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e-619 (Governor General's Medals of Honour)

E-petition
Initiated by Nick Kerr from Petawawa, British Columbia

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:
  • Search and Rescue is the only major first responder organisation within Canada that is not honoured by a national service medal;
  • The potential hazards and risks which are inherent in Search and Rescue operations are equivalent and sometimes over and above the normal service of other volunteer and paid organizations and as such deserve special recognition;
  • There are over 300 professionally trained volunteer teams in Canada with more than 12,000 volunteers who put in 100,000 hours of training, community service and administration. More than 300,000 personal hours on more than 20,000 searches annually; and
  • An astounding 95% subjects were found or rescued within the first 24 hours of a volunteer SAR group being activated last year.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to recognize service within Search and Rescue by means of the creation of a “Canadian Search and Rescue Service Medal”, to be designated for volunteer service by SAR volunteers. An honour that is equivalent to what the other major first responder organisations are awarded. By doing this Canada would follow suit with Australia, another commonwealth country who has awarded the “National Medal” to volunteer search and recuse service since 1975.
Government response tabled on April 11, 2019 (Sessional Paper No. 8545-421-116-05)
Open for signature
February 22, 2017, at 12:56 p.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
June 22, 2017, at 12:56 p.m. (EDT)
Presented to the House of Commons
Todd Doherty (Cariboo—Prince George)
February 28, 2019 (Petition No. 421-03281)
Government response tabled
April 11, 2019
Photo - Todd Doherty
Cariboo—Prince George
Conservative Caucus
British Columbia