Legion Magazine

Saskatchewan And Quebec Battle For Curling Title

Sharon Adams — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:01:31 +0000

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 Branch in Saskatoon, Sask., everyone was looking forward to a game of precision and finesse.

But luck did not last, though there was plenty to go round early in the week, when weather, ill health and a train derailment threatened the event. A record snowstorm in the East caused flight delays, but westbound teams all managed to secure seats on flights to Winnipeg. Nova Scotia’s team, from Bridgewater, arrived broomless, the Newfoundland and Labrador team had to leave a member in Winnipeg for medical attention. And a train derailment delayed arrival of the bonspiel patches.

After all that, the teams were ready for a good time, and it began during the four-hour bus ride with plenty of food and good humour that made the trip between Winnipeg and Dauphin, 320 km to the northwest, pass quickly. Luckily, the Newfoundland and Labrador team member and the mislaid brooms arrived in time for the first draw Monday.

Dauphin, the retail and grain transportation hub for Manitoba’s Parkland region, was surrounded by wide grain fields still sporting the last remnants of winter snow when events kicked off Sunday evening with supper and entertainment at the Dauphin Branch. The affectionately named Legion Ladies, under leadership of Lillian Peirson, cooked up the first of many feasts during the week. Since about 40 per cent of the town is of Ukrainian heritage, branch meals featured Ukrainian delicacies like perogies, kielbasa sausage and cabbage rolls. The Dauphin Legion Highland Dance Club’s performance included sword dances, the Scottish fling and a boisterous rendition of The Irish Washerwoman. The Zirka Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, in their colourful costumes, also treated the appreciative crowd to an energetic and athletic display.

Curlers were much impressed by the excellent arrangements of the transportation committee, headed by Jim Todoruk, and the legion of cheerful and helpful volunteers driving the courtesy vans supplied by Dean Cooley GM dealership.

Curlers were up bright and early Monday to attend the opening ceremony in the curling rink in the beautifully renovated and expanded complex. The Dauphin Legion Pipes & Drums piped in the dignitaries, the colour party and the curlers, who stood reverently on the ice for singing of the national anthem and the pledge.

Dominion Command Sports Committee representative Dave Paterson made a toast to the piper and wished the curlers well. In opening the 52nd annual Dominion Curling Championship, he told the curlers it “wasn’t just a rumour” that this might be the last dominion curling event, pending a motion at dominion convention in June calling for termination of all dominion sporting events. It was also the first year since the seniors curling championship had been discontinued as a cost-saving measure.

Joining Paterson in wishing competitors good curling and good fun were Greg Thompson, host committee chairman; Manitoba–Northwestern Ontario Command First Vice Gordon Walker; district representative Tony Safronetz; Dauphin Branch President Walter Peirson; MLA Stan Struthers; and Dennis Forbes, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Dauphin. Ray Baker, Legion dominion championship skip from 2004, threw the first rock which was, as always, right on the button. With little delay, the first rocks were thrown in this year’s competition.

Before lunch at the branch, the teams threw draws to determine who would have the hammer in tiebreakers. The New Brunswick team, from Lancaster Branch in Saint John, distinguished itself, in part thanks to a perfect draw by skip Randy McKim, at 62.5 inches, followed by Manitoba at 66, Saskatchewan at 96, P.E.I. (aided by a perfect draw by lead Earle Proule) at 99, Newfoundland at 114.5, Nova Scotia/Nunavut at 164, B.C./Yukon at 199 and Quebec at 200.

Monday ended with Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan with two wins apiece, P.E.I., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick with two losses each and Newfoundland and B.C. with 1-1 records.

On Tuesday, Saskatchewan polished off two Maritime teams, beating Nova Scotia 10-3 in the morning and New Brunswick 9-3 in the afternoon to end the day with a 4-0 record. In other Tuesday morning games, P.E.I. beat Newfoundland 8-5 and Quebec beat the team from Salmon Arm, B.C., 8-3 in eight ends. In the longest game of the morning, New Brunswick had to raise an outside guard to score and force an extra end, but mate Mike Dobson’s rock was too heavy and overcurled, leaving Manitoba with a shot and a 6-4 win.

Tuesday afternoon, the last few ends for Quebec were “steal, steal, steal,” said skip Maclean. Consequently Manitoba skip Butch Mouck faced a huddle of four Quebec rocks, one of them shot, straddling the back of the eight foot, in his final throw. He threaded through the guards, sailed by his own rock sitting just inside the eight-foot circle up front to nudge apart the huddle and win 7-6.

Wednesday morning the fates of four teams were of particular interest—Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, none of whom had yet lost a game; and New Brunswick, which had not yet won one.

The lead went back and forth in the game between Quebec and Saskatchewan until the sixth end, marked by bump and roll tactics.

“We just couldn’t get a rock in exactly the right place,” said Hay. “They kept bumping and rolling and the rocks just kept hanging around. Quebec was in position to score five or six.” But Maclean’s last shot overcurled, bumping out the back, leaving one Saskatchewan rock to count, ducking a big bullet.

Maclean missed a raise in the ninth end and took out a carefully placed Saskatchewan rock, leaving Quebec counting one, two and three. Hay was ahead briefly after a double takeout, but Maclean ended up counting two after taking out the Saskatchewan shot rock.

In the 10th end Maclean’s first shot hit away a guard for a tiny bite in front of the 12-foot ring. Hay drew into the eight-foot on the opposite side but his rock didn’t curl enough to hide behind the guard out front. Maclean took out Saskatchewan’s shot rock, leaving an impossible split. Since Hay needs two to tie, he doesn’t bother throwing his last rock. Final score: Quebec 6, Saskatchewan 4.

“You don’t mind losing games like that, because you did everything you could,” says Hay. “You just didn’t have the luck that game. If we’d had just one more lucky break….”

It was in the afternoon that he was to get it, in a close game with Manitoba.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick posted its first win, 9-2 over Newfoundland; and Manitoba had its first loss, 2-5 at the hands of B.C. Nova Scotia beat P.E.I. 7-6 to round out the morning’s play.

In the afternoon a hometown crowd began to gather behind the glass on the main floor and in the upstairs Curler’s Lounge windows overlooking sheet 3, where Saskatchewan was taking on the hometown favourite, Manitoba’s Gilbert Plains Branch, which lies 30 kilometres due west of Dauphin. In the 10th end, Hay’s last throw was a delicate freeze for a point. Manitoba skip Mouck threw a beauty to bump back Saskatchewan’s rock and tie the game and force an extra end, no doubt aided by the collective intake of breath of the many fans gathered in the viewing galleries.

Mouck used his first rock in the 11th end to place a centre front guard to shield his shot rock. Hay drew around, taking out the Manitoba stone, leaving Saskatchewan two rocks with the button open. And here Hay’s luck kicked in. Mouck’s final draw missed the button. Final score: Saskatchewan 7, Manitoba 6.

None of the other games ended with such close scores. Nova Scotia beat B.C., 7-5; Quebec won over Newfoundland 8-3 and P.E.I. beat New Brunswick 9-6.

Quebec and Saskatchewan, tied at five wins and one loss, were the games to watch Thursday morning, as their fates would decide the length of the bonspiel. Saskatchewan was up against B.C., which had a 3-3 record; Quebec faced off against P.E.I., which was sitting two wins, four losses. Manitoba led the rest of the pack with a 4-2 record, followed by Newfoundland and New Brunswick, tied at one win and five losses.

Saskatchewan started with the hammer and managed to stay ahead of B.C. for the whole game. In the sixth and final end, B.C. missed a vital takeout with the seventh rock, an opportunity Hay was not going to waste. Already scoring one point to one side of the button, he nudged a second rock to settle on the other side, just too distant for a double, forcing B.C. to take one point. With the score 6-2, B.C. conceded.

Quebec and P.E.I. had a much closer—and longer—game, tying at five after the ninth end. With his last rock, P.E.I. skip Mel Bernard tried to take out a Quebec rock and get a roll to hide behind his own rock sitting second, but missed the roll, leaving Quebec a draw into an open four-foot to win. But curling luck often gets in the way of sure things. Maclean’s rock left the hack with the right weight, but picked up some debris coming down the sheet and stopped far short. P.E.I. stole two to win 10-8.

Saskatchewan won the bonspiel with a 6-1 record.

The trophy went to skip Hay, Middleton, Kun and Clancy.

“Nobody wants to win this way,” said Hay. “A pick is a pick,” shrugged Maclean as he congratulated Hay.

Nonetheless, Thursday’s reception and awards banquet was boisterous and good spirited, and began with distribution of the crests, which had been retrieved from the rail mishap in northern Ontario.

Paterson summed up the feeling in the room at the closing ceremonies by saying “I hope we can all meet again next year at Maple Ridge.” A sentiment echoed by all in attendance, including Dominion Past President Mary Ann Burdett, who joined the fun Wednesday.

But the fate of the 53rd Dominion Curling Championship is in the hands of dominion convention delegates, when they consider their resolutions.

The Courage To Look Within

admin — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:01:38 +0000

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 (Dominion Convention To Vote On New Structure, page 67). The council’s members were asked to set aside their personal feelings, regional concerns as well as branch and command loyalties to consider the Legion’s overall governance, structure and command representation. “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 Canadian Forces today,” Legion Honorary Grand President Charles Belzile told the Feb. 23-24 gathering in Ottawa. “The latter will continue to need our support now and in the future and we, in whatever configuration we choose to deliver this support, must ensure that we will be there when they call for us.”

This very timely soul-searching exercise began in February 2007 when DEC approved the creation of the RCL Commission on Governance, Representation and Command Structure. This significant undertaking continued on into February 2008 when DEC accepted the commission’s report and then agreed to forward three resolutions to dominion convention in June. The commission’s overall task was daunting, but it was an opportunity for the Legion to come up with fresh ideas that would make sense when viewed through the sharp realities facing the organization today. Chief among those realities, of course, is declining membership and the financial difficulties it creates at all levels.

It is our view that any discussion aimed at finding solutions must be seen as constructive to the Legion’s future. The current configuration has served the Legion well, but its essential components need to be retooled and reconciled with the Legion of today.

In his report to DEC, commission Chairman Steve Wessel noted that while Legion membership as a whole had dropped 36 per cent from its peak of 602,489 in 1984 to 388,584 in 2006, DEC remained essentially the same size with 40 members.

The three proposed resolutions stemming from DEC’s acceptance of the commission’s report are aimed at the following: a) reducing the number of DEC command representatives to 10. This would mean one from each provincial command. These 10 would be in addition to seven Senior Officers, namely the Dominion President, First Vice, two Vice-Presidents, Chairman, Treasurer and Past President; a TVS Representative; Honorary Grand President and the Chairman of the Constitution and Laws Committee—for a total DEC size of 20. b) reducing the number of dominion vice-presidents from four to two. c) eliminating the Dominion Command Sub-Executive Committee. The rationale behind each resolution is explained in our coverage of the February DEC meeting (page 67), but the ultimate aim is to reduce the cost of governance—starting at the top.

If approved, the proposed changes will bring about a major shift in how the Legion operates and governs itself. Therefore, it is very important for all three resolutions to be clearly understood and discussed thoroughly and openly at the June 21-25 dominion convention in Ottawa.

Overall, we applaud the commission and the courage it and the DEC have shown on this important quest for practicable solutions. The Legion—at any time—cannot afford to be over-governed. It must always search for smarter—more efficient ways to remain absolutely true to the organization’s Articles of Faith; it must be willing to change in order to stay strong and healthy enough to meet those honourable commitments against the backdrop of present-day realities.

Currently, costs prevent the 40-member DEC from meeting more than once a year outside of dominion convention. A leaner DEC would cost far less and allow the council to meet in Ottawa three times a year. This, we feel, would keep DEC closer to the issues of the day, and—along with the help of e-mail and conference calls—it would enable DEC to make important decisions in a far more timely and efficient manner. It would also mean that dominion convention would remain as the governing authority—just as it will be in June when delegates will be asked to debate and vote on these important measures.

A Welcoming Gesture

Last October, the Legion invited representatives of 14 veterans groups to a meeting in Ottawa to discuss a way in which they might come together in a Legion federation. It was the first time since 1925 that veterans groups had sat together to consider their collective future. It was a positive meeting and the groups agreed to return for a followup meeting this October.

Well before that meeting takes place, delegates at the Legion’s dominion convention in June will be asked to consider two optional changes to the traditional Legion uniform. Both serve to recognize the strong loyalty serving members or former members of the military have to their particular unit, regiment or branch of service.

The first resolution would allow Legion members to parade wearing their Legion uniform with the official headdress and appropriate service cap badge of their unit, regiment or service that they have earned. The Legion beret would remain mandatory for Legion colour parties. The second resolution would allow Legion members who are current or former members of the Canadian Forces or allied forces to wear the blazer badge of their unit—regiment or service—on the lower right side pocket of their Legion blazer.

These two proposed changes do little to change the look of the Legion uniform, but they would be seen as important welcoming gestures to those veterans organizations already considering unity under a Legion banner.

Chief Of The Defence Staff General Rick Hillier

Adam Day — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:01:50 +0000

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 want to be a part of.

Handpicked to become chief of defence staff by former Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Defence Minister Bill Graham, Hillier burst into the public spotlight in early 2005 with his outspoken views, boisterous charisma and strongly enunciated vision for a new Canadian Forces.

“I have no lessons for survival, because I’ve wallowed through that one myself,” says Hillier, smiling. “I’ve worked too many hours, smoked too many cigars and done everything just about wrong for survival, personally.”

Now, after more than three years on the job, he has been through a lot and the stress is starting to show a little. While famed for his gregarious good humour and affable charisma, during recent public speeches and interviews he has appeared slightly downbeat, not quite curt, but perhaps a little weary. “(I) knew (my term as CDS) was going to be intense,” he says. “My intent was intense and short, but so far I’ve fallen short on the short and so, yeah, it is intense.”

Born in 1955 at Campbellton, Nfld., Hillier joined the military after graduation from Memorial University in 1975. An armoured officer, he served in the 8th Canadian Hussars and Royal Canadian Dragoons before moving on to higher staff positions, including chief of the land staff.

Nothing, however, could have adequately prepared him for the stress and scrutiny of his last three years. He has now served under three ministers of national defence, two prime ministers and endured countless small, but potentially career-ending bureaucratic and media flare ups. And he’s done it all with a trademark grin. “I have no lessons for survival, because I’ve wallowed through that one myself,” says Hillier, smiling, during an interview with Legion Magazine. “I’ve worked too many hours, smoked too many cigars and done everything just about wrong for survival, personally.”

But survived he has, though not without a few scars. Beyond the innumerable small controversies lies a greater source of stress: no fewer than 84 Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen have died since Hillier took office on Feb. 4, 2005. While that number includes soldiers who died in Canada and across the globe, the vast majority of the deaths occurred in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, on a mission Hillier championed and has overseen since it began in 2006.

While he believes there is slow and steady progress in Afghanistan, he says there is “not enough development visible” and that while the Taliban have been diminished, they are still a lethal fighting force.

Despite this, he is confident that the bulk of the fighting is over, and that in the near future, after February 2009, Canada will be able to devote a larger proportion of its forces to training Afghan soldiers and police, mainly using the Operational Mentor Liaison Teams (OMLTs) which are Canadian soldiers embedded inside Afghan army and police units.

Meanwhile, Hillier acknowledges that the task of stabilizing Kandahar province and routing the Taliban has been a difficult mission, particularly in what he calls the “iron triangle,” the area west-southwest of Kandahar city roughly centred on Zhari, Panjwai and Pashmul, birthplace of the Taliban, where the majority of fighting has occurred.

While for the past two years the CF had tried to tackle this ground largely alone—and consequently was engaged in a futile game of battling to drive insurgents off a piece of land only to have to withdraw and cede it back to them—in the next few months, according to Hillier, there will be a whole new reality on the ground. “The fact is we didn’t have the troops to be in places all the time. So we could surge in, but then we had to go elsewhere to conduct an operation and the Taliban therefore could come back in and felt free to do so, and in fact still do…right now it’s a whack-a-mole game as they say.”

But heading into this spring, a number of things have changed in favour of the NATO mission. The first and most obvious are the approximately 3,000 United States Marines streaming into Kandahar province to work alongside the CF, in “synchronized operations,” as Hillier calls it.

But beyond that, as Hillier points out, are a few more subtle but possibly equally decisive developments. Not only are the famed Nepalese Gurkhas now operating alongside the Canadian battalion in the south as a regional reserve battalion, there is an American theatre reserve battalion also slated for operations in the south. “The potential of four battalions or more working together in Kandahar for good parts of this next campaign season from March to November changes the dynamic completely,” says Hillier. “Because the Taliban can’t just withdraw to Maywand district or to Spin Boldak or to the northern Arghandab because there’s going to be a battalion there also. So all of a sudden they’re left without a place to go and we have a more sustainable presence over the next six to eight months in a huge way and that allows the police to get in and do something and it allows their confidence to grow and it allows us to make more progress with the Afghan army because we’ve got more training teams there.”

Beyond the next six to eight months—the next “fighting season” as many like to call it—the debate in Canada has moved on to 2009, and what happens to the Canadian mission after the current three-year commitment is finished. While Parliament voted in March to extend the mission, in principle, until 2011, much of the operational details were yet to be worked out.

While the focus in Ottawa this spring was largely centred on whether the combat mission would continue or be replaced by a less aggressive, less dangerous role centred on training Afghan forces, Hillier attempted to refocus the debate by calling on Parliament to provide the CF with a mission that is “militarily viable.”

“Right now, in the training piece, we’ve got about 250 of our soldiers engaged,” says Hillier, referring to the Canadians now in the OMLT program. “As soon as we get another battalion, or get more troops, or get more police, we will get more trainers from our contingent, and that’ll mean less (Canadians) in the fight. But we’ve got to keep that reactive capability, and we’ve got to keep going after their leaders.”

There will be fewer Canadians in the fight because, in theory, the Afghans will be doing much more of the fighting themselves, albeit with Canadian assistance in the form of OMLTs. However, the reactive capability Hillier refers to means a combat force of Canadian soldiers in reserve, and going after Taliban leadership will require a continued commitment of Canadian special operations forces. And beyond this, even the distinction between training and combat is far from clear, as Hillier notes.

“When we put the OMLTs in, they’re out with those Afghan battalions and that means they’re going to be in firefights themselves. So what I was simply saying was, ‘let’s not try to run the detailed mechanics of a mission on the ground in Afghanistan from here in Ottawa when we don’t know what the situation is going to be on a daily basis.’ If you do that you’re going to run huge risks and put men and women at risk. And so give us the mission and make sure it’s a militarily viable mission from the view of the commanders and then let us get on with it.”

Hillier’s contention is that continued military operations in Kandahar province are almost certainly going to require combat of some sort and that a political order to avoid combat while remaining operational in Kandahar would imperil the mission’s success and endanger the lives of Canadian soldiers. No doubt he has a point.

Meanwhile, back in Canada, the CF is in a different struggle. After being repeatedly reduced in size and restricted in equipment purchases in the period following the end of the Cold War, it is now in the position of growing slightly faster than it can manage. “We went down so low in numbers; I actually think we went below critical mass,” explains Hillier. “In a country this big, with this number of bases and stations, with this number of tasks in Canada, this number of tasks in North America with Norad and this number of missions outside…we were below critical mass.”

And while the forces are growing rapidly, the main problem Hillier faces is training the recruits fast enough. In addition, he says there are so many procurement programs going on that they too are moving a little too fast to handle. “We’ve got more equipment programs ongoing right now than we can actually manage at one time,” he explains, “and as a result we are prioritizing and sliding some to the right. For example, we would have liked to have been at fixed wing Search and Rescue two years ago, but it just wasn’t possible with all that we’re doing, but now in the not distant future we’ll get back to that one and get that one moving….”

“…‘let’s not try to run the detailed mechanics of a mission on the ground in Afghanistan from here in Ottawa when we don’t know what the situation is going to be on a daily basis.’ If you do that you’re going to run huge risks and put men and women at risk. And so give us the mission and make sure it’s a militarily viable mission from the view of the commanders and then let us get on with it.”

In the end though, Hillier seems satisfied that his project to transform the Canadian Forces has largely succeeded and doesn’t seem too worried about any remaining obstacles. Indeed, the vision he offered when he took office—a restructured CF, new equipment, a new focus on operations and CF unity—has largely come to pass and while some work remains, the sense you get from him is that the CF has finally turned the corner. “People are working hard,” he says. “They’ve always worked hard. But the context right now is so different from where it was even five—10 years ago. The context is so different that we’re actually building a CF that most people in uniform have wanted to be a part of since they joined.”

While Hillier has his critics, most anyone with an interest in the Canadian military recognizes the massive impact he’s had. “I think he’s been the first chief of defence in (a long time) to be a public figure, to make the military prominent in the public’s mind, to deal with government in ways that gets the military the things it needs, to impress his vision on the forces as well,” says Jack Granatstein, a Canadian historian and author of, among many other works, The Generals, a look at Canadian generalship during World War II.

“Without naming names,” continued Granatstein, “we probably had too many generals in the past who saluted and said ‘yes sir’ and didn’t always protect the interests of the forces and that is probably not very good for the military. On the other hand you can go the other way. You can push the politicians to do things the public will not support and ultimately the prime minister and the ministers run things and you the chief of defence staff can be sacked at a moment’s notice. I think Hillier has pushed the bounds a bit, but I think he’s managed to do it with great skill.”

Inevitably, of course, Hillier will step down from his position, and while the chief of defence staff has no definite term, three-and-a-half years is the rough recent average. His predecessor Ray Hénault served three years and seven months, while his predecessor Maurice Baril served for almost the same period of time. As for Hillier, he has been tight-lipped about his plans. And while rumours do sometimes swirl that his tenure is coming to an end, he joked during a speech in February that this would be his last year as chief of the defence staff—he said he was going to join the Toronto Maple Leafs, to put the military “General” in general manager.

Click to view The General’s Afghan Campaign Plan.

The Worst Part About the Best Job in the World

When Hillier tells you he has “the best job in the world,” he says it so convincingly that you believe he believes it. But when he tells you about the worst part of his job his voice changes, he lowers his eyes and you get the unmistakable impression that he is telling you something very real.

“There are all kinds of things that don’t go the way you want, and that kind of stuff, but I would just say to you, absolutely true, when you’re dealing with life and death for men and women, all those normal bureaucratic things that don’t go the way you want, where it’s two steps forward one step back or occasionally a step forward two steps back, all those things just take a new, lesser meaning.

“The part that’s negative is when you get the phone call in the middle of the morning, middle of the night—and I used to joke to my guys, but it wasn’t much of a joke, that nobody phones me at three in the morning to tell me I’ve won the lottery—when that phone rings at three in the morning I’m now to the point where I sit up, take my time, get ready, because I know what’s on the other end. That’s the only reason people are calling, because we’ve lost somebody. And that part is the part of it that I don’t wish on any chief of defence staff.

“(I) take (my) responsibility very seriously; which means that I do ensure that I meet with families and talk to them and make sure they have our support and they get that directly as possible. But having said that, let me tell you, I’ve met those families on the worst days of their lives. I can’t understand what they’re going through, because I’ve not been through it. I can empathize, but it’s difficult to sympathize because I’ve not had the same experience. You go there and try to talk to each of the families, and I’ve not met them all, because for several I’ve been somewhere around the world and couldn’t get back here, and you tell them how proud you are of their son or their daughter, in the case of Nichola Goddard, and how proud you are that they were a soldier, and that they were part of us, and they served us so well, and that our job now is to make sure their footprint in the sand is never erased. And you go there to try to inspire them to get through those tough days, the worst days of their lives, and every single time you leave inspired by them: by their strength, their dignity, their courage and their own pride in their child, their daughter, their husband, their father.”

The CDS on The Royal Canadian Legion

“I will always cherish the fact that I became Chief of the Defence Staff and Honorary Dominion Vice-President of the Legion during the Year of the Veteran (2005). I well know the great effort The Royal Canadian Legion has made to ensure that the ‘footprints in the sand’ made by our veterans will never be erased, and what it is doing to consider the needs of our younger generation of veterans. We are all inspired by the Legion’s support.”

Special Operations: Canada’s Men in Black

As the battle for Kandahar province moves away from conventional force-on-force confrontation, the fight is increasingly becoming the kind of thing special operations forces were designed to do. While Joint Task Force 2—Canada’s top-end counter-terrorist force—has been in Afghanistan since 2002, Hillier confirmed that the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) is now conducting operations in Afghanistan as well. While details of the operations are secret, Hillier makes it clear that Canada’s special operations forces are actively hunting Taliban leadership across Kandahar province.

“(Canada’s special operations forces) are a major factor. We’re a significant player in going after and helping disrupt Taliban coherence, which means that you keep their commanders under pressure. In the operations we conduct, we’re not trying to go and attack every single Taliban fighter, because many of them are folks that are placed in a corner themselves, that have no recourse except to pick up a weapon because they either have no money and they need some money to be able to feed their family or they’re placed in a position where they’re forced to do it because if they don’t they’ll be at more risk than they are from us when they do. And so we don’t go after every Taliban fighter.

“What we want to do is take out the commanders who are engaged in orchestrating, facilitating, paying, leading, planning and driving folks to attack us or attack the Afghans or attack the innocent. And our special forces are focused very much on that. And that sets conditions for success in Kandahar but equally important from our perspective it helps reduce hugely the threat to our men and women.

“I said (during a recent speech) that we had removed from the battlefield six commanders who were responsible for the deaths of 21 Canadian soldiers, well that’s changed. We’ve removed seven commanders who have been responsible for the deaths of 27 soldiers and that in itself means those commanders—who are capable people—are not out there planning and setting up and enabling attacks against us, let alone attacks against Afghans or aid agencies.”

Hillier’s Four Lessons of Counter-Insurgency Warfare

Counter-Insurgency warfare is notoriously tricky, full of counter-intuitive strategies and odd paradoxes. Any commander who wants to win has to wrap his mind around the old lessons—you can win all the battles but still lose the war, but the insurgents can win just by refusing to lose, and while there is no military solution to a counter-insurgency, all you really have under your command are military forces, etc.—while trying to come to grips with all the complexity of his unique situation. So after more than two years of overseeing counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan, this is what the CDS has learned.

“You’ve got to establish yourself as in support of the population of the area who are actually just trying to live a normal life. And you know, whether democracy as we know it, and a standard of living like we have in Canada is ever possible in Afghanistan, well, I doubt it. But my goodness all the people there want is to be able to live a life, not be hungry, not be threatened and have their children or themselves killed when they go out somewhere, to have the chance to look at a future that may be a little bit brighter, maybe have some medical care, and certainly have some education for their children…. So, you have to be clearly in support of the people and what they’re trying to achieve, and that’s got to be obvious in every action that you do, that’s part one.
“You don’t win a counter-insurgency campaign with the military operation. What you do is keep the insurgents, in this case the Taliban, you keep them from stopping the progress or slowing the progress, although sometimes they will slow it but you keep them from stopping it, until you can actually build that country around them. And the cross-over point is hard to see, but in my view it’s subjective. So, right now, if a big explosion occurs in Kabul, people still look around to see if the Afghan government is still standing, still there. Because, you know, the confidence is still fragile. At some point in time, Afghanistan will become like many other countries, it will still have violent problems, but when they occur, nobody will be concerned that this is going to cause a series of events and lead to the fall of the government, because they will have confidence that the government is going to be able to handle this. And that’s the part you’ve got to cross over.
“When building the institutions in Afghanistan, in a counter-insurgency, you’ve got to build it with the Afghan face on it. It’s not what we want as the solution. It’s what they want as the solution. And so how their units will look, and how their police will function, and where they want a bridge or a well—it’s not always overwhelmingly obvious to us—we’ve got to constantly realize that it’s their country, and they’re going to be there 50 years from now and we’re not and so therefore we’ve got to make sure it’s not only the Afghan face, because people say that all the time, but that behind the Afghan face is an Afghan mind and an Afghan body, who actually helps make, and then makes, those decisions with a thorough understanding of their country and population and system.
“From our perspective a counter-insurgency requires professional soldiers and sailors and airmen and airwomen of a degree that I don’t think history has ever demanded. It requires leadership at the very lowest level. Young men and women we rely upon to do things that are quite phenomenal, out on a dirty, dusty dangerous trail, way beyond any of the other units, with local Afghans…. The professional serviceman or servicewoman that’s required for that is absolutely incredible, and I think one of the things (Afghanistan) has re-validated for us, is that we’ve got… professionals in uniform.”

Old Wounds, Lasting Memories

Earl Stiles — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:01:39 +0000

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 thinking about them—seeing their faces again.

I wondered what became of the German boy of 16 or so, a fanatic from the 12th S.S. Panzer Div.—the Hitler Youth. He came to us with a wound in his leg, and because he could speak English I told him I thought it strange he was going where I would like to go—to Canada (but as a prisoner of war)—while I was heading to where he would like to go—to Germany. He sat up and sneered. “You’ll never get to Berlin!”

“Yes we will,” I said. “And we will be there in a year.” And we were.

He winced when I gave his stretcher a little nudge, and soon he was gone—back for more elaborate healthcare down the line.

I’ve also wondered about the sort of life that awaited the Canadian soldier whose wounds left little doubt about whether he would be able to father children after the war. How did he fare? Did he have someone to take care of him—to love him through the years?

The sight of German casualties injured during the closing of the Falaise Gap in August 1944 is also something I shall never forget. Most of their wounds had reached an advanced stage of infection, and I can still see the stark look on their faces as they came to us for treatment and evacuation. The grimness of war was truly upon us, and I found myself cast in a role that I never dreamed I would be in. At that time, about four years had passed since our unit was formed at Moncton, N.B.

Moncton was where I had been employed in my first job as a nursing orderly. Joining a medical outfit seemed the natural thing to do, and I knew some of the doctors who would head up the unit.

I trained at Sussex, N.B., but before I had fully grasped the significance of it all, I was headed overseas on a large, slow-moving convoy. It was 1941, and the night we docked at Liverpool we experienced our first blackout.

Time passed slowly in the U.K., and I suspect that a certain amount of trauma goes with being away from home for such a long time. But there was, at that time, no end in sight. As the training became more and more intense, we began to really think about what our particular role might be and how it might play out. Prior to June 1944 I participated in amphibious landing craft exercises that were carried out on the south coast of England.

Finally, a great day came. D-Day, June 6, 1944. The day Allied forces landed in Normandy, France. We became part of the mightiest fleet the world had known. Thousands of vessels left England and deposited more than 130,000 soldiers on the invasion beaches, part of a massive effort to liberate Europe from the Nazis. This Second-Front invasion would be one of the greatest feats in history—a masterpiece in organization and co-ordination. In addition to the army and navy, the air force played a huge role as Operation Overlord unfolded and gained a foothold in Northwest Europe.

I was aboard a Landing Ship Tank that arrived on the morning of June 6. We remained on board until late that night. Indeed, it was still dark when we headed to shore on what I remember was a very large raft that had been towed by LST. It may have been after midnight when we stepped ashore.

One of the most important objectives was the city of Caen, but it remained in German hands and proved difficult to take in the face of violent German resistance. But it was around Caen when Major Conn Smythe was brought to us with a severe wound in his thigh. During the First World War he had earned the Military Cross, and had gone on to become a very successful businessman who helped establish Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931. Four years prior to that, he and some associates purchased the Toronto St. Pats hockey team, and changed the name to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Smythe’s prominence was to be assured for many more years after the war until his death in 1980.

From that time I also remember a German soldier who was peppered with small fragments—most likely the result of a grenade explosion. None of his wounds appeared serious. More significantly, however, was another injury that has to be described in order to show cause for wonderment. This fellow was part of what we termed the “walking wounded.” He was capable of walking on his own from the ambulance, but the lower part of his face below the nose was missing. His wounds were something that bordered on the miraculous. Although his teeth, chin and mouth were gone, his jugular veins were untouched. Years of plastic surgery would have to follow, and so there is a possibility he is alive today.

This was one of the many types of horrific wounds we saw in Northwest Europe. Our job was to administer aid to the more seriously injured first, be they friend or foe, and this was emphasized during training.

In the main, a medic’s duty resembles what one learns while taking first aid. Priorities were given to the treatment of shock, alleviation of pain, and perhaps most important of all, the arrestment of bleeding. For obvious reasons the availability or use of whole blood was almost totally impractical. It was here that a substitute called dried plasma came into such good use. Units, including ours, were the first available source for this truly life-saving product. Often its administration continued in transit, back to the nearest casualty clearing station, field dressing station or field hospital.

And then there were the men who were going nowhere. Among them was the only quadriplegic I was to see. His four wounds had been dressed at the front, and he had become my assignment. When I first saw him I could not say for sure whether I had found a pulse. I summoned a medical officer who made a brief examination before hurrying off without a word to render valued assistance elsewhere. I thought I could find a temple pulse, but did I? And so I followed the doctor’s example, and rushed off to the assistance of another casualty.

Later, when things had quieted, the officer confirmed that this man had not been alive. He added that if there had been life, there was not the faintest hope of saving him. The finale was when we agreed that had there indeed been a chance to save him, he may not have thanked us.

I also wonder about the personnel I worked with. Quite a number of them were discharged after the war to various parts of the country, not to see one another again. There was Percy Fletcher, the only black man we had in our unit. He was a stretcher-bearer. Percy was a hard worker and we got along well. It seemed that whenever we were in a dangerous situation and had to seek cover, he was always ending up by my side. In retrospect, Percy was like a good luck charm, and perhaps he regarded me in the same way. Somehow I got it into my head that he was from Montreal, and so many years ago—while passing through that city—I phoned every Fletcher that had an initial ‘P’ after it. But it was to no avail.

Getting together with many of the old gang was, however, not always a lost cause by any means. Every September, reunions were held in either Moncton or Saint John. Invitations went out far in advance to every member whose address was known. Our reunion was a time for sharing our more current experiences; things related to the war were rarely mentioned. The comradeship at these gatherings was rich, quite unique actually—and hard to explain. But what was a picture of diversity—as men met from all walks of life—had been a combined group during the war—bonded and working as a team. Doctors, assistants, store men, clerks, cooks, mechanics, drivers—to name a few—united in a task of compassion. For us, the ability to destroy life was not required, but the desire to save it was.

And so generations later, my mind keeps going back to World War II in Europe. How can one help but to remember and wonder? The truth is that much of it will always remain a mystery. But perhaps there are those still living today who can testify that if it were not for the services rendered by certain medical personnel, many additional families would have received that shocking telegram informing them—with regret—about a lost loved one.

Dominion Convention To Vote On New Structure

admin — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:01:17 +0000

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 Forces today,” said Honorary Grand President Charles Belzile in his opening statement during the Feb. 23-24 meeting at Legion House in Kanata, Ont. “The latter will continue to need our support now and in the future and we, in whatever configuration we choose to deliver this support, must ensure that we will be there when they call for us.”

With branches closing and many others in financial difficulties due to shrinking membership, it’s clear changes must be made if the Legion is to continue carrying out its mission to serve veterans, promote remembrance and serve the community, said Steve Wessel in his report as chairman of the RCL Commission on Governance, Representation and Command Structure.

Leadership should begin at the top, said Wessel, who then went on to recommend that paring also begin at the top, with Dominion Executive Council.

The heart of the matter, Wessel explained, is that although Legion membership as a whole had dropped 36 per cent from its peak of 602,489 in 1984 to 388,584 in 2006, Dominion Executive Council remained essentially the same size. Council has 40 members: nine Sub-Executive members (eight elected members plus the immediate past president), 26 command representatives (based on ratio of membership per command), one representative of the Tuberculous Veterans Section and four non-voting representatives.

With very little debate, council agreed that three resolutions which would halve that number should be submitted for the consideration of convention delegates.

One calls for cutting the number of command representatives to 10. That would mean one representative from each command. Although DEC originally started out with one representative from each command, the membership formula was changed over the years to reflect membership growth. The current membership formula is based on membership numbers in each command, giving larger commands a stronger voice, but questions of fairness are bound to be raised as membership continues to decline and the council becomes more lopsided, members heard.

Proportional representation is not necessary at DEC, since its decisions must be ratified at convention and policy is made or changed by delegates at convention, which has proportional representation. As well, modern communication methods such as teleconferencing and e-mail make it possible for one command representative to bring forward issues and concerns from various constituents. And finally, with shrinking revenues, the Legion can’t afford such a large council.

A second resolution would reduce the number of vice-presidents from four to two. In the past, one of the main roles of the elected officers was to chair dominion standing committees, but the number of chairmanships has been reduced by elimination, amalgamation or appointment from the general membership. Today only five standing committees are chaired by Sub-Executive members; three Sub-Executive members do not chair a committee. Reducing the number of vice-presidents will also reduce the amount of balloting at convention, allowing the current one-day reduction in convention length to continue, thus maintaining lower convention costs.

A third resolution would eliminate the Sub-Executive Committee and reduce meeting costs. DEC meets only once a year outside of convention, but the Sub-Executive Committee meets four times. The Legion’s Act of Incorporation does not call for a Sub-Executive structure, and at times an “aura of secrecy” has existed between the Sub-Executive and remainder of council, members were told. The current council meeting schedule costs $406,000 over two years, but by cutting the number of members and eliminating the sub-executive, the cost could be lowered to $254,000 (a savings of $152,000), and council could still meet as a full body three times a year. The current Sub-Executive Committee would cease to meet as a separate body. Senior officers would meet only on full council meeting dates and additionally to draft the budget and to resolve staff issues.

Chairman Tom Irvine put the questions to vote. All three motions carried, but not unanimously, as did an added motion to have votes on these issues by secret ballot at dominion convention. A motion to allow proxy votes at convention was defeated.

Two controversial items did not receive support from the commission. First, in the face of strong opposition from commands, amalgamation would be divisive. Secondly even though moving dominion conventions to a three-year cycle would save a considerable amount of money, savings should not be the only consideration. Disadvantages include the long wait for approval of resolutions, longer waits for running for office and officer burnout, among others.

The commission was unable to complete all the work requested of it, but an approval to fund further work was shelved until after convention decides whether to follow through on these first recommendations.

“Although some recommendations may sound radical, at this point in the history of the Legion…it is what we need to survive into the future. If we don’t change now there may not be many years left in our future,” said Wessel.

Recruiting and retaining members also permeated the agenda. The subject appeared again and again in command and committee reports.

Newfoundland and Labrador Command reported retaining members is as important as recruiting them. It has investigated putting recruitment brochures in the airplane seat pockets for flights in Canada.

Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command reported it is down 1,315 members, 806 of whom did not renew memberships. The command passed out membership applications and answered questions about the Legion at a Second Career Assistance Network seminar held by the military in the fall.

Quebec Command is promoting a competition among districts for increasing membership, and continues its incentive program. Despite a 90 per cent renewal rate, Saskatchewan Command is down 784 members and has lost five branches; displaced members were salvaged by transfers to neighbouring branches or to the holding branch.

British Columbia/Yukon Command is expanding its member benefits program following success with its benefit partner the British Columbia Automobile Association. The command hopes to boost recruitment with a membership incentive program prize of two airline tickets for North American destinations donated by Fenety Marketing.

Dominion Membership Committee Chairman Erl Kish reported membership stands at 373,367, 96.08 per cent of last year’s total. But the tide has been stemmed a little, with losses slowing to 15,217 members in 2007, compared to 16,884 in 2006. Renewals were up slightly, but at 89.33 per cent, fell just short of the 90-per-cent renewal goal. Alberta/ Northwest Territories Command received the 2007 Renewal Award, and the 2007 Membership Achievement Award, ending the year with 97.71 per cent of their 2006 membership. Saskatchewan won the 2008 Early Bird Award.

Council supported a number of proposals that will be presented to convention—all aimed at boosting membership:

• supporting a pilot project to assemble gift membership packages (brochure, bookmark, flyers, application form, etc.) which members can present as gifts to friends and relatives;

• recognizing accumulated service of lapsed members with proof of previous membership provided upon reinstatement. Currently reinstated members forfeit previous accumulated service;

• amending General By-Laws governing Europe Zone members to allow them to transfer to a branch in Canada with a mandatory change of membership category to affiliate non-voting member;

• continuing negotiations to include membership material in retirement packages of military personnel;

• supporting a revamped Legion Cares program specifically designed for today’s veterans, including a $40,000 advertising campaign in a number of magazines to highlight the role of Legion service officers;

• amending dress regulations to allow veterans to top Legion attire with distinctive headdress associated with their former service, with the reservation that Legion colour party dress remains full Legion dress with Legion beret;

• amending dress regulations to allow members who are current or former armed forces personnel to wear their regimental service blazer badge on the lower right side pocket of their Legion blazer;

• creating a Members-at-Large branch for Canadians who support the Legion and its goals but do not wish to join a branch or participate in branch activities.

DEC also approved continued discussions with other veterans organizations aimed at bringing their memberships into a federation within the structure of The Royal Canadian Legion. Legion House hosted 14 veterans organizations in November to discuss amalgamation options. Dominion Secretary Duane Daly reported delegates at that meeting have taken information back to their own organizations for discussion and decisions. Responses are expected at another meeting scheduled for October.

Wearing his hat as chairman of the Veterans Unity Committee, Belzile said the Legion is paying the penalty for not changing dress regulations earlier. Former Canadian Forces members who wish to preserve their service identity as sailors, soldiers or airmen join other organizations that allow them to do so. New organizations, like the NATO Canadian Veterans Association, are growing, while the Legion’s veteran membership has fallen to 38 per cent. “Just as the Great War veterans took the initiative to bring the diverse veterans organizations together under one banner in 1925, we must take the lead to restore that unity of veterans today,” he said. “The critical point is to establish an open door to veterans. We cannot repeat the mistake that drove the Korea veterans, merchant marine and peacekeepers away from the Legion.”

Daly shared with DEC the unity discussion document developed for presentation to the other veterans organizations, which compete with the Legion for members from the same pool of veterans. Most share the problem of diminishing membership and many cannot afford to maintain facilities or support advocacy, benevolence or promote remembrance. If things remain as they are, many of these organizations will disappear.

Although it’s possible for these smaller organizations to unite in a new federation, it’s not practical, Daly said. Without initial infrastructure or facilities, development would be very expensive, resulting in stiff membership fees. It’s also unlikely these organizations will want to merge with the Legion, because they would lose their individual service identity.

But establishing a federation of veterans within the Legion structure is plausible, Daly reported. Negotiations could work out a format that would satisfy the needs of those associations to continue their unique identities and concerns about how to accommodate any such new members in the Legion organization.

The aim is to eradicate fragmentation of organizations in the veterans community, said Belzile, and bring them all together in a stronger and reinvigorated Legion.

Citing scrupulous management coupled with a little luck, Dominion Treasurer Mike Cook reported the Legion had an excellent fiscal year, ending 2007 with a surplus of $619,719. For the third consecutive year, supply sales set a new record, up 34 per cent to $2,416,043.

Directors cut expenses more than $114,000 over forecast; $105,000 in committee travel expenses were saved by using fare-saver rates; investment income remained solid at $30,000. Increased income and cutbacks yielded $526,000 in additional funds.

Although increases in supply sales, investment revenue and MBNA royalties are anticipated, the continued drop in membership is expected to erode revenues in 2008.

However, the work of the Legion continues. The Service Bureau reported requests for benevolent fund assistance have increased by 30 per cent; service officers submitted 1,749 first applications for benefits in 2007; and dozens of Veterans Review and Appeal Board appeals were heard at Legion House.

The Poppy and Remembrance Committee reported the largest crowd in years—some 30,000 people—attended the national Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa and the 2007 Youth Leaders’ Pilgrimage of Remembrance to Europe was successful.

Other Issues Discussed By DEC

Poppy Fund: DEC supports an amendment to reword the General By-Laws allowing poppy funds to be used for emergency funding for dependants of currently serving military personnel.

Youth Athletic Championships: Beginning this year The Royal Canadian Legion National Track and Field Championships will become The Royal Canadian Legion Canadian Youth Athletic Championships by including selected competitors in the under-17 program from provincial organizations. The under-15 program remains restricted to Legion provincial command teams.

Flags At Half-Mast: The Legion supports restricting the flying of the Canadian flag at half-mast on federal buildings across the country only to Remembrance Day and days of mourning the loss of significant Canadians as determined by Parliament.

Hall of Colours: The Legion will donate $50,000 to the National Memorial Centre in Ottawa to establish a Hall of Colours, providing a sign is mounted indicating the hall is a gift of The Royal Canadian Legion. The hall is devoted to promotion of remembrance and historical commitment of ships, regiments and squadrons. It will contain retired unit colours, a plinth of sacrifice to be used as a resting place for caskets during memorial service and the Chaplain’s Window highlighting the role of military chaplains.

Faster Balloting: To expedite voting at the next dominion convention, a proposal will be made to amend the General By-Laws to allow a simple majority for election of single officer positions and allow a “first past the post” system for election of more than one officer for a multiple delegate position such as vice-president.

Surrendered Charters: Fourteen charters were cancelled in 2007, four in Saskatchewan, two in Manitoba– Northwestern Ontario, two in Quebec, one in Alberta, one in Nova Scotia and two in the United States.

William MacDonnell

Jennifer Morse — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:01:14 +0000

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 in Russia where approximately 4,500 Polish soldiers were murdered by Stalin’s regime and buried in a mass grave.

Many of MacDonnell’s works are dominated by dirty, white skies on which he overlays ghostly embossed typography. The stencilled capital letters spell the names of fallen angels from the Book of Enoch (from ancient Jewish literature). Other works are covered with acrylic spatters of paint, dripping down the compositions and out onto the borders. Both devices are solid metaphors for war.

Born at Winnipeg in July 1943, MacDonnell did not pursue a fine arts degree until he was a mature student at the University of Manitoba. He continued his education with a master’s degree at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and later taught at both institutions. He also became a member of the faculty of the Alberta College of Art and Design.

MacDonnell was one of three artists invited by the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) to visit peacekeeping operations in Croatia. His visit—in late August 1994—lasted approximately 10 days. He spent the next year creating canvases of the time he spent in the Krajina region of the former Yugoslavia.

He later wrote: “There was a town, Kasic, I think…it was completely destroyed. On the edge of town there was what was left of a church and in the cemetery there were desecrated tombs. Such hatred. All that culture destroyed. Even bodies….

“What struck me was the fact that the worst aspects of the war seemed to be based on the destruction of each other’s culture. It was always churches, schools, libraries and monasteries that were being destroyed, sites that were hundreds or even thousands of years old with no military advantage. When you understand that it’s a cultural war, the whole thing seems to make some kind of horrible sense. You begin to understand the fear and how it works….”

MacDonnell was an inspired choice for that assignment. Not only was he the best known of the three artists, respected in Canadian art circles, but he loves history and had the background to help him understand the military perspective and operations. In the early 1960s he trained as an army signals officer. Since visiting Croatia he has taken many personal trips to Russia, back to the Balkans, Vietnam, Germany, Rwanda and other areas of conflict. He has recently returned from a three and a half week trip in Afghanistan, travelling with 2RCR to gather material for a painting for the Canadian Forces Artists Program. His paintings are in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., the Glenbow Institute in Calgary, The Canadian War Museum, and many other places.

MacDonnell’s interest in history and conflict, and his talent have combined to create works that by their very absence of violence record the terrible cost of war.

The Afghanistan Commitment

Adam Day — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:00:31 +0000

It is decision time for Canada’s political and military leaders. And it is no easy question they have to answer. Indeed, it is a decision that could cost many lives. The question is this: what role will Canada next take on in NATO’s effort to stabilize Afghanistan?

With the end of Canada’s three-year commitment to its leading role in Kandahar province coming up in early 2009, Ottawa has in recent months been buzzing with debate about what should happen next.

While there are many options—everything from continuing the current combat role to complete withdrawal—the most often mentioned new role is one focused on the softer side of the mission, particularly the delivery of aid, reconstruction and the training of Afghan forces.

However, the worsening security situation in the country casts some doubt on the viability of this softer role, as development and reconstruction cannot occur without some degree of peace.

In any case, a simple continuation of Canada’s current role is unlikely, not only for political reasons but also because the Canadian Forces would be hard-pressed to continue the current operational tempo, which sees approximately 2,500 soldiers deployed, with 2,500 preparing to deploy and 2,500 more recovering from their recent deployment.

In order to make a solid choice about what should be done about the problem of Afghanistan, it is necessary to get some understanding of what is happening currently inside the country.

So, as a part of the debate about the mission, the Senate of Canada’s Standing Committee on National Security and Defence, chaired by Senator Colin Kenny, has recently been hearing from a wide-array of experts and witnesses on the situation in Afghanistan. The committee routinely hears expert testimony on a range of national security issues as a way to gather research and information for its periodic reports.

On Dec. 3, 2007, the committee heard from two representatives of the Senlis Council, an international security and development think-tank founded in 2002 that maintains field offices in, among other places, Kabul and Kandahar. The Senlis Council is known primarily for its regular reports on Afghanistan, which combine ground-level reporting with policy and strategic concerns.

Senlis Council President and Lead Field Researcher Norine MacDonald, a Canadian, has been living and working in southern Afghanistan for three years. Her testimony to the committee focused mainly on a report published by Senlis in November titled Stumbling into Chaos: Afghanistan on the Brink.

As MacDonald noted, the Senlis report was largely based on interviews with Afghans living in villages and refugee camps around the city of Kandahar. “The conclusions we have reached in our report are that the Taliban insurgency now controls vast swaths of unchallenged territory in southern Afghanistan, including rural areas, border areas, some district centres, and important road arteries,” said MacDonald. “We calculated what percentage of the Afghanistan land mass that was, and we concluded that 54 per cent of Afghanistan has a permanent Taliban presence and 38 per cent has a substantial presence.

“They are the de facto governing authority in significant portions of territory in the south and are starting to control parts of the local economy and key infrastructure such as roads and energy supply.

“The disturbing conclusion is that despite the vast injections of international capital flowing into the country and the significant military efforts, including those of our troops, and our universal desire to succeed, the state is once again in danger of dividing, with the south falling into the hands of the Taliban.”

Clearly not one to mince words, MacDonald told the assembled senators of the evidence Senlis has collected that points to increasing Taliban influence in the south. “There are Taliban radio stations and, I am sad to say, there are Taliban passports circulating,” she said, as she passed around a document, reportedly a Taliban passport printed in Pakistan, which entitled the holder to safe passage through southern Afghanistan.

“Because we are on the ground,” explained MacDonald, “we know the situation there very well. The Canadian military is doing a remarkable job in increasingly difficult circumstances. However, due to an insufficiency of the total number of NATO troops on the ground, (they) are not able to take and hold territory in southern Afghanistan.

“The inadequate response of several NATO member states to the surging Taliban resistance is, in our view, tantamount to an abandonment of the Karzai government and southern Afghanistan.

“We recommend a doubling of the troop levels from those countries that are not making a proper contribution and a removal of all limitations or caveats on troop movements.

“We are facing an enemy that can continuously regroup from Pakistan and benefit from an almost endless flow of potential recruits.”

Because of this, said MacDonald, Senlis “has recommended a move into Pakistan alongside the Pakistan army to deal with the Taliban and al-Qaida bases.”

While many analysts and commentators would likely agree with MacDonald that troop numbers are insufficient for the task of stabilizing southern Afghanistan, and that furthermore the key to the problem lies in Pakistan, few are willing to endorse officially widening the NATO mission to include military incursions into that country.

One week later, on Dec. 10, the committee heard the official Canadian Forces response to MacDonald’s proposal, when Brigadier-General P.J. Atkinson gave his testimony. He is director general of operations at the strategic joint staff at the Department of National Defence. “Pakistan is a sovereign state,” he said. “It could be like us doing military operations across the U.S. border next door. Obviously the commander of joint task force in Afghanistan has regular meetings in co-ordination with the Pakistani troops on the other side of the border. It is a critical piece. You have heard the Chief of the Defence Staff and others say that the solution in Afghanistan lies in Pakistan. There is no secret there at all. We want to push our Afghan development zone right up to the border. That is why we have troops working on the borders in the Spin Boldak area. It is a critically important area.

“Part of the Afghans’ evolution and getting better is to be able to control their own border. It will take time to get there, but that is obviously a state they want to get in so that they can demonstrate and protect their own sovereignty.”

The official strategy, as outlined by Atkinson, is to stop infiltration at the border and work with the Pakistanis to eliminate the threat on the other side.

In a report released last year, this same senate committee drew attention to the problem of Pakistan and, among its suggestions, noted that shutting down the border would be a good tactical move.

Stopping the infiltration, however, will be next to impossible, at least according to Dr. Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan based at the RAND Corporation, an American think-tank who testified to the committee on Dec. 10. “I do not believe that is a practical solution,” said Jones, of the plan to shut down the border. “Just to give you the U.S. experience on the Mexican border—the U.S. cannot stop Mexicans from coming across the border, even with a wall.

“The idea of building in one of the most mountainous parts of the world is, I think, simply not practical, especially when there is a desire to get from one side to the other and there are governments that are willing to support that. In that sense, you just cannot stop it. If there is support on the other side, you will never be able to stop people who want to come across the border.”

Beyond this point, Jones largely concurred with MacDonald, that the military-security situation in Afghanistan is bleak and growing bleaker. “There is no question that there has been deterioration in the security environment over the last several years across at least half of Afghanistan. I think the data is clear about this,” said Jones.

“The overall number of insurgent-initiated attacks increased 400 per cent from 2002 to 2006. The number of deaths also increased 800 per cent over this period. The increase in violence was particularly acute between 2005 and 2006. The number of suicide attacks quadrupled, remotely detonated bombings doubled and armed attacks tripled.

“The 2007 data is not complete but the trends seem like the numbers will be greater in nearly all of these categories. For example, the number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan in 2007 will probably be the largest in the history of the country.”

Both MacDonald and Jones recounted to the committee how, as a concrete example of the worsening security situation, neither of them could drive on roads that only a short time ago were safe for travel.

Jones believes there are several factors causing this rise in activity and instability, the first of which is related to governance. “I think one can safely argue there has been a relative collapse of governance in Afghanistan,” said Jones.

“The key problem is that what local Afghans at the village level think. You have to remember that in Afghanistan, and this has been true over the last 30 years of violence since the 1979 (Russian) invasion, all politics in Afghanistan is local. It does not matter what happens in Kabul and Kandahar. Rather it matters what happens in the rural areas of the country because that is where you win or lose any counter-insurgency effort. Villages in these areas are not being sufficiently protected by Afghan national security forces.”

Backing up Jones’ perceptions of life on the ground in Afghanistan was Almas Bawar Zakhilwal, an Afghan who works as the Canada country manager for the Senlis Council: “As an Afghan, I will say that if we want to succeed in Afghanistan, especially in southern Afghanistan, we will need more aid for those people.

“I have spoken to many of them and asked, ‘What do you need from the international community? What do you need from your government?’ The only answer I get is, ‘This government and the international community have been in power for six years. I have not seen any change in my life. My life is still the same as it was six years ago. I do not have a school in my village or my district; I do not have work. My roads are still bad; my irrigation system is still the same. The Taliban are still present. Even if they are not in power, they are in the villages. What has the international community done for us? Nothing. How can I support them?’

“When we speak of a hearts and minds strategy,” continued Zakhilwal, “we are not asking to provide them with big cars or big houses. We are asking for the basic things of life. In my interviews of people I asked: ‘What three things would you like to ask of the international community or Karzai’s government?’

“The top three things from the thousands of interviews we have done are clean water, food and shelter. How hard is it to give that to those people in order to succeed? I do not think that is hard. Are we willing to do that? Are we trying our best to do that? I think we are not trying.”

Indeed, much of the testimony by Jones and MacDonald focused on the relative paucity of the international effort to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan. “There is a rich history of what is often termed state building,” said Jones. “I would say that even recent history of state building—even in the midst of in some cases quite violent situations or potentially violent ones as we saw in the Balkans—suggests one very clear lesson: You cannot do this cheap.

“The number of forces and the amounts of development and assistance in the Balkans were orders of magnitude higher than what is in Afghanistan. Frankly, it is embarrassing that the amount of resources provided here have been as low as they are. There are two big lessons: This can be done, but it cannot be done on the cheap. Unfortunately, that is what we have tried to do in Afghanistan. I do not believe the history of that sort of strategy is particularly optimistic.”

As for MacDonald, she also believes there are too few troops, but goes further in arguing that the ones who are there should also be focusing on delivering food, a role not traditionally given to the military in a situation like this. “One of the reasons we have recommended the military deliver aid—in particular, food aid—in the short term is as a counter-insurgency strategy, but also to ensure its delivery,” said MacDonald. “Food is like money in southern Afghanistan. We would not deliver a truckload full of $1 million in cash to someone in Canada without proper security measures; and we should not be doing that in Afghanistan either.”

MacDonald’s proposal, however, does have some opposition. Many, including Atkinson, argued instead that the only real solution to the problem is an Afghan solution, and that short-term thinking should be resisted in order to develop Afghan institutions that can persist long after NATO is gone. “It is fine for us to have project management and all the organization and money pouring in, but in order for it to be effective, the Afghans need to see themselves in their future,” said Atkinson. “They need to see Afghans building the roads and bridges, repairing the electrical infrastructure, the television and radio stations, all those things.”

MacDonald, having seen the suffering first-hand, remained undeterred by the arguments against her military model of aid distribution. “I understand the policy and theoretical basis for these objections, but they have no plan to feed these people. These are our Afghan brothers and sisters who are fighting alongside our military to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida for a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan and a safe Canada, and we are abandoning them. Something has to be done.”

With the recent American announcement that they are re-enforcing their Afghan task force with a contingent of nearly 3,000 Marines, it seems that some in power have understood that the effort to stabilize Afghanistan may be in jeopardy. And while there are no clear answers to the issue of Pakistan, or how best to balance Afghanistan’s short- and long-term interests, there is a recognition, in the Canadian Senate and elsewhere, that Afghanistan is at its core an issue of international security.

“It is my view that Afghanistan has immense strategic importance,” argued Jones. “I would caution, as I have followed the Canadian debate, that this issue of downsizing or withdrawing forces from Afghanistan has to be taken extremely seriously. The costs have to be understood because I would argue that September 11, 2001, happened in the United States because al-Qaida had a sanctuary and it had a relationship with the Taliban in Afghanistan. What would Afghanistan look like in areas of the country where the Taliban continued to make gains and establish territory? It would have extremely dangerous implications, not only on the region but also internationally. It is seriously worth asking whether we are willing to live with that.”

Keeping Busy At The Wascana Centre

Sharon Adams — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:28:58 +0000

Ask what makes this place home, and easy smiles steal across the faces of the veterans enjoying a soft drink or brew at Happy Hour on one of the veterans’ units at Wascana Rehabilitation Centre (WRC) in Regina.

“What makes it home to me is the people around me,” says Fletcher Peterson. “It’s a wonderful bunch of people.”

One by one the men sharing the table chime in. For new resident Vic Lappa, it’s being able to continue his swim routine: 10 laps every Tuesday. For Vernon Kramer it’s the trips out for meals or entertainment. For 86-year-old Simon Hitcherick, who’s been there four years, it’s that everyone is treated the same. “That’s the way it should be. I don’t care if he was a boot captain or a general—everybody’s the same when he gets here.”

It seems there’s something to occupy every waking moment, if they choose, between therapy sessions and meals, it’s cribbage or bingo, the bell choir or the music program—and especially arts and crafts.

“It’s pretty popular,” says Heather Dash, co-ordinator of the Red Cross Veterans’ Arts and Crafts Program. “Some of the guys are coming in at nine and we don’t close until four, and we have some guys we actually have to kick out.”

The coffee pot is always on, and the door is always open. “We keep it a very social atmosphere,” says Dash, and although there is always a new project on the go, “a lot of times guys come in just for the socializing.” The arts and crafts room basically takes the place of the little hometown coffee shop—a place to chat and be busy.

Aussie Alzomal, who turns 92 in April, goes every day. “I like the instructors,” he says, and enjoys catching up with his friends on the two units while they work through their projects.

If the units are home, the Wascana Centre is like a hometown. It sits in a park-like setting separated from Wascana Lake by the belt of trees bordering Lakeshore Drive, which connects the sweeping grounds of the Saskatchewan Legislature to the 930-hectare Wascana Park, one of the largest urban parks in North America.

WRC, just over 37,000 square metres in size, has a range of inpatient and outpatient programs that keeps the public spaces bustling with patients and visitors coming and going. The Extended Care/Veterans Program, in units tucked away from the hubbub, provides individualized long-term care services to 54 veterans and about 250 other residents who have complex care needs due to disability or disease.

The building’s airy concourse provides a place for residents to attend concerts, entertainment and events, like after the pre-Remembrance Day service featuring a performance by the bell choir of WRC veterans. There is space for exhibits like the World War II uniform display set up by The Royal Canadian Legion to mark the Year of the Veteran in 2005 and room for guests, like the visit from 200 children from the WRC’s school partner who came to honour the vets in 2005. It is also a place of pride for displays, like the regular show and sale of veterans’ arts and crafts projects.

The Red Cross Arts and Crafts Program grew out of a project started in 1946 to restore dignity and develop self-esteem for returning veterans in acute care. The program operates at WRC Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features group and individual programming designed to make the most of each person’s abilities.

“Each veteran comes with certain histories, past abilities, disabilities,” says Dash.

In designing new projects she takes advantage of any past experience. Many residents have done woodworking as a hobby or for a livelihood, for instance. But she is mindful of new barriers. “These guys are much older than they were when they started doing this as a hobby.” Eyesight, hearing and dexterity may not be what it once was, and “we don’t want them comparing how much they have gone down; we want their self-esteem to stay high and (for them) to stay motivated.”

Although he had never done arts and crafts before coming to WRC six years ago, Alzomal enjoys the projects. A wireless operator who served overseas from 1940 to 1946, Alzomal owned an appliance store in Regina. “Whatever they put me onto I do as well as I can,” he says. “I like making mailboxes; it’s a lot of work.”

Projects are focused on abilities, not disabilities. Even so, sometimes a veteran can’t quite do it all on his own. “If you need help, the instructors will always lend a hand,” says Alzomal, who has eye trouble.

Arts and crafts projects are seasonal—birdhouses in spring, Yule decorations at Christmas—and are also co-ordinated with other programs. For instance, residents make instruments—ukeleles, rain sticks, thumb pianos—then learn to play them in the music therapy program.

The men produce so much that Dash has to organize a sale at WRC every few months. And there are also two Christmas sales, one at WRC and one in the building housing the Saskatchewan offices of Veterans Affairs Canada, which funds the program.

When residents finish projects they have the option of buying their work at half price or selling it, in which case they get half the money from the sale. Sales “boost self-esteem,” says Dash, “especially when everything they’ve made is sold. It’s ‘here I am 90 years old and I can still make something people actually spend good money to purchase.’”

Word has spread through the community, and now the program is beginning to get requests, says Dash. “Our last big project was a wedding cake piñata” requested after a fruitless search in stores. Word began spreading “and now people in the community come to us and request certain things. We ask the guys if they’re willing to do it and if they are, we do the project.”

Although some residents are not physically able to participate, most do. “There are so many things going on,” says Bonnie Nelson, a unit manager, “they can keep involved.” Families come in for the Happy Hour and music programs. “A lot of wives are down there singing, too,” she says.

The Legion has a close relationship with WRC.

“I come Wednesdays for Happy Hour, says Regina Branch volunteer George Orton, “because any other day I don’t see half of them because they’re swimming or doing crafts or something else.” Orton is often accompanied by his wife, Pat, a war bride to whom he’s been married for 62 years, and joined by members of the ladies auxiliary as well as other Legion volunteer visitors.

Southern Saskatchewan Legion branches and ladies auxiliaries have contributed about $600,000 towards care of veterans and medical equipment like electric beds and tub lifts, but visits are important, too, says Orton. Most of WRC veterans are Legion members, and family that lives out of the city can’t get in to visit as often.

The veterans themselves also enjoy being involved in Legion events. Alzomal treasures his memories of being asked to present Legion scholarships to students; Hitcherick talks about how veterans look forward to exchanging news with Legion visitors.

Orton, who’s been visiting Regina’s veterans for nigh on 30 years, was given a Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation Award in 2004 in recognition of his years of volunteer service. He credits a good social life with keeping vets happy and healthier.

“They’re always happy to see us.”

Helping To Buy Shoes For Afghan Children

Adam Day — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:32:52 +0000

Life is hard in Afghanistan, a country which ranks among the very poorest in the world. While cities like Kabul and Kandahar are relatively modern with their paved streets and concrete buildings, many of the smaller cities and villages probably haven’t changed a great deal in the last 1,000 years—food is scarce, the buildings are often made of mud, and clothing is rudimentary at best.

Seeing these living conditions first-hand can be quite a shock for the Canadian soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and understandably many of them want to help in whatever way possible.

When Major Pierre Huet, a reconnaissance squadron commander with the 12th Armoured Regiment, arrived in Spin Boldak, a dusty Afghan town situated on the Pakistan border, there was one thing in particular that struck him about the conditions there—a lot of the children had no shoes.

“When I first arrived here, I was amazed at the number of children without shoes. They had to walk on bare feet on the hard ground and rocks,” said Huet, who almost immediately began searching for a way to help. “Thousands of kids here are without shoes. Amongst the 150,000 inhabitants of Spin Boldak, there are easily 25,000 youngsters living in extreme poverty, walking around barefoot.”

And it’s not just the hard ground Huet was worried about. With winter approaching, he knew the temperature would dip to as low as -10 degrees Celsius, putting the kids in danger of frostbite, or worse.

Huet’s first thought was to get shoes from Canada and distribute them in Spin Boldak, but he soon understood that this idea had some drawbacks. “My initial project was to get shoes from Canada and distribute them here. But the risks were too high (that we would) lose the merchandise in the transfer. I then decided to raise funds and buy the shoes here,” said Huet, “which will also encourage local industry.”

To a Canadian, a pair of Afghan-made shoes is pretty inexpensive, about $2 or $3 for a quality pair. However, for the Afghans, this amount of money is huge, especially when families routinely have five to 10 children.

It didn’t take Huet long to find a solution. Back at home, his own children were attending the Dollard-des-Ormeaux Elementary School at the Valcartier base where he is stationed. At the school, Huet found a willing and capable partner in Claire Groulx, the school’s spiritual animator, who would go on to lead a fundraising campaign at Dollard-des-Ormeaux and four other English schools in the Central Quebec School Board.

While the Shoes for Afghans Project began with a request for donations from students and their parents, it quickly blossomed into a kids-helping-kids fundraising projects, with individual classes and schools coming up with novel ways to raise money. In addition, many of the children began doing chores around the house to raise toonies to buy shoes.

The school kids aren’t the only ones getting involved, as The Royal Canadian Legion branch in Lachute, Que., about 80 kilometres west of Montreal, also donated a solid $5,000 to get the project going.

“I let the word out at the branch and it just spread from there,” said Lachute Branch Past President Robert Todd. “We pledged $1,250 from the branch. We had another member give us $700 and another donor gave an additional $1,500. Finally, we had a banquet to present the cheque, and more money just kept coming in.” Huet accepted the cheque at the branch himself, accompanied by his wife, Stéphanie Patenaude, and their children Victor and Rafaël.

Back in Spin Boldak, Huet was amazed by the response. While the latest tally is approximately $8,000, that figure can be expected to grow.

To date, Huet has purchased more than 2,000 pairs of shoes from a local footwear contractor, including some rubber boots for those kids who prefer them for the rainy season.

Huet distributed the first 800 pairs of shoes during a village medical outreach clinic in Kandahar province on Jan. 20.

“You could not imagine how dirty, wet and cold they were but they still had a smile and a look that was worth a million dollars,” said Huet, of the children who received new shoes that day.

“It’s a really good, feel-good sort of project,” reported Kerry Ann King, a teacher at Dollard-des-Ormeaux. “It’s something kids can relate to.”

As for Groulx, she has found that the project has had produced results beyond shodding the feet of poor Afghans. Since many children currently have parents deployed to Afghanistan, Groulx discovered that this project has helped the kids to understand what the mission was about. “It gave them a positive outlook on what their parents were doing and not focusing only on the fighting. We’re (in Afghanistan) to help somebody out. That’s what the kids are doing with the project.”

While Huet is due to return to Canada in early March, the project looks set to continue indefinitely, at least if Huet has his way, as he will be searching intently to find an incoming Canadian soldier to take over the Shoes For Afghans project.

Snowbirds Pilot Honoured On U.S. Memorial

Tom MacGregor — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:30:53 +0000

When one of Canada’s famed Snowbirds aerobatic team members died in a stunning plane crash last year, American veterans in Montana felt they could not overlook the tragedy in their own back yard.Captain Shawn McCaughey died May 18 while the team was practising for an air show at the Malmstrom Air Force Base, near Great Falls, Mont. While the accident made headlines in Canada and led to a temporary suspension of the Snowbirds regular air demonstration schedule, local veterans thought it was fitting that the Canadian pilot be honoured on their local memorial.“He was a brother,” said Sam Pappas, the sergeant-at-arms of the Montana Department of the American Legion. He and other American Legionnaires made the trip to Lloydminster in October to attend the convention of Saskatchewan Command of The Royal Canadian Legion and tell how they had honoured the young pilot.Pappas showed delegates photos of McCaughey’s name being added to the Montana Veterans Memorial in Great Falls, 520 kilometres south of Calgary. The memorial is a wall with the names of local people who have served in the military. “We have a name from the Civil War there. It is mostly people who served in World War I, II and Korea and of course the current wars,” said Pappas. “It’s a living memorial. Great Falls didn’t have a memorial of any kind. We wanted to create something that was all inclusive.”The memorial was first conceived by a committee that formed in 1999. “The land that the memorial was built on was donated for veterans use some time ago,” said Pappas, who is also chairman of the memorial. “(Over the years) the city became the owner and we are the trustees.”Construction on the memorial began in 2003 with great assistance from the 819th Redhorse Squadron of the U.S. Air Force, 219th Redhorse Squadron of the Montana Air Guard and the U.S. Navy reserve in Helena, Mont. Work was completed in 2006 and formal dedication ceremony was held in May that year.A 21-foot Warrior Angel statue was created by artist Marvin Brewster and erected in September 2005.The plaque that has been added to the memorial reads, “In honour of Capt. Shawn McCaughey, Canadian Snowbirds Pilot.” As well, a maple tree was planted at the memorial with McCaughey’s name on it to recognize his nationality.McCaughey, 31, from Candiac, Que., was in his second year flying with the Snowbirds. He had a degree in physical geography from Concordia University in Montreal and commercial pilot’s licence when he joined the Canadian Forces in 2000. He was posted to Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan as a flying instructor in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Flying Training in Canada program.After successfully completing the tryouts for the Snowbirds in 2005, McCaughey began flying with them in the 2006 season. He had more than 1,400 hours military flying time at the beginning of the 2007 Snowbirds performance schedule. McCaughey was to marry his fiancée, Claudia Gaudreault, in June.A preliminary investigation into the accident found that McCaughey’s seatbelt had come undone while flying upside down, causing him to fall out of his seat and lose control of his Tutor CT-114 aircraft.The manoeuvre called an Inverted Photo Pass required the lead Snowbird to fly across the show line upright while McCaughey in SB 2 flew inverted on his left wing. SB 3 was inverted on the lead’s right wing and SB 4 was inverted above and behind the lead plane. The accident occurred as McCaughey rolled into the inverted position. The aircraft hit the ground on a 45 degree angle before the pilot had a chance to eject.Preventive measures taken as a result of the investigation included modification to the pilot restraint system as well as new procedures and changes made to the Aircraft Operating Instructions.Once the suspension had been lifted, the Snowbird pilots returned to Montana to get their aircrafts. As they left to return to Canada, they performed a flypast at the Memorial in honour of the fallen pilot.