Posts Tagged ‘the Netherlands’

There were not as many as in the past, but the Canadian veterans who returned to the Netherlands this year seemed to be as wildly welcomed as they were 65 years ago. Back then, in 1945, the Dutch people were starving. They had been living under increasingly harsh German occupation for five years and had seen their neighbours rounded up and taken off to uncertain fates. That all ended when Canadian forces liberated the country at a cost of more than 7,600 fallen soldiers and countless others wounded. Still, it is amazing to see how the gratitude continues, not just from those [...]

The theme of The Royal Canadian Legion’s 43rd dominion convention scheduled for June 13-16 is “Birthplace of the Legion—Uniting The Nation.” It refers first to the choice of Winnipeg for the convention, which is where veterans groups came together in 1925 for the Unity Conference that established the Legion. Secondly, the theme refers to how veterans provided a unified vision on the care and benefits deserved by the men and women who had served their country in a horrific war overseas. While the Legion has successfully lobbied for many veterans benefits over the years, Legionnaires are once again meeting to grapple [...]