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Crowd funding campaign to pay off Collin Fitzgerald's legal debts

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Supporters of Collin Fitzgerald have set up a crowdfunding campaign to help save the retired Master Corporal and former SDG resident from “financial ruin.”

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The GoFundMe campaign is looking to help the decorated Afghanistan veteran pay off his considerable legal debts.

” He is a genuine Canadian hero that desperately needs your help today. In Afghanistan, he was awarded the third-highest award for his bravery, the Medal of Military Valour. Since his return to Canada, MCpl Fitzgerald has experienced the challenges of PTSD, and like many veterans, that involved encounters with the justice system,” wrote Lee Hammond, who launched the campaign.

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Hammond is the retired army colonel who made headlines earlier this year when he led an online fundraising campaign that generated over $400,000 to help cover the costs of now-retired Admiral Mark Norman’s defence— monies ultimately repaid to donors after the government picked up Norman’s legal fees.

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Fitzgerald had been charged by police with burning down his ex-wife’s house. But those charges were later dropped after the Crown admitted the veteran had an unbreakable alibi and couldn’t have set the fire. But getting to that point took two-and-a-half years, and caused Fitzgerald to rack up $250,000 in debt from legal expenses. There were other criminal charges that had been laid against Fitzgerald prior to that point.

Even before the charges were dropped on the matters relating to the fire, the Crown’s treatment of Fitzgerald was very controversial. Many saw the government dragging out a deeply flawed case and impoverishing a local veteran suffering from PTSD who had been dubbed a “Canadian Hero” by no less than Gen. Rick Hillier, then chief of defence staff.

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It’s been almost three years since the case was withdrawn, and Fitzgerald is struggling to make ends meet while also paying down the over $200,000 in legal debts that remains.

Fitzgerald, who is currently living off of a medical pension, told the Standard-Freeholder over the weekend that he is just barely managing to scrape by financially, and as much as he wants to pay back the people who helped him through his past ordeals, it is practically impossible for him to do so. He fears that the debt will prevent him from ever truly moving on.

He is grateful that his supporters are looking to raise the money required to get him out from under that debt, and says every donation will help a lot.

ahale@postmedia.com

twitter.com/alan_s_hale

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