A high-profile legionnaire is apologizing and pondering his future with this century-old veteran support and community service organization following an angry outburst at a wedding reception in Carbonear, N.L., earlier this month.
The Oct. 3 wedding reception at Legion Branch 23 for newlyweds Justin and Janell Clarke came to an abrupt end after Berkley Lawrence, who was the top legionnaire in Canada until this summer, lost his temper and angrily confronted the bride and other members of the wedding party.
The bride said she was afraid and humiliated, and described Lawrence’s behaviour as “aggressive, erratic, unprofessional and very, very disrespectful.”
When contacted Friday by CBC News, Lawrence admitted he crossed the line.
“I handled it completely wrong. I lost control of my emotions. I swore at her, I swore at a few other people that tried to calm me down. I was loud, and it was not a good scene,” Lawrence said by telephone.
Clarke said Lawrence ruined her wedding day, and the days that followed the incident.
“We cannot look back on that day now and say that was a great day. That it was the best day of our lives. When we look back on that day now, we don’t look back on a happy day. The only thing I look back on when I think of that night was an unfamiliar man charging [at me] and verbally assaulting me.”
Lawrence is no ordinary legionnaire. Up until August, he was the dominion president of the Royal Canadian Legion, which is the Legion’s top post in the country.
Justin and Janell Clarke pose with their dog after exchanging wedding vows on Oct. 3. Their dream wedding day ended on a sour note, however, following an angry outburst by a high-profile member of the Carbonear Legion during the couple’s wedding reception. (Facebook/Justin Clarke)
He served in the army for 33 years, has played leading roles at Branch 23 for more than two decades, and two years ago he was a key figure in the establishment of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the war memorial in St. John’s.
On the night of the wedding reception, Lawrence was attending a separate event at the Legion, and said he drank about five beer. As he left, he witnessed people outside the building holding alcoholic beverages, which is not permitted.
Lawrence was worried that liquor corporation inspectors or police officers might witness the behaviour, and that the Legion might lose its licence to sell beer and alcohol. He said the branch has long struggled to stay within the rules of its licence.
“People treat us … like a private club and [believe] they can do whatever they want,” said Lawrence.
He admitted he lost his cool, stormed back into the Legion, and came face-to-face with the bride, just as she was about to perform the traditional newlywed ritual: the throwing of the bouquet.
“He never did say what it was about. He just kept screaming,” said Clarke, adding she was unaware that guests were drinking alcohol outside the building.
For about a minute, Lawrence shouted profanities, angrily pointed his finger at the bride and others, and threatened to shut down the party.
Lawrence left after another legionnaire intervened.
Clarke said she was too shaken to carry on, and never tossed the bouquet. The party, she said, fizzled out.
“I was, as you can imagine, crying and humiliated in front of all my wedding guests,” she said.
Oct. 3 started out as expected for the couple. They exchanged vows at a church in nearby Salmon Cove, and then hosted about 100 people at the Legion.
The decorations were elaborate, the meals were tasty, and the dance floor was hopping for most of the evening. But the fun ended abruptly with Lawrence’s outburst just before midnight.
On Thursday night, Clarke told her story on Facebook, with her post shared nearly 600 times as of Friday afternoon.
The wedding reception at the Carbonear Legion on Oct. 3 for Justin and Janell Clarke ended early following an outburst by Legion member Berkley Lawrence. As a result, Janell Clarke did not get to throw her wedding bouquet. (Janell Clarke)
On Friday morning, she received a letter of apology from Lawrence.
“All I can do is apologize to everybody involved in the situation, to the bride, to the groom, to the people upstairs, to my Legion, to my wife. It’s not the way I behave normally. This incident has absolutely ruined my life,” said Lawrence.
Five people, including Clarke, who witnessed the incident, wrote letters to the Legion executive.
Clarke had asked for Lawrence to be suspended from the Legion, and she also wanted to be compensated for having her reception cut short by Lawrence’s outburst.
The branch executive met on Wednesday night and decided an apology was sufficient, and that’s when Clarke decided to go public.
Branch president Mike Butt chaired Wednesday’s special meeting, but said he was not able to vote on the decision to have Lawrence apologize.
Butt admitted, without offering any specifics, that he was not entirely happy with the executive’s decision to limit their response to an apology.
“I may have went a little bit different,” Butt said, adding “we are deeply sorry this happened.”
But the president also defended Lawrence, saying “I don’t think he should be made to suffer for 45 seconds or 60 seconds of a lapse.”
Butt described Lawrence as “number one in the Legion and he will always be number one.”
Clarke, meanwhile, said her perfect wedding day ended on a sour note, and now she gets emotional every time she glances at her wedding dress in the closet.
