Archive for September, 1998

The fragrant smell of Christmas tree-shaped car deodorizers always makes me think of two important events in my life: Taking a much-anticipated drive in my dad’s first completely new car–a Ford Thunderbird convertible–and shopping with him at our local Canadian Tire store. Back then, men didn’t “shop”, they just “picked things up.” I remember we would end up in line at the checkout counter where we’d come face to face with the store’s last-ditch effort to show us the things we were forgetting [...]

by Tom MacGregor A few miles out to sea from St. John’s, Nfld., HMCS Charlottetown, one of the modern Halifax-class frigates, pulled up beside a floating block of ice the size of a small ship. Known as growlers to Newfoundlanders because of the noise they make when they roll over, the ice is only a fragment from the icebergs that drift south from the Arctic Ocean each spring. It was a scenic setting for a solemn ceremony. Canadian Forces chaplain Lieutenant-Commander Jacques Cantin was joined by several St. John’s clergy in the saying of prayers. The Act of Remembrance was recited in [...]

by Dan Black Beyond the jagged edge of the evergreen forest the armored personnel carrier makes another sharp turn on the mountain road before heading down across the valley. I’m standing in one of the carrier’s rear hatches, watching a great big moon rise over Bosnia-Herzegovina. As the carrier shifts gears and gains more speed, my ears are pounded by the noise coming from the huge engine. Suddenly–in rapid succession–I see the twisted, moonlit skeletons of bombed-out houses and overturned vehicles; gloomy reminders of the 1991—95 war that killed 250,000 men, women and children. Down below–squeezed into the belly of the carrier–five [...]

High-flying honkers are as Canadian as maple sugar in March and crimson leaves in October. Several species of these migratory majestic cacklers were almost extinct earlier this century. But black-necked giant Canada geese and white Arctic snow geese have made remarkable, albeit raucous, recoveries. Sound dandy? It isn’t. Scientists warn that record numbers of lesser snow geese are placing the Arctic ecosystem in peril as an estimated six million birds grub away at the fragile tundra breeding grounds edging Hudson and James bays. This management problem has wildlife and conservation groups flocking together to find controls. The Arctic Goose Habitat Working [...]

Richard Jack concentrated on the collective triumph rather than the individual agony of war. From top to bottom: Major Ronald I. Jack; The Taking of Vimy Ridge, Easter Monday, 1917; an untitled painting. Richard Jack was Canada’s first official war artist. Born in Sunderland, England, in 1866, the British subject studied at the Académie Julien in Paris, France, before he was hired by Canada to become our first official war artist in 1916. He held strong opinions on the modern school of art and in 1933 was quoted in the Toronto Telegram as saying: “A glib tongue, rather than a clever brush [...]

The American military historian Stephen Ambrose has a new bestseller in the bookstores. It’s called Citizen Soldiers and in it he describes the United States Army from the Normandy landings to the surrender of Germany. Ambrose is one of a small, but growing group of American historians who argue that the Allied armies fought with skill and determination in defeating their enemies on the battlefield. He believes that “free men fight better than slaves” and that “the sons of democracy proved to be better soldiers than the sons of Nazi Germany.”I think Ambrose overstates his case, but a re-examination of [...]