A Canadian veteran has been received into the Order of St. George after he was knighted during a ceremony in Burnaby, B.C.
Stephen Peddle, a retired major who served as military personnel for 28 years, was honoured for his role in helping to get the family members of an Afghan interpreter safely into Canada.
Peddle toured Afghanistan twice, in 2007 and 2012. He retired in 2019. When he first arrived in Afghanistan, he came across a young, local interpreter named Sangeen Abdul Mateen, and formed a fast friendship with him.
While talking about the young Afghan, Peddle said: “(Mateen) was intelligent, ambitious, friendly.
“While I was in his country, he did everything that he could do to keep me safe, he could pick up on things with his people, their body language, that I might not have picked up on.”
Peddle worked with about 500 Afghan soldiers in Khandahar, relying on Mateen to help translate.
He said: “He was my voice for that entire tour, communicating with those Afghan soldiers.
“I walked away with a bond for life.”
Mateen moved to Canada in 2012 and went to school to become an electrician. He now runs a commercial business in Ontario, where he resides with his wife and four children.
However, many of his family members were still in Afghanistan. As international troops withdrew from the country during the summer, Mateen feared the Taliban could capture his family members. His father was a senior officer in Afghanistan’s national army, and his brother a national interpreter.
Peddle said: “Being that I’m an ex-intelligence officer, I do know that it was a legitimate threat to life for some of his family by association, or by what they were doing for Canada.”
Peddle helped 12 members of Mateen’s family relocate to Canada.
He said: “It was a lot of work for him, myself and other veterans. His family were one of the last flights out of Kabul.”
Mateen’s story was heard by the Order of St. George, a historic organization that is “committed to serve and support the military communities, veterans, and those still serving.”
Allen Plett, knight commander and prior of the Order of St. George Cascadia Priory, said he got in touch with Peddle to present the honour of becoming a “field knight.”
Plett said: “It’s an honorary recognition on the part of the Order of St. George of people in the Canadian community who give service.
“Here’s a veteran, retired, that not only said something but did something.”
Peddle, who resides in Alberta, flew to B.C. for the ceremony in Burnaby recently.
The Order of St. George has begun a campaign with the True Patriot Love Foundation, a foundation based in Toronto, to raise funds to help relocate Afghan interpreters and assist the mental health of veterans. The organization aims to raise $50,000 by Dec. 31.
