Archive for September, 2001

Survivors work in teams to salvage valuables from a destroyed house. About half an hour before midnight, Marion Sherman was awakened by a strange noise coming from the Humber, a docile river which ran a few hundred yards from their farmhouse near Toronto. She asked her husband, Cliff, to take a look out their bedroom window. Reluctantly, Cliff climbed out of bed and looked. To his amazement, he saw an eight-foot wall of water coming straight at [...]

by Victoria Fulford

A view of the Beaumont Hamel monument from the trenches preserved at the memorial park. They came from across the sea. The first Newfoundland detachment of two infantry companies sailed from their native land in October of 1914, outfitted with khaki wool that would identify them as soldiers and the navy blue leg coverings, or puttees, that would mark them as the famous first 500 Newfoundlanders to enlist. [...]

by Don Smith

  I was 12 when I heard the news of the Allied victory in August 1945. The war was finally over and like a lot of people I greeted that major development with a wild cheer. Most of us understood that many, many people had fought and died in the war, but we had no way of knowing how the fighting had really affected the men and women who served. Several members of my family, [...]

by Paul Gélinas

  There are many incidents that occur during a United Nations peacekeeping tour that go by unreported. One such event happened in 1993 when our platoon-size UN patrol arrived in the village of Okucani, roughly 120 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, Croatia. At the time, I was a sergeant in the reserves, serving with 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

It was May 28th and extremely hot; there was no wind and the sun was blazing down on us without mercy. We were heading [...]

Federal Sculptor Maurice Joanisse translates a concept into a finished sculpture. “One of the best things about this job is helping to show the history of the country so people realize what we have here,” says Maurice Joanisse, Canada’s current official sculptor. As he speaks, on the second-floor gallery above the entrance to the House of Commons, one of an unending flow of school groups chatter noisily below. Looking up from their vantage point, the huge, vaulted space is alive [...]

by David J. Bercuson Prussian General Helmuth von Moltke once declared: “no plan survives first contact with the enemy.” And yet the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence have devoted a considerable chunk of time over the past decade or so trying [...]

>During World War I, Franz Johnston painted endless skyscapes. Miniature airplanes lift and circle through watercolour clouds and the artist manages to defy gravity with every stroke. He is a master of perspective and if you could step into his canvas surely you would drop for miles. Johnston was born in Toronto in 1888 and studied art in the U.S. He was one of the original members of the Group of Seven and sustained a demanding career, exhibiting constantly [...]

by David J. Bercuson

The Hercules aircraft has continued to be a Canadian Forces workhorse since they first started being acquired in the 1960s. As of this writing the Department of National Defence’s White Paper of 1994 remains the theoretical foundation of Canadian defence policy and the government has made no move to either review it or replace it with a new white paper. That is unfortunate to say the least [...]

by Dan Black

First-year cadets practice drill. It’s early and the fog is lifting from Lake Ontario. Rays of sunlight have broken through and turned portions of the old limestone dormitories into gold. Until you spot the tall young man with the short haircut, you half expect a monk to emerge from one of the buildings. The place seems that serene, but across the parade square–above the tower on the Mackenzie Building–a Canadian flag signals another day at the Royal Military College of Canada, a 125-year-old institution [...]

by Tom MacGregor

Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps announces new museum site. It has been 13 years since Legion Magazine first called the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa a national shame. Now a handful of senior cabinet ministers, local members of Parliament and bureaucrats have announced the museum will be the centrepiece of a long-overdue restoration project for downtown Ottawa. In process, the $12-million fix to the museum that was proposed in 1997 has grown into [...]