Archive for July, 2008

Dr. Allan Hawryluk was dreading the difficult hours ahead—his patient was on blood thinners, and bleeding uncontrollably following a tooth extraction. The Mississauga dentist knew it could be hours before the bleeding was brought under control with sutures and chemical compounds. Then he tried a sample of the new HemCon dental dressing. “The bleeding stopped completely and immediately,” he said. “I just didn’t believe it.” In the year since he first used it he has gone on to use the new dressing to stop bleeding in the mouth of a National Hockey League player who “was able to return to fight [...]

On June 26, 1940, just two days after France formally surrendered to Germany, the first Canadian-built Flower-class corvette, His Majesty’s Ship Trillium, slipped into the St. Lawrence River from the Vickers shipyard in Montreal. Nine more corvettes for the Royal Navy followed from Quebec yards over the next eight weeks. By the end of August 1940, these ships had been joined by seven Royal Canadian Navy corvettes, including the first produced by Ontario and British Columbia builders. But getting hulls in the water proved much easier than getting ships into action. In fact, it was another nine [...]

As a result of an initiative by Veterans Affairs Canada, a Legion provincial command service officer was invited to partake in an information session sponsored by VAC and the local Operational Stress Injury (OSI) office. The main thrust of this information session was to reach out to individuals suffering from operational stress, and to inform them of the services available to them. Presentations were made by representatives from VAC, the community, and Legion service officers on services and benefits available to our veterans and their dependants. In order to conduct this information session a venue had to be secured that would [...]

One second. That’s about all you’ve got after you hit the buzzer. If you hesitate or begin to waffle, the question will go to the other team. And that’s not cool because the other team could get it right and score a point. And so here’s your question: What was the code name for an offensive launched on Feb. 8, 1945, preceded by a crushing air and artillery attack on the enemy positions? The remarkable thing here is that you’re not a military historian—although you may be some day. You’re a junior high school student, born in 1995—50 years after the [...]

The 5th Canadian Armoured Division’s first major opera- tion—the breakout from the Hitler Line and the establishment of a bridgehead across the Melfa River—was by any measure a great success. Unfortunately, the next stage of the advance through Italy—the crossing of the Liri River and the advance to Ceprano and Frosinone—was marred by a series of incidents that resulted in slow and uncertain progress. Was this the result of the normal friction of war or were failures in command responsible for the difficulties of the last days of May 1944? General Oliver Leese, the commander of 8th Army, insisted that [...]

This story doesn’t begin during the Second World War; it begins this year, on the first Sunday in May, with a bespectacled Arthur Taylor—now 85—standing on the portside of His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Sackville with one hand resting on the rail and the other clutching a red rose and part of a small bouquet. The old sailor from Newfoundland did not come aboard the wartime corvette with the flowers. Instead, they were given to him by people he had just met—people who were pleased to meet him and show respect for what he and thousands of other sailors did during the [...]

Governor General Michaëlle Jean invoked the image of crowds lining up on Parliament Hill to pay their respects to Smokey Smith VC as he lay in state in 2005 when she unveiled Canada’s own Victoria Cross on May 16. “The line stretched all the way to Wellington Street. The decoration captured the imagination of an entire country,” she said. “The British Victoria Cross is the highest degree of recognition one could hope to receive in the course of a lifetime. And there are but a few who have received it just over a century and a half.” Nearly 100 Canadians have received [...]

It was only natural that as Canada became a more confident, independent nation that it would shed many of the elements of colonialism. In our Centennial year, 1967, we proudly created the Order of Canada and our own honours and awards system. That system did not include specific military decorations for valour which up until then had been awarded to Canadians by the British government. In 1992, our own medals of military valour were designed by the Chancellery and accepted by Queen Elizabeth II. These were the Medal of Military Valour, the Star of Military Valour and, highest of all, [...]

The National Memorial Centre, a place where solemn remembrance, state ceremonies and private services in many faiths can be held, has opened in Ottawa directly adjacent to the National Military Cemetery of the Canadian Forces. Prominent among the centre’s elements is a Hall of Colours where Canada’s proud regiments and units can retire their colours and flags with dignity. The hall was made possible through a donation of $50,000 from Dominion Command of The Royal Canadian Legion in light of the Legion’s historical commitment to Canada’s ships, regiments and squadrons. The central component of the National Memorial Centre is a 14,000-square-foot, nine-sided [...]

In the early afternoon of Operation Ateesh Bazi’s second day, as our patrol staggered through its 10th hour and third suspected insurgent stronghold, the heat became something more vivid and invasive than a phenomenon of weather should ever be. Numbers alone cannot contain or relate the effect of that high-noon Afghan desert sun on the brains and bodies of cold-weather-bred Canadians. You get so hot it would be inappropriate to call it hot. You suck at the air. Your body armour cooks you like simmering hot plates strapped to your chest and back and head and you are dimly aware that [...]