Archive for July, 2005

The last great continental glacier several thousand years ago carved out a deep and fast-flowing strait, a forbidding natural barrier separating Cape Breton Island from mainland Nova Scotia. For many “Capers” that was just fine. Two centuries ago, a Cape Breton clergyman intoned a prayer of thanks for “the Gut of Canso, which separates us from the mainland and wickedness thereof.” While the 30-kilometre-long Strait of Canso—connecting the Gulf of [...]

One of the most remarkable, and best documented, Canadian naval stories of World War I is that of its small band of intrepid submariners. Only a handful of men, they provided the home war establishment with its most lethal weapon, and a very elite cadre saw extensive active service overseas in British submarines, setting a number of memorable firsts in the process. Their exploits, fully recounted in Dave Perkins’s wonderful book, Canada’s Submariners 1914-1923 (1989), also reveal [...]

In 1922, the Canadian Air Force dispatched Squadron Leader R.A. Logan on the CGS Arctic during its annual cruise of the Eastern Arctic Islands. Though he had no aircraft, Logan unfurled an Air Force ensign in the Arctic and subsequently compiled a report on possible air operations in the North. Nothing came immediately of his study. The Royal Canadian Air Force concentrated on forestry and photo work far from the northern frontier. However, events transpired to spur subarctic aviation. The Hudson Bay Railway—a [...]

While the Canadian Corps fought the battles of Vimy Ridge, Hill 70 and Passchendaele, Canadians on the home front were focused on the issue of conscription for overseas service. There is much to be learned about this topic in a new book of essays in honour of historian Craig Brown edited by David Mackenzie. Titled Canada and the First World War, the book includes chapters by J.L. Granatstein and John English that re-examine conscription and the political leadership of Canada’s [...]

“I hate trains. I would never go, of my own volition, on a train.” Vera Schiff doesn’t say this lightly. In one of life’s bizarre ironies, this 78-year-old Holocaust survivor is sitting on a train headed for the Polish town of Oswiecim (osh-VIEN-shim), otherwise known as Auschwitz. ?More than 60 years ago, 16-year-old Vera Katz (as she was then called), her family and many friends were forced by the Nazis from their homes in Czechoslovakia and herded onto railway cars headed for the death camps and [...]

Did you see the coverage on CBC television on May 8, 2005? Did you watch the National Liberation Parade in Apeldoorn with about 250,000 Dutch citizens lining the parade route in pouring rain? Did you see the smiles and radiant faces of our returning veterans on parade? It was a reception quite unlike anything the veterans have received at home and it was obvious they revelled in the affection. My visit to the Netherlands for 10 days of events marking the 60th anniversary [...]

There are young men inside those weathered husks. You can see it in their eyes whenever someone—especially a child—steps forward to say thank you or present a bouquet of flowers. You can notice it in the way they carry themselves—heads high, backs straight—along the rain-soaked streets of Apeldoorn, and in the way their smiling wartime buddies—riding in vintage military vehicles—wave and blow kisses to the more than 250,000 who are cheering, waving and blowing kisses at them on this [...]

Deep in the Canadian Shield, the Precambrian rock that covers more than half of Canada’s land base, miners are going to work. While gold and diamonds have come out of the Shield, the mineral that employs the most workers is nickel, especially that found around Sudbury, Ont. Each morning a group gathers at the Creighton Mine dressed in overalls, heavy boots and hard hats with a flashlight on the front. While they joke and tell rough [...]

On April 19, the government at long last issued its International Policy Statement. No matter what fate may befall this minority government in the months ahead, this exercise in policy generation has set a new and high standard that future governments may be hard pressed to match. The International Policy Statement consisted of five related documents. There was a capstone document issued over Prime Minister Paul Martin’s signature and four sub-documents covering trade, aid, defence and [...]

There are some major changes on the horizon for the Canadian Forces. Not only is there a new special operations unit—dubbed the Light Force—to support the newly formed special operations group, but there’s a new Canada Command, more soldiers, lots of new equipment and a new, bolder role in the world. These changes are all a result of the new international policy statement, A Role Of Pride And Influence In The World—released by Paul Martin’s [...]