A Quebec man has pleaded guilty to unlawfully wearing a military uniform and medals in connection with his appearance at a Remembrance Day ceremony on Parliament Hill last year.
Franck Gervais entered the pleas in an Ottawa court Wednesday. Charges of impersonating a peace officer were withdrawn.
The charges were laid after Gervais was interviewed for a Remembrance Day broadcast on Nov. 11, 2014 that attracted the attention of Canadian Forces members and veterans.
According to an agreed statement of facts filed in court Wednesday, Gervais was clad in the Canadian Armed Forces ceremonial dress uniform for a sergeant with the Royal Canadian Regiment.
He was also wearing several medals, including a Medal of Bravery, a Special Service Medal with one bar, a Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal, a NATO Medal for service in Kosovo, and a decoration for 12 years of service.
After the ceremony at the National War Memorial, Gervais was approached by a television reporter and agreed to a live national interview, according to the statement.
鈥淪hortly after the interview aired, suspicions were raised about Gervais not being a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR),鈥� the statement reads.
鈥淢embers of this regiment had never heard of him and a number of discrepancies in his uniform were noted.鈥�
Ottawa police launched an investigation and determined that Gervais 鈥渨as not currently and had never been employed by the Canadian Armed Forces,鈥� although he had been a cadet for several years in the 1990s.
鈥淎s such, he was unlawfully wearing the uniform of a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and had not earned the medals noted above,鈥� the statement says.
Police later learned that Gervais, while still in uniform, had gone with his wife to the Canadian War Museum following the Remembrance Day ceremony. There, he spoke with an author who was there promoting a book at the gift shop.
Gervais told author Rod McLeod of 鈥渉is struggles in the RCR due to a language barrier, his experiences as a paratrooper and also the story about how he earned the Medal of Bravery.
鈥淎ll of these stories are untrue,鈥� the statement says.
Gervais is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11.
