Archive for January, 2009

Working to ensure the well-being of veterans in long-term care facilities requires ongoing vigilance. Across the country there are thousands of Legionnaires dedicated to this role. They are the volunteers who take the time to regularly visit veterans. In order to assist them and the families of veterans, The Royal Canadian Legion’s Veterans, Service and Seniors Committee developed the Legion Family Guidelines for Long Term Care. Copies of the guidelines can be obtained by writing to the Director of the Dominion Command Service Bureau, 86 Aird Place, Kanata, ON, K2L 0A1. Here is an abbreviated vision of what you’ll find: Safety and [...]

Every day for two years Francis Christian, a dedicated member of Vimy Branch in Halifax, N.S., made his way to the Camp Hill Veterans Memorial Building for a very special visit to one of its residents. Christian was there—seven days a week—to make sure a former RCMP colleague got at least one good meal a day when he was no longer able to feed himself. “I’d known him for 50 years,” though their relationship blossomed in his friend’s final days, says Christian, now 85. “I went in every day to spoon-feed him.” Two years ago, he was called in for the [...]

Troops bound for Afghanistan got an unexpected send-off this fall as they made a short stop in the eastern Ontario town of Tweed while en route between Canadian Forces Base Petawawa and Trenton where they caught their flight overseas. Legionnaires, schoolchildren, veterans and members of the community, 55 kilometres east of Trenton, greeted several busloads of soldiers that arrived at the local Tim Hortons franchise and Tweed Branch between Sept. 8 and Oct. 8. “It all started innocently enough but ended with fanfare reserved for royalty,” said District F Public Relations Chairman Mary Ann Goheen. Tweed Branch was challenged by Jimmie Clark [...]

The feeling has been described by survivors as falling. Also as soaring. There’s a flash and a shrieking darkness and then the weightless moments of maximum kinetic terror when the detonation blasts you beyond gravity. After the boom there is just distorted wreckage, and dust and pain and shouting, for the survivors at least. All the armour in the world and it just doesn’t really matter. The vehicles get tougher but the blasts get bigger. There is simply no good way to keep Canadian soldiers safe once they get caught in the boom of the roadside bombs, the suicide bombs, the [...]

It’s not all that easy to restore a 67-year-old truck. Just ask Jim Whitham, the collections manager at the Canadian War Museum, as he’s just spent many, many months working on—and trying to find parts for—a 1941 Fordson model E83 that was used in England during the Second World War as an emergency food van. But now he’s almost done. They’re still waiting on a few parts to arrive from England in order to get the old girl running again, but at least the cosmetic restoration is done. And quite a restoration it was, as The Royal Canadian Legion donated $5,000 to the [...]

Questions What was the name of the series of radar tracking, warning and control stations completed in 1957 that stretched from Alaska to Baffin Island? What was the name of the newspaper published by and for the Canadian Army during the Second World War? Who was the member of the Winnipeg Grenadiers who was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for his actions in defence of Hong Kong? What was the name of the rifle withdrawn from the Canadian troops during the First World War and replaced by the Lee Enfield? What was the name of the legis­lation drafted in 1944 advocating a range of rights [...]

For many years our school just outside Regina was blessed with a Remembrance Day speaker who served during the Second World War. His name is Dennis Chisholm, a giant of a man with a booming voice that draws you immediately into his presence. Dennis has lived more than 80 years, but he still has that zesty passion for life—the same kind you experience when you are young and looking forward to a long and meaningful life. A few years back, I found myself hanging on to each word Dennis spoke because it was to be one of his last visits to our [...]

This April many people who believed themselves to be Canadians, only to find out that they were not, will have their citizenship officially restored or established for the first time. Many of them have lived their whole lives as Canadians—were born here, raised here, paid taxes, served and, in many cases, fought for the country—only to find out when they sought their pensions or other government benefits that were never actually Canadians to begin with. These people are called “the Lost Canadians,” and while the government hasn’t yet released a final number as to how many lost citizens exist, a recent CBC [...]

Of all the expressions known to humankind, nothing captures the essence of remembrance more than a prolonged period of silence. When the First World War ended 90 years ago on Nov. 11, 1918, it wasn’t a loud celebration that erupted from the trenches; it was the rise of pale silence. The true nature of that silence cannot be completely understood by those who weren’t there and didn’t experience the unspeakable horrors of a war that killed approximately 10 million people and maimed millions more. Among those who did serve in the war, only a tiny number remain, including Canada’s Jack Babcock, [...]

A distant call to remembrance seems natural in Quebec City, especially for those gathering around the Cross of Sacrifice for the annual Remembrance Day service. Dwarfed by the walls of the Citadelle, the fortification that dominates the old city, the cross adds a sombre presence to the grounds around the National Assembly, the provincial legislature building. It is at the entrance to that building under the provincial coat of arms that architect and Assistant Commissioner for Crown Lands Eugène-Étienne Taché had carved the motto “Je me souviens”—I remember. History has not recorded why the architect chose those words in 1883. It may [...]