed to achieve any further occupational / operational training or be promoted beyond the rank of Private.

Leonard’s tales of multiple overseas deployments and being Wounded in Action are a complete fabrication, and he has absolutely no entitlement to any of the the medals he sports! It’s SV-Cs opinion that Leonard is likely committing an offence under s419 of the Criminal Code of Canada – “Unlawful use of military uniforms or certificates”. An offence that several individuals have been recently tried and convicted in Ontario including Clayton Donoghue, Franck Gervais, Donald Lemmond & Eric Janssens.

His reprehensible actions, particularly the wearing of the Sacrifice Medal are yet another example of why Stolen Valour claims are so outrageous and injurious to those who actually served. Leonard made a choice to stand in the blood of our wounded and fallen, and for that he should pay a significant price!

The letter to the Chancellery @ Rideau Hall from DH&R, which SVC requested under a ATI request, confirms that Mr Leonard was wearing 6 medals ”WITHOUT LAWFUL AUTHORITY”. 
Note the referenced article…
He has a CAR t shirt and a RCAF uniform with medals and insignia, so, he must be legit, eh?
Perhaps Julian Fantino will vouch for him?

“Rear Admiral” Ian Dewar-Adair CBE DSO – His battleship has sunk!

He‘s not an Admiral,
Not a recipient of the Commander of the British Empire,
Not a recipient of the Distinguished Service Order,
Not the recipient of the US Navy Cross or Silver Star, and
Didn’t serve in the Vietnam War.
However, he likes to inspect cadets dressed up his naval finery…

Based on his stellar military career and the experience gained in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, he’ll offer you advice on creating the perfect CV and how to dress for success!

SVC made several attempts to contact the “Admiral”, although the signals were receipted, there has been no response from the Admiral, his Flag Lieutenant, his staff secretary nor his Chief Yeoman.

We can only assume he’s leading the fleet from his flagship

SVC has been able to uncover exclusive footage of the “Admiral” leading his forces into action!
https://youtu.be/VXkVZ0rloio

Peter Miklos Toth… GUILTY of impersonating a US Marine!

In a Facebook conversation between Stolen Valour and Toth, he claimed to have served in Kandahar Province and “Hazbollah.” Hezbollah, as it’s properly known, is a political party in Lebanon, and is considered by several nations including Canada and the United States to be a terrorist organization.

When Stolen Valour questioned Toth further about his Purple Heart, he claimed to have been shot in June 2005 in Afghanistan. However, Stolen Valour points out he previously claimed to have retired from the USMC in 1985, before any conflicts involving North America ever took place in Afghanistan.

Peter Toth, 58, faces one count under Section 419 of the Criminal Code of Canada for unlawful use of military uniforms or certificates.


Note – “Ninteen Hundren” That should have been a clue in regards to Toth’s shitbaggery!

Toth is accused of impersonating a U.S. Military veteran by wearing attire and medals he did not actually earn to Remembrance Day ceremonies at St. Francis of Assisi Middle School, G.W. Smith Elementary and Aspen Heights Elementary last November 2017.

Stolen Valour Canada contacted rdnewsNOW with their concerns that Toth was not as authentic as he was letting on. The group pointed out several flaws with the uniform he was wearing in pictures from the ceremonies, including wearing unauthorized camouflage and having pins and rank badges in wrong places.

“Based on our concerns, we contacted USMC experts, and they agree that this individual was likely never a Marine, and he is portraying one very poorly,” the group said at the time.

Based on SVC’s research, a local area friend / supporter made a formal complaint to the Red Deer RCMP Detachment which lead to an investigation, charges being laid followed by a trial and Toth’s conviction as a ‘valour thief”

https://rdnewsnow.com/article/561832/investigation-underway-possible-remembrance-day-imposter-red-dee

https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/red-deer-man-charged-for-impersonating-u-s-veteran-1.3825303

https://rdnewsnow.com/article/576534/remembrance-day-imposter-pleads-guilty

Updated: Man posing as U.S. Marine sentenced

Jean-Pierre Isore – The most interesting man in the world?

“major” Jean-Pierre ISORE
DOB XX XXX 1942
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, PQ

This particular group of medals was featured on our platforms over a year ago. Based on a number of posters who proclaimed that the “major” was entirely legit, we stepped back, and had another look at this individual.

Interestingly, not one person could provide proof of his legitimacy although many commentators were adamant that Mr. Isore was a high level translator, a Major in the CAF and the l’Armée Française, a senior UN civilian employee, and even the Military Advisor to UN Secretary General (a position normally held by a 3 or 4-star General).


Now, before the question is asked and/or any arguments commence, ONLY MILITARY PERSONNEL and CIVILIAN POLICE are eligible to receive UN medals… https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/united-nations-medals

Mister Isore was neither a military officer in a Troop Contributing Nation (TCN) nor was he a member of the UN Civil Police (UNCIVPOL).

Over the course of past 12 months, SVC has taken the opportunity to continue our research, and we came across this story “http://www.aquilon.nt.ca/Arti…/La-sante-mentale-des-troupes-201410031141/default.aspx” (and many others), the translated excerpt is below.

“… Isore worked for intelligence and the United Nations during his career. In 1975 in Cyprus, a mine detonated his vehicle, killing his best friend. Isore leaves the army, suffering from severe post-traumatic stress. After trying to heal himself, he later resumes service but is a victim of a relapse and will experience several suicidal episodes. “Post-traumatic stress, he insists, is not curable. We can only make it livable“.

Now here’s the issue, the French Military has never deployed their personnel to Cyprus as members of UNFICYP, and the “major’ wasn’t there as a member of the CF. This supposed incident raised a number of red flags for us.

As a result of our research combined with the information provided by a number of solid sources, SVC believes that Isore’s military and peacekeeping narrative to be a complete fabrication.

Many of our followers will know the level of detail recorded in a mine strike report & there’s absolutely no record of UN vehicle/personnel being involved in one, as he describes it, during 1975 in Cyprus. (the list of mine strikes is attached as a photo image)

“major’ JP Isore was never the victim of a mine strike in Cyprus as he never served there!

A UNFICYP member killed in a mine strike would have been front-page news, interestingly, there’s not a single mention of the event in “The Blue Beret”. https://unficyp.unmissions.org/blue-beret *.
(*Be advised, that the BLUE BERET link is a huge time waster that will result in flashbacks of Regina Street, Keo beer, Aya Napa and brandy sours!)

Our sources @ UNHQ in New York advise that no one named Isore (using his confirmed DOB) has ever served in the United Nations Organization as a civilian employee / translator / intelligence officer…

Mr Isore has also claimed to have been a Lieutenant in the French Armoured Corps during his mandatory military service in the early 1960s. “major” Isore has no proof of this claimed service as he burned all the records / photographs as they were too painful for him to keep.

There are only two possible explanations for this situation:

Mister Jean-Pierre Isore has been the victim of a massive administrative error spanning the several decades and several continents or, his claims are a complete fabrication and he has no lawful entitlement to any of the 7 UN medals that he wears at every opportunity…

He has ignored SV-C’s offers of assistance to silence his detractors once and for all by providing independently verifiable documentation supporting his claims.

Mr Isore remains active on social media & continues to speak out on veterans issues despite his caretaker / sock puppet / nurses’s claim that he has been blocked from accessing the internet due to his physical and mental fragility.

We’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions regarding his amazing claims.

Welcome to Stolen Valour Canada

Now, you may have been asking where did the original SV-C Facebook page go?

After fours years of exposing fakes, posers and embellishers, the original SV-C page was unpublished / deleted by FB after we were accused of “violating community standards by encouraging drug use”!

Our thousands of followers will know that was never the case.

A manufactured claim against the page, and, by extension, the veterans who work diligently behind the scenes, has done what no others could. We were silenced, albeit temporarily, by the actions of cowards and their enablers!

Threats of legal action, law suits & physical violence against SVC members stiffened our resolve particularly, when the very same individuals who made those threats would get on their knees and beg us not to publish the details of their medallic fuckery™.

That being said, SVC is in the process in migrating all of our work to this platform AND we’ll have complete control of the information published. The added benefit is that we’ll be less vulnerable to malicious attacks by valour thieves and their supporters/enablers.

Our current FB, Twitter and IG accounts will remain active and assist us in getting our message out…

https://www.facebook.com/stolenvalourcanada/

The message is, Stolen Valour Canada has absolutely no tolerance for those who make the decision to stand in the blood of our wounded and fallen.

30 May 2018

SVC
Lest We Forget

Denis SURRENDI – Poser Pilot & Plagiarist!

 

I was dragged into that war,” says Surrendi. “I wanted to express the kind of situation a person can get into. It was terrifying in some cases, to be quite blunt.”

The wife of author Robert Mason (he wrote the award-winning book “Chickenhawk” about his experiences in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot) sent us (TAH) a message on Facebook about this creep, Dennis Surrendi.

According to Ms. Mason, Surrendi lifted nearly all of Mr. Mason’s book and inserted it into his own book “Set Me Free”, so I went looking around the internet for him and I found this article in the Nanton News about the author and his book. Apparently, as with Waverly Reynar, Surrendi was kidnapped and forced into the Vietnam War. I didn’t know that kidnapping Canadians is a thing. Apparently, when the Marines aren’t doing it, the CIA picks up their slack.

Of course, Mr. Surrendi had a skill set that no American would have;

Little did Surrendi know that the CIA was profiling students, and Surrendi — with a varied background that includes playing professional hockey for three years with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, is a neurosurgeon, has a masters of science in fish and wildlife management, a PhD in wildlife ecology and a PhD in human ecology — ranked high in the profiling, with his strengths in physics and chemistry.

“I fit into criteria for what they were seeking,” says Surrendi. “I got set up by the CIA through the University of Wisconsin, got drafted and couldn’t get out of it.”

Even though his name doesn’t appear on the rosters of the Red Wings or the Blackhawks, Surrendi swears that he played for them when he was 16, until he got tired of it and went to college at 19 years old, within a year or two, he was a neurosurgeon and he has several other degrees like two Master of Science degrees and two Ph.D. degrees in Wildlife Ecology and Human Population Dynamics and Ecology, you know, because neurosurgeon pay doesn’t go very far.

Anyway, the CIA kidnapped him and sent him to Vietnam to pilot helicopters against his will, because we can never have enough neurosurgeons flying our gunships.

“The army in the States in the mid ‘60s were developing the first high-technical assault helicopter and were looking for candidates to fly it,” Surrendi says. “They were looking for certain types of candidates.”

He served as a helicopter pilot with the 229 Assault Helicopter Battalion in the 1st Air Calvary for about a year and a half before being reassigned to the 49 Aviation Company, 12 Aviation Battalion, where he served more than six months.

During his last nine months in Vietnam, Surrendi flew a Cobra AH-1 assault helicopter, which required that he obtain top secret clearance.

During his service in Vietnam, Surrendi received two purple hearts, the Bronze Star and Silver Star for bravery, and became one of the most decorated non-Americans in the Vietnam War.

Robert Mason, “Chickenhawk”, was also in the 229th, see how coincidental that is? I can’t find the 49th Aviation Company, but Mason served in the 48th Aviation Company – he called it the 49th in his book and Surrendi fell for it.

Needless to say, Surrendi had to self-publish the book, because that’s how you publish a book that you lifted from a world-renown, award-winning book written by a real author.

From the NANTON NEWS 3 Jun3 2015

From the CALGARY SUN 3 June 2015

Mr Surrendi admitted that he was a poser and plagiarist to avoid any legal action, then he died…

With files from our US Friends and Partners at This Ain’t Hell

Daniel Howard WHITESELL is he a Special Forces CWO / RSM or a navy reserve bin rat?

We were asked to review the claims made by “Chief Warrant Officer” Daniel Harold WHITESELL (DOB 2X/03/195x) of Windsor, Ontario.

Our review identified many inconsistencies in his presentation made to 600 school children at a Remembrance Day event @ Ecole Secondaire E. J. Lajeunesse in Windsor, On.

He claimed to be a veteran with 38 years of service. He spoke to the students saying that he was former Joint Task Force 2 special forces operator and had served in Afghanistan for eight years, Rwanda, Bosnia, as well as served a short 2-year stint in the navy.

He brought with him a framed photo of himself in uniform, surrounded by dozens of medals. He also presented some form of coin to show the entire school.

During his presentation, he spoke about how he had done awful things that he was not proud of. 

At first he said that as special ops he could not speak about the things he had done, however later during the Q and A period one of the students asked him “what the hardest job he had done was?”

At this point he told us about how he was going after high ranking Taliban in small villages in Afghanistan. He said that his team would enter the villages in the middle of the night, and that if a teenager or child, the same age as the students he was speaking to had seen him, that he had to silence them by any means necessary to avoid giving up their position, Alluding to the fact that he had killed innocent children during his service.

This horrified many of the students…

His ridiculous claims combined with an image of him wearing a green beret and PPCLI “other ranks” hat-badge, gave us cause to question his entire military narrative.

Our team conducted a thorough review of all available records, this included websites, newspaper articles, photographic images, regimental tour books, and extracts from military documents in Canada in order to determine the legitimacy of his claims.

SV-C then reached out to the regimental and corps associations, their museums and other organizations in which WHITESELL has claimed to have served. The publicly accessible records, that we have had the opportunity to review, do not support his claims.

The absence of verifiable records alone does not conclusively prove that an individual is a fake or embellisher, it just indicates that there are no records…

Claiming to be a CWO/RSM with decades long service in the PPCLI!

Dude, do you know how few men have been given the  honour and privilege to join that group?

Every Patricia Regimental Sergeant Major is known and you ain’t one of them! 

What we do know.

Mr WHITESELL wasn’t an “operator” of any description, he was an Ordinary Seaman in the Naval Reserve and employed as a Supply Technician in HMCS Hunter in Windsor, Ontario. We have been told anecdotally that he sailed in a Porte Class training vessel on a Great Lakes deployment in the 1980s and, that he may have spent a short period in the Army Reserve.

Ordinary Seaman WHITESELL’s navy ride / sleek greyhound of death.

By all accounts, he had a some what lack-lustre career trajectory, and left the unit in the early 90s.

“CWO” Dan WHITESELL also known as
Call sign “Chicken Legs”

Well Mr Daniel Howard Whitesell, the puck is in your end of the rink. 

It’s now time for you to surrender the PPCLI hat badge that you have absolutely no entitlement to; followed by a public apology for your shitbaggery. 

Lest We Forget.

 

The Great Imposter of Vernon Cadet Camp – Major (Ret’d) Steven A. MARTENS CD

Major (Ret’d) Steven A. MARTENS CD

CADET INSTRUCTOR CADRE

The GREAT IMPOSTER of VERNON ARMY CADET CAMP!

While serving as a Senior Officer with Regional Cadet Support Unit (Pacific) and during employment at Vernon Army Cadet Camp, he wore the following medals and insignia without lawful authority.

  • The Order of St John,
  • The Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal,
  • The UN Force in Cyprus Medal,
  • The UN Emergency Force II,
  • The Fire Services Exemplary Service Medal, and
  • The Canadian Forces parachute insignia.

Mr Martens was awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration for long service and “good conduct” This is his sole lawful medallic entitlement.

He claims he was “verbally” reprimanded for his fakery and allowed to submit a request for his voluntary release from the CAF in July of 2013. He then slipped quietly out the back gate when he should have faced charges under s419 CCC / s129 NDA.

So, the question becomes, why was this matter not dealt with in an open, transparent and public manner?

He certainly wore the medals and insignia in public!

“I am very ashamed and embarrassed for my actions and admit that I put up uniform items to which I was not entitled to put up. I offer no excuse other than I totally knew better and was galactically stupid for doing so. This was a very expensive decision on my part that resulted in being disciplined and having to resign from the military”

Mr S Martens