Archive for March, 2001

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For almost 40 years, harvest excursions were organized in Eastern Canada to assist prairie farmers with the grain harvest. Thousands of men and women were recruited, no experience necessary, and transported out west to work in the fields, to ensure that Canada maintained its reputation as the breadbasket of the world. The excursions were a huge undertaking and were absolutely critical for a successful harvest.First conceived by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1890, the annual harvest […]

by Andrew F. Maksymchuk

I was raised in British Columbia and spent a year in southern Ontario before joining the Ontario Provincial Police in 1964. My wife, Myra, is from Prince Edward Island and she began her career as a registered nurse in Kenora, Ont., the location of my first posting with the OPP. I had been on the job three years when my yearning for adventure led me to seek the position of officer-in-charge at Central […]

by Captain Fred Doucette

Sarajevo was a dangerous place in 1995, but there were locations within the heavily damaged city where people felt safe. One such spot was a vacant lot next to a house shared by five members of our United Nations Military Observer […]

by Major Rohan Maxwell

Cattle drink from a pond that has yet to be cleared of mines.

In the aftermath of World War II, nationalism, communism and decolonization combined to plunge Indochina into decades of warfare. In Cambodia, war has been part of the landscape since the early 1960s, particularly during the Vietnam War when various armies used the country to advance their military objectives. Indeed, the United Nations reports that between 1969 and 1973 an estimated […]

by Tom MacGregor

Sai Wan Hill offers a spectacular view.

When you get away from the concrete and skyscrapers in the bustling city of Hong Kong, you find areas of lush forest growth, even with winter coming on. In one of four buses carrying a delegation of Canadians marking the 55th anniversary of the release of the Hong Kong prisoners of war, someone asked veteran Harry Atkinson how they ever fought in such thick jungle. “You have to remember it wasn’t like this in […]

Showy Lady’s Slipper orchids add light and beauty to the Purdon Conservation Area near Ottawa.

You have to wonder what Joe Purdon would have thought as a hot pink tour bus comes crunching in off Concession Road 8 in Lanark, Ont., shattering the morning quiet of the old woodlot. The emerging visitors–some two dozen garden club members toting cameras, hats and bug spray–chat enthusiastically as they head for the wooden hut that houses a humble one-seater.

Welcome to Purdon Conservation Area, 25 hectares of former farmland […]

Canadian war artist Albert Cloutier was born at Leominster, Mass., in 1902. His Canadian parents returned to Montreal when he was still a child. As a young man growing up in Montreal, Cloutier studied under several well-known teachers, including A.Y. Jackson and Edwin H. Holgate.

Cloutier supported himself as a freelance artist for about 10 years before becoming supervisor of war poster production for the federal government from 1940 to 1944. In March 1944, he enlisted and […]

by David J. Bercuson

The new LAV III armoured personnel carrier is featured in new commercials for recruiting young people into the Canadian Forces.

Coming at you, in full stereo sound, on the wide screen: a crashing LAV III armoured personnel carrier in Canadian Army camouflage, charging full bore across the landscape complete with driver and crew. Next, a Griffon helicopter making a wide-sweeping turn, banking hard as it comes around for another […]

by Ray Dick

The Canadian Forces, with its long and commendable wartime and peacetime history, is gearing up for what could be one of its toughest battles yet. It has embarked on a campaign to recruit enough people to meet its far-flung commitments and to prevent a hard core of experienced members from leaving the service for better pay and working conditions. And while Canadian Forces officials and their political bosses say the military is stretched thin but still meeting those commitments, they also go along with defence analysts who […]

by Mac Johnston

Many rural homes and buildings in the Livno Valley were destroyed during the 1995 Croat offensive.

To our right, the land drops away to a flat valley; to our left, the land rises rapidly to form hills which grow into a small mountain range as our Grizzly armoured personnel carrier proceeds from Glamoc to Livno on patrol route Charlie 4 through the Livno Valley. On both sides of the […]