Archive for May, 2008

The outcome of the 2008 Royal Canadian Legion Dominion Curling Championships turned out to hinge on the luck of the draw.

When curlers and supporters gathered in the comfortable and bright Parkland Recreation Complex in Dauphin, Man., on the last day of play, everyone was looking forward to an afternoon tiebreaker.

Saskatchewan and Quebec were tied with records of five wins and one loss. Given performance over the previous three days of skip Rob Maclean, Danny Belliveau, Allan Jones, Greg Wilson and fifth John Burgess of Hudson, Que., Branch and skip Andrew Hay, Rick Middleton, Les Kun and Darren Clancy of Nutana […]

Throughout its 82 years of history, The Royal Canadian Legion has been well served by its courage and introspection. Indeed, many of the organization’s major public accomplishments owe their success to those attributes—qualities that have served to strengthen the importance of remembrance and bring much-needed assistance to Canada’s veterans and still-serving armed forces personnel. Today, those very same traits are being called upon again—this time to consider what is best for the Legion and its future.

At its February meeting, the Dominion Executive Council discussed the results of the first substantive structural review of the Legion since its inception in 1926 […]

Rick Hillier is still grinning, even if just barely. After more than three years at the head of Canada’s armed forces and at the centre of relentless media attention and political controversy over the war in Afghanistan, Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier, Canada’s sometimes embattled top soldier, remains determined and steadfastly optimistic.

Hillier is optimistic not only about the mission in Afghanistan, where he says there is progress every day, even if it is slow and incomplete, but also about the future of the Canadian Forces, which he says is finally becoming an organization that its members […]

I can remember the wounded, coming out of battle in Europe. We—the members of 14th Field Ambulance of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division—were among the first to treat them. There were men from all ranks, and sometimes friend and foe would arrive in the same ambulance. Some wept while others were silent, suffering from shock. Many waited quietly, and often we would be with them for only a few minutes—intensely close as men ever get to men—before they would slip away and be gone. Part of them became part of us, and through the years I have found myself […]

Members of Dominion Executive Council were asked in February to put aside personal feelings, regional concerns as well as branch and command loyalties to consider what’s best for the Legion as a whole as they heard results of the first substantive structural review of The Royal Canadian Legion since its inception in 1926.

Resolutions were passed that—if ratified at dominion convention in June—would begin a restructuring that will affect every command and branch across the country.

“I cannot stress too much the importance of this study for the future of the Legion and the future of those who are serving in the […]

The bleak quietness of William MacDonnell’s canvases is strangely threatening, and this is quite deliberate. The scenic painting titled Tragedy On A Country Road marks a place where Canadian soldiers, while driving, hit a landmine in the former Yugoslavia. Even though the viewer cannot help but pick up on the threat, it is obscure and hidden much like the landmines our soldiers often encounter while overseas.

At first glance, MacDonnell’s work is idyllic, with no signs of violence. What appears as a quiet winter landscape in the artwork titled In A Forest Near Smolensk is in fact the same place […]