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Protests include yoga and folk-rock
A Burnaby RCMP officer makes it his mission to find out the truth behind one man’s tales of wartime bravery
Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
Cayley Dobie staff reporter
A
s Canadians across the country get ready to remember those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom, one Burnaby Mountie is resting easier knowing he stopped a man from fraudulently portraying himself as a war hero. Cpl. Gregor Aitken has been with the RCMP since the late ‘90s but before he donned his Red Serge, he was an officer in the armed forces and served from 1993 to 1997. His service record is something he takes pride in, a pride he displays when wearing his service medals. He is active with the Royal Canadian Legion and often attends veterans’ events. So when Aitken met a veteran with 14 service medals, he was awed – and suspicious. “I’d seen this fellow around and I’d always thought that was a pretty impressive amount of medals,” he told the NOW. This year, he was at a Legion’s veteran luncheon and to his surprise he was seated next to the mysterious war hero. As the event went on and the former soldiers, which included a Second World War veteran and a Korean War veteran, at the table shared their stories, Aitken took the opportunity to ask the mystery vet about his service history. “I’d always been slightly suspicious of this fellow just because it was such an unbelievable number of medals,” he said. “I started talking to him and he started telling me these pretty incredible stories.” Among the medals the veteran was
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Photo courtesy of the Department of National Defence/BURNABY NOW
Above: Burnaby RCMP Cpl. Gregor
Aitken, in the military fatigues, served in the Canadian Armed Forces from 1993 to ‘97. He is seen here in Afghanistan during a volunteer mission in 2009 with the RCMP. Officers were sent overseas to train local police.
At left:
The medals which were seized after Cpl. Gregor Aitken determined a veteran was wearing them fraudulently. wearing was a Canadian Medal of Bravery, which is an extremely prestigious medal. When Aitken asked how he earned the medal, the veteran told him he received it for his service in the battle of Medak Pocket in Croatia.
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“My old platoon sergeant was actually wounded in the former Yugoslavia and he was at Medak, and I know for a fact no medals of bravery were given out, so this guy then tells me a story, and I know it’s
Opponents of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion are organizing a series of events on Burnaby Mountain this weekend. The Burnaby Mountain Community Fest runs from Friday, Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. till Sunday at 3 p.m. The festival will be on Centennial Way and includes games, yoga, nature walks, music and a community quilt project. On Saturday, Nov. 8, there is a family-friendly event with musicians from 1 to 3 p.m. on Burnaby Mountain, just off Centennial Way, where protesters have maintained a presence in opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline. We Love This Coast, a group concerned about the tar sands, pipelines and tankers, is organizing the Saturday performance, which includes folk-rock musician Holly Arntzen, Aaron Ross and Tom Van Deurson of The Boom Booms, DOA frontman Joe Keithley, the Solidarity Choir and Ta’Kaiya Blaney, a young singer from the Sliammon First Nation. Organizers noted the area is unceded Coast Salish territory, and the traditional First Nations name for Burnaby Mountain is Lheklhukxayten, which means the place to peel arbutus trees. Next Thursday, Nov. 13, Simon Fraser Public Interest Research
Stolen Page 8
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