On the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month...
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
We take time each Remembrance Day to commemorate the sacrifice of those young Canadians sent to war over the generations, giving their lives in sacrifice for their nation.
The last few years has seen an increased awareness of this most special Day, mainly due to our ongoing commitment in the war in Afghanistan, as we pause today to think of the ancient battles and the many lives lost, we also say a prayer for those of whom we have sent into danger once again at the request of their nation.
May they return to their families soon, safe, sound and to a nation thankful for their service.
Regardless of what one thinks of our current commitment, the right or wrong of the mission, the trust or distrust of the intentions of the government of the day. We owe a debt of gratitude to those that serve our nation.
Ours is a tradition steeped in International involvement over these generations. From the early days of the Boer War, through World War One, World War Two, The Korean Conflict and the many UN missions since and leading up to the latest headlines of Afghanistan today, Canada has answered the call. Below we found some links to some of the key moments of Canada's military history some tragic, some to be heralded as remarkable, all never to be forgotten.
Take some time to review them and then take some time to think of those that stood ready to join the battle; far too many never came home...
The Boer War--From Colony to Country
The Boer War--1899-1902
The Boer War--Canadians who served
The Boer War--The South African War
The Boer War--Canada's First War a fading history
The First World War--From Colony to Country
The First World War--Canada and the First World War 1914-1918
The First World War--Canada and the Road to Vimy
The First World War--Ypres 1915
The First World War--Ordeal by Fire
The First World War--Canadians bore brunt of fighting at Ypres
The First World War--The making of In Flanders Field
The First World War--In Flanders Field
The First World War--Passchendaele
The First World War--The 90th Anniversary of Passchendaele
The First World War--Canada and the War at Sea
The First World War--Canada and the Air War
The First World War--Canada takes to the skies
The First World War--Valour at Sea
The First World War--The Halifax Explosion
The Second World War--From Colony to Country
The Second World War--Ortona
The Second World War--The Belgian coast--Dieppe, Dunkirk
The Second World War--Canada at War
The Second World War--The siege of Hong Kong
The Second World War--Heroes made in Hong Kong
The Second World War--The crucible
The Second World War--D-Day
The Second World War--Juno Beach
The Second World War--Normandy 1944
The Second World War--Valour at Sea
The Second World War--The Battle of the Atlantic
The Second World War--The RCAF fights around the world
The Second World War--A History in the Air
The Second World War--VE Day
The Second World War--Victory
The Korean War--Canadians in Korea Valour remembered
The Korean War--Off to Korea
The Korean War--Canadian Forces in Korea
The Korean War--Forgotten Heroes
UN/International Missions--Cyrprus
UN/International Missions--Suez
UN/International Missions--Yugoslavia
UN/International Missions--Medak Pocket: A story that had to be told
UN/International Missions--Rwanda: Witness to Evil
UN/International Missions--Past missions
UN/International Missions--Peacekeeping
Afghanistan--A dangerous mission
Afghanistan--Canadian Forces Operations in Afghanistan
Afghanistan--Wrong mission for Canada
Afghanistan--Trying to make a difference
Afghanistan--Afghanistan lends new focus to rituals
Afghanistan--Symbol of loss has been sullied
Afghanistan--One of the lucky ones
Afghanistan--War a backdrop to remembrance
Afghanistan--The Mission: Halfway To Nowhere?
Afghanistan--On tour with the Taliban
Afghanistan--Afghanada
Afghanistan--Survival amid chaos
Remembrance Day--A Tradition of Duty from Vimy to Khandahar
Remembrance Day--Lets Keep Politics Separate
Remembrance Day--The stories of war are still being written in the blood of Canadians
Remembrance Day--A Call to Remember
The Fallen Canadians of Afghanistan
The Books of Remembrance
Showing posts with label Remembrance Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Remembrance Day. Show all posts
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Remember
The Vancouver Province's Friday edition published a sombre reminder that this Remembrance Day is like few others that this country has commemorated since the hostilities of two world wars and the Korean conflict came to an end.
Pictured left from the Provinces Front page, are the sons and daughters of Canadians who have made that ultimate sacrifice, when sent off to a far away land to try and make a difference.
Those who remain in Afghanistan today, on patrol or at their base, walk dangerous steps at our request, and they should be in our thoughts and prayers on this day that we remember those that have gone before them.
Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, Juno Beach, Ortona, Hong Kong, Hill 187 or Kandahar, the names change over the times of history, but the memory should never grow dim when it comes to our thanks for those that walked those ancient paths or continue to walk new ones today.
That news story yesterday that shows we are woefully uninformed about our history, should be a thing of collective embarrassment. It doesn't take a lot of reading or viewing to understand the sacrifice, the horror, comradeship and sorrow that young Canadians faced during the darkest days of the worlds history, the singular lack of interest is something no Canadian should accept. To appreciate what we have today, we must respect and honour those we have lost in the past.
There is a fair amount of material in your library or on the Internet that traces Canada's participation in the Great War, the Second World War and the Korean Conflict and the current actions in Afghanistan. Ranging from well researched and presented websites, books and articles to simple offerings from ordinary Canadians.
Some of the more interesting ones that I have found today are listed below, make it a Remembrance Day mission to look for some of your own.
May those in harms way today, return home safe and soon. We think of them and those before them through the years, on this most solemn of days.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Is Remembrance Day becoming a casualty of our times?
It seems when it comes to our military history and our commemoration of sacrifice, we as a nation are sorely lacking in our knowledge and effort.
In a story in the Globe and Mail published to their website today, a good number of respondents proved to be woefully uninformed when it came to a poll conducted about Canada's military history. Only 42% of those quizzed passed the test.
Only 31 per cent of those polled were able to pick out both flying ace Billy Bishop and First World War commander Sir Arthur Currie as outstanding Canadian military heroes from a small list of four that also included Gen. MacArthur and U.S. Civil War leader Ulysses S. Grant.
And in fact Canadians seem so impressed with the life of MacArthur that one in four decided to make him our own, identifying him as a great Canadian war hero. Needless to say there is a bit of history upgrading required by 25% of the nation.
The polling results also showed that there is a trend downwards in attendance of events on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month.
From the Globe story comes this telling bit of information about our intentions. The Dominion Institute survey was conducted by the Innovative Research Group, which polled approximately 1,000 adult Canadians during the last week in October. A sample that size is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points.
The most surprising finding concerned intentions towards this years Remembrance Day gatherings. Asked whether they would be attending a Remembrance Day service this year, 41 per cent said yes, down from 58 per cent in 2001 and 50 per cent as recently as last year.
A contradiction in a way to the seemingly increasing numbers of cross country events over the last few years. Which have seen large crowds gather at cenotaphs across the nation to pay their respects to those that made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.
Here's hoping that the numbers in attendance stay large and the memories remain vivid of those sacrifices in years gone by.
Remembrance Day being forgotten, poll finds
Survey of Canadians reveals steady decline in knowledge and observance of history
ROD MICKLEBURGH
From Friday's Globe and Mail
November 10, 2006
Canadians are beginning to tune out Remembrance Day and many have already tuned out much of our military history, a new poll suggests.
Despite considerable anecdotal evidence that crowds are swelling at Remembrance Day ceremonies as the ranks of world-war veterans thin, just 41 per cent of those surveyed said they intended to take part this year, a nine percentage point drop from last year.
At the same time, the poll found Canadians are not up on the country's prominent military heroes, few though they are, with more than one in four identifying storied U.S. General Douglas MacArthur as one of us.
Only 31 per cent of those polled were able to pick out both flying ace Billy Bishop and First World War commander Sir Arthur Currie as outstanding Canadian military heroes from a small list of four that also included Gen. MacArthur and U.S. Civil War leader Ulysses S. Grant.
Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of the Dominion Institute that commissioned the survey, said he was distressed by the results.
“If you compare them with similar polls in the past, there is a decline in knowledge and a decline in Remembrance Day commitment,” said Mr. Griffiths.
“This is a dangerous moment [for Remembrance Day], as we move from a society that still has living links to the experience of war to generations who no longer have that direct, living link.”
Mr. Griffiths said he was worried that Canadians are losing not only their history, but their social solidarity, the shared heritage that shaped Canada into the country it is today.
“We need to redouble our efforts [to preserve it],” he said.
The Dominion Institute survey was conducted by the Innovative Research Group, which polled approximately 1,000 adult Canadians during the last week in October. A sample that size is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points.
The most surprising finding concerned tomorrow's Remembrance Day.
Asked whether they would be attending a Remembrance Day service this year, 41 per cent said yes, down from 58 per cent in 2001 and 50 per cent as recently as last year.
The poll aside, however, few dispute that Remembrance Day interest and actual cenotaph crowds seem to be on a dramatic upswing.
“I can remember in the 1980s when we used to hardly get anybody,” Gerry Vowles, president of the B.C. and Yukon Command of the Royal Canadian Legion, recalled yesterday.
“But the numbers have been going up, and last year the crowd [at the East Vancouver cenotaph] was much larger than I'd ever seen.”
Nov. 11 attendance at last year's national ceremony in Ottawa was more than 25,000, a huge boost from the 7,000 or so who tended to show up in the 1990s.
And CBC's audience for Ottawa's Remembrance Day ceremony tripled between 1993 and 2003 to 2.3 million viewers.
But Mr. Griffiths is not dissuaded from his gloom.
The decline in commitment by Canadians to its annual day of remembrance for the war dead has been steady over the years, he said.
Increased attendance is coming from “hard-core” faithful adherents who are now even more determined to attend, Mr. Griffiths said.
“The intensity of feeling is going up, and more within that group are going. We're winning the battle but I'm not so sure we're winning the war.”
Many Canadians, he said, espouse a “feel-good” nationalism that is very emotional but does not translate into action when it comes to attending a Remembrance Day ceremony or actually learning something about Canadian history.
“I feel like the Grinch who stole Remembrance Day, but unfortunately, we seem to be leading these busy, workaday lives and Nov. 11 is becoming a casualty of that.”
However, the survey found overwhelming support (87 per cent) for making Remembrance Day a national statutory holiday.
Perhaps buttressing concerns of those who oppose the idea out of fear that Nov. 11 will become just another holiday, younger Canadians were significantly more in favour of a day off than older Canadians.
Military historian Terry Copp, meanwhile, is far more sanguine about the poll results than Mr. Griffiths.
Mr. Copp said learning the names of military heroes such as Sir Arthur Currie isn't of much importance in people's daily lives or to 16-year olds “with a lot of other things on their mind.”
“Learning bits of information about Canadians in the two world wars does not imply understanding.”
Gordon Bannerman, 85, who fought through the bloody Italian and Holland campaigns in the Second World War, has found his own secret weapon to bring the reality of war home to school kids.
Yesterday, at a middle school on Vancouver Island, Mr. Bannerman told two hilarious anecdotes, barely fit for a family audience, about Canadian servicemen blowing themselves up while using “the facilities.” Gas and matches were involved.
“The kids howled,” Mr. Bannerman reported.
In a story in the Globe and Mail published to their website today, a good number of respondents proved to be woefully uninformed when it came to a poll conducted about Canada's military history. Only 42% of those quizzed passed the test.
Only 31 per cent of those polled were able to pick out both flying ace Billy Bishop and First World War commander Sir Arthur Currie as outstanding Canadian military heroes from a small list of four that also included Gen. MacArthur and U.S. Civil War leader Ulysses S. Grant.
And in fact Canadians seem so impressed with the life of MacArthur that one in four decided to make him our own, identifying him as a great Canadian war hero. Needless to say there is a bit of history upgrading required by 25% of the nation.
The polling results also showed that there is a trend downwards in attendance of events on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month.
From the Globe story comes this telling bit of information about our intentions. The Dominion Institute survey was conducted by the Innovative Research Group, which polled approximately 1,000 adult Canadians during the last week in October. A sample that size is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points.
The most surprising finding concerned intentions towards this years Remembrance Day gatherings. Asked whether they would be attending a Remembrance Day service this year, 41 per cent said yes, down from 58 per cent in 2001 and 50 per cent as recently as last year.
A contradiction in a way to the seemingly increasing numbers of cross country events over the last few years. Which have seen large crowds gather at cenotaphs across the nation to pay their respects to those that made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.
Here's hoping that the numbers in attendance stay large and the memories remain vivid of those sacrifices in years gone by.
Remembrance Day being forgotten, poll finds
Survey of Canadians reveals steady decline in knowledge and observance of history
ROD MICKLEBURGH
From Friday's Globe and Mail
November 10, 2006
Canadians are beginning to tune out Remembrance Day and many have already tuned out much of our military history, a new poll suggests.
Despite considerable anecdotal evidence that crowds are swelling at Remembrance Day ceremonies as the ranks of world-war veterans thin, just 41 per cent of those surveyed said they intended to take part this year, a nine percentage point drop from last year.
At the same time, the poll found Canadians are not up on the country's prominent military heroes, few though they are, with more than one in four identifying storied U.S. General Douglas MacArthur as one of us.
Only 31 per cent of those polled were able to pick out both flying ace Billy Bishop and First World War commander Sir Arthur Currie as outstanding Canadian military heroes from a small list of four that also included Gen. MacArthur and U.S. Civil War leader Ulysses S. Grant.
Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of the Dominion Institute that commissioned the survey, said he was distressed by the results.
“If you compare them with similar polls in the past, there is a decline in knowledge and a decline in Remembrance Day commitment,” said Mr. Griffiths.
“This is a dangerous moment [for Remembrance Day], as we move from a society that still has living links to the experience of war to generations who no longer have that direct, living link.”
Mr. Griffiths said he was worried that Canadians are losing not only their history, but their social solidarity, the shared heritage that shaped Canada into the country it is today.
“We need to redouble our efforts [to preserve it],” he said.
The Dominion Institute survey was conducted by the Innovative Research Group, which polled approximately 1,000 adult Canadians during the last week in October. A sample that size is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points.
The most surprising finding concerned tomorrow's Remembrance Day.
Asked whether they would be attending a Remembrance Day service this year, 41 per cent said yes, down from 58 per cent in 2001 and 50 per cent as recently as last year.
The poll aside, however, few dispute that Remembrance Day interest and actual cenotaph crowds seem to be on a dramatic upswing.
“I can remember in the 1980s when we used to hardly get anybody,” Gerry Vowles, president of the B.C. and Yukon Command of the Royal Canadian Legion, recalled yesterday.
“But the numbers have been going up, and last year the crowd [at the East Vancouver cenotaph] was much larger than I'd ever seen.”
Nov. 11 attendance at last year's national ceremony in Ottawa was more than 25,000, a huge boost from the 7,000 or so who tended to show up in the 1990s.
And CBC's audience for Ottawa's Remembrance Day ceremony tripled between 1993 and 2003 to 2.3 million viewers.
But Mr. Griffiths is not dissuaded from his gloom.
The decline in commitment by Canadians to its annual day of remembrance for the war dead has been steady over the years, he said.
Increased attendance is coming from “hard-core” faithful adherents who are now even more determined to attend, Mr. Griffiths said.
“The intensity of feeling is going up, and more within that group are going. We're winning the battle but I'm not so sure we're winning the war.”
Many Canadians, he said, espouse a “feel-good” nationalism that is very emotional but does not translate into action when it comes to attending a Remembrance Day ceremony or actually learning something about Canadian history.
“I feel like the Grinch who stole Remembrance Day, but unfortunately, we seem to be leading these busy, workaday lives and Nov. 11 is becoming a casualty of that.”
However, the survey found overwhelming support (87 per cent) for making Remembrance Day a national statutory holiday.
Perhaps buttressing concerns of those who oppose the idea out of fear that Nov. 11 will become just another holiday, younger Canadians were significantly more in favour of a day off than older Canadians.
Military historian Terry Copp, meanwhile, is far more sanguine about the poll results than Mr. Griffiths.
Mr. Copp said learning the names of military heroes such as Sir Arthur Currie isn't of much importance in people's daily lives or to 16-year olds “with a lot of other things on their mind.”
“Learning bits of information about Canadians in the two world wars does not imply understanding.”
Gordon Bannerman, 85, who fought through the bloody Italian and Holland campaigns in the Second World War, has found his own secret weapon to bring the reality of war home to school kids.
Yesterday, at a middle school on Vancouver Island, Mr. Bannerman told two hilarious anecdotes, barely fit for a family audience, about Canadian servicemen blowing themselves up while using “the facilities.” Gas and matches were involved.
“The kids howled,” Mr. Bannerman reported.
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