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November 11, 2019
On far left, Capt. W.T. Murphy entering Germany April 1944. Born in Judith Gap, Montana, he joined the Canadian Army on Nov. 11, 1940, eventually being discharged in January 1946. Photo courtesy Pat Murphy, Vancouver Island Military Museum
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Remembrance Day 2019
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The wars shaped Canadian family lines in many ways. Not only did soldiers bring back ‘war brides’ from other countries, but young Canadian women were reason for servicemen from other countries to put down roots, becoming, essentially, ‘war grooms.’
Playing for peace
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Vancouver Island classical pianist composes suite inspired by efforts of Canadian peacekeepers.
In Honour of Our Veterans REMEMBRANCE DAY
On November 11th,
November 11, 2019
take time to honour and remember those who have sacrificed so much for all of us.
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Last year’s Remembrance Day parade makes its way to the Dallas Square cenotaph downtown. This year’s ceremony is 11-11:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 11.
Nanaimo will solemnly remember People can gather for ceremonies, events at legions service in the hall at 9 a.m. After that, there will be time for people to make their way downtown and back for the Dallas Square ceremony before lunch is served back at the legion hall at noon. The Bowen Senior Songsters, the Mount Benson Ceili Band and Guy Bezeau and Island Country are the scheduled musical acts. The Harewood Branch 10 Legion will open after veterans and dignitaries arrive back at the hall following the downtown parade and ceremony. Lunch will be laid out at that time and Brandon Cowie will DJ in the afternoon followed by a performance by the Sons of Guns at 7 p.m. Lantzville’s Remembrance Day parade will stage next to the Branch
257 Legion with the parade and service to follow at the Huddlestone Park cenotaph. At noon there will be hotdogs and drinks for kids at Costin Hall, while the legion will host a soup lunch at the same time. The Pacific Gael Pipe Band will play at 12:30 p.m. followed by the Heart of the Island Chorus at 1 p.m. and then the Nanaimo Concert Band from 2-4 p.m. The legion will host a roast beef dinner with all the fixings at 4 p.m., free for veterans and $5 for everyone else. After that, there will be music in the lounge from 6-10 p.m. For more information, visit www.rcl256bc.ca, https://www.facebook. com/Branch10LegionNanaimo/ and https:// www.facebook.com/ lantzvillelegion/.
Remembering those who served & fought for our freedom NEWS BULLETIN FILE PHOTO
Remembrance Day ceremonies will be held in downtown Nanaimo and also at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 256 and at Lantzville’s Huddlestone Park on Monday, Nov. 11.
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There will be a moment of silence and thoughtful remembrance this weekend in Nanaimo and Lantzville. Both municipalities will hold Remembrance Day ceremonies on Monday, Nov. 11. The Nanaimo ceremony will take place at Dallas Square downtown following a parade leading to the cenotaph. The Lantzville ceremony will take place at Huddlestone Park after a parade from Lantzville School Road. The region’s three Royal Canadian Legion branches will be hosting more of the day’s events. At the Mount Benson Branch 256 Legion on East Wellington Road, breakfast will be served from 7-8:30 a.m. followed by a Remembrance Day
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Brian McFadden, Vancouver Island Military Museum vice-president, shows the museum’s War on the Home Front exhibit, which includes information about the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan that graduated more than 130,000 air crew in Canada during the Second World War.
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other aircrew specialties that included navigation, bombarCHRIS BUSH uated more than 131,500 air diers, air gunners and radio NEWS BULLETIN operators. crew. More than 10,000 aircraft, The story of the BCATP that included single-engine By the outbreak of the Sec- is one of Vancouver Island de Havilland Tiger Moth biond World War military avi- Military Museum’s newest ation had been developed to displays created for the muse- planes, North American Hara point where it would play a um’s War on the Home Front vards and twin-engine Avro Anson aircraft were used decisive role in how that war exhibit section. at 231 training bases across Compared with modern was fought. Canada. Some of those bases conflicts, the numbers of Canada helped meet the evolved to become major Capersonnel and equipment demand for trained airmen nadian airports. brought to bear in the Secand technicians needed to Trainees came from Canond World War can seem crew and service the thouada, Britain, Australia and staggering. At the height of sands of aircraft needed for New Zealand as well as airits operations the BCATP that conflict by creating the employed more than 104,000 men from France, Poland, British Commonwealth Air Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the men and women at 107 flyTraining Plan, a massive air Netherlands, Norway and ing schools and nearly 190 training school system that other countries that had been between 1940 and 1945 grad- ancillary units that taught
overrun by German forces. Americans, who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force when the U.S. was still neutral during the early years of the war, trained with BCATP as well. “They were given a special clearance … because it was illegal for them to do it … they wanted to join the air force. The U.S. wasn’t in the war yet, but some of these guys, their families were from all over Europe and so they felt they had to go and they crossed the border,” said Brian McFadden, Vancouver Island Military Museum vice-president. Continued on A17
~Remembrance Day 2019~
Honouring the brave And sacrifice Of all the Women and Men Whos lives have been lost Or forever changed, While fighting for our freedom And serving OUR Country ~Lest we forget Doug Routley, MLA Nanaimo North Cowichan Nanaimo: 250.716.5221 Ladysmith: 250.245.9375
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Canada had war brides, but also had war grooms CHRIS BUSH NEWS BULLETIN
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Models, created by Vancouver Island Military Museum modeller Pat Murphy, depict an Avro Anson, foreground, De Havilland Tiger Moth and North American Harvard, which were used for flight training in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
Bases had major social and economic impacts Continued from A16 “Roosevelt, justified it by saying, ‘Well, it’s part of lend lease,’ which it wasn’t. Another reason, of course, that [BCATP] came here, it was so close to spare parts. The United States was supplying thousands of spare parts for the aircraft.” McFadden said pilots who graduated from the program went to operational training bases to train with actual fighter aircraft. “In Victoria they had [Hawker] Hurricanes and they had [Curtiss] Kittyhawks because, by the time the pilots got there that was their last posting, so it was called an operational training base as opposed to a basic flying base,” McFadden said. “So
you would train in Moose Jaw, then if you were good enough, they said you’re going to be a fighter pilot, you’re going to Victoria and you’re going to be on Hurricanes and Kittyhawks and then you’re overseas.” B.C.’s four main operational training bases were in Patricia Bay, Abbotsford, Boundary Bay and Sea Island. Women, civilians from the communities where BCATP bases set up, and from the Royal Canadian Air Force women’s division played a major role in the training program in technical a non-technical support positions needed to keep the bases and equipment operating. The bases also
had major economic and social impacts on the communities they operated in. The BCATP supplied more than 73,000 Canadian pilots and thousands more air crew to the war effort, but meeting that task extracted its toll as well. More than 1,200 trainees and training staff lost their lives during the course of the war. “That number’s low because … every country sort of kept their own data, so that probably didn’t include Czechs or Poles or anybody that had got out early on, but wanted to fight and maybe they had experience as pilots,” McFadden said. “A lot of the instructors came from the commercial [airline] industry.” photos@nanaimobulletin.com
The tales about war brides who fell in love with Canadian servicemen overseas during the Second World War have long been told, but Canada also drew its share of war grooms. Vancouver Island Military Museum has dedicated a new display to war grooms, who met Canadian women while training in Canada and returned to start new lives here following the war. “Most people know about the war brides … but no one really knows too much about the war grooms,” said Brian McFadden, Vancouver Island Military Museum vice-president. “These are young men from the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, who came to Canada to be trained as air crew – pilots, navigators and radio operators.” Those trainees, McFadden said, met their future wives while training at air bases across the country, often in or near small farming communities that had surplus land suitable for aircraft operations. The training program brought an unprecedented influx of young men to those communities. Many of the young women who lived in these communities ended up being employed at the training bases or in businesses supporting them, which afforded plenty of social interaction between servicemen and the women and local families. “Hundreds of these young women from these
We thank our Veterans and active servicemen who have persevered and continue to protect our freedom we enjoy today. The Van Hest Family, owners of Art Knapp’s also salute the veterans of the Holland Liberation whose ultimate sacrifice enabled Frank and Liz Van Hest to obtain their freedom during World War II. Thank you with all our hearts.
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The military museum’s exhibit about servicemen from overseas who found love while training in Canada and made their lives here after the Second World War.
small towns were employed by the air force on the bases. They’d meet these young men and they’d all look very handsome in their uniforms. They had leave. They had money. Dances were organized for them – all types of social activities – so it’s a typical boymeets-girl,” McFadden said. “These young men got married or went off to war, came back and got married to the girls they’d met in these small towns all across the country.” McFadden doesn’t know the exact number of men whose hearts were captured by Canadian girls, but accountings of the encounters are chronicled in a book by author Judy Kozar, Canada’s War Grooms and the Girls Who Stole Their Hearts, published by General Store Publishing House. Continued on A18
Michelle.Stilwell.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Remembrance Day Ceremony Our Veterans should never be forgotten. Honour them at this annual service of reflection. (Rain or shine). Monday, November 11 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Cedar Valley Memorial Gardens 2347 Cedar Road Nanaimo, BC V9X1W1 All welcome • Free community event For more information, call: 250-722-2244
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We Thank You For With Service Grateful Thanks… Your
To the men and women who have served in the defense of peace, justice, and freedom.
We honour them.
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War grooms hard to track We remember the members of our community who have served our country.
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Continued from A17 Kozar, a retired teacher-librarian from Manitoba, reached out to veterans associations, museums, historical societies and advertised to find stories of 45 war grooms she could include in her book. In her book’s introduction Kozar noted that the Canadian government provided passage for 48,000 war brides and their 22,000 children to come to Canada, so plenty of documentation about them exists, but she could find no documentation about war grooms because they weren’t Canadian servicemen so Veterans Affairs has no records of them and there is no accurate estimate of how many of them there were. Kozar includes stories from war grooms across Canada to portray a broader perspective of their experiences. Most of those she contacted were willing to share their stories and in cases where the groom, his wife or both had died, the stories were provided by their families. Many of the men met their wives through the British Commonwealth Air Training Program as did most of the grooms in Kozar’s book with the exception of four; one was in the British army and three were sailors with the Royal Navy and the Norwegian merchant navy. Vancouver Island Military Museum and its new exhibits, including the story of Canada’s war grooms, will be open to the public following Remembrance Day observances, Nov. 11. photos@nanaimobulletin.com
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A map from a former display at Vancouver Island Military Museum locates 57 crash sites where military aircraft went down on training missions during the Second World War.
Dozens of planes went down on the Island training for war depicts the dangers and costs of flight training thousands of air crew in the unforgiving skies of the B.C. coast. From 1942 to 1944, during “It’s strictly on British Cothe Second World War, an average of five airmen lost their lumbia, on the four bases that lives each week in air training are here and on the searches for the aircraft that have been accidents across Canada. found on Vancouver Island Flight training during warafterwards,” said Brian Mctime was a risky business, Fadden, Vancouver Island especially on the B.C. coast. Flying in unpredictable winds Military Museum vice-presover mountainous and forest- ident. There are some well-known ed terrain, that claimed the military aircraft crash sites lives of 1,240 trainees and on Vancouver Island. One, a instructors. Consolidated Canso bomber Many of those lives were lost in crashes on or near Van- used to hunt enemy surface couver Island. An operational craft and submarines off the B.C. Coast, lies near Radar training base at Patricia Bay Hill, south of Tofino. The in Victoria became the third busiest in B.C. and graduated wreckage of a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber more than 5,000 air crew, that crashed into a mounbut also tallied 179 training tain in the Nanaimo Lakes deaths from that base alone. watershed in 1944 lies in an A new exhibit at Vancouundisclosed location, its crew ver Island Military Museum CHRIS BUSH NEWS BULLETIN
buried near the wreckage. In all, 57 crashes on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands claimed the lives of airmen and instructors during the war. Some of those crash sites weren’t found for decades and remains of their crews never recovered. Others couldn’t be brought home because terrain and weather made it impossible. “Eleven guys died in 1945 at Mount Welch in Chilliwack when their Liberator crashed into the top of the mountain and they couldn’t recover the bodies. It was just too dangerous,” McFadden said. Adding to the pain of the families who lost their loved ones was that the deaths weren’t counted by the military as combat casualties and are often overlooked by historians. photos@nanaimobulletin.com
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Thursday, November 7, 2019 A19
VIU professor hopes project helps to humanize the casualties of war Nanaimo Remembers video project being displayed around city
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With the number of world war veterans dwindling each passing year, a university professor in Nanaimo is trying to impress on students the significance of the wars. The First World War ended in 1918 and the Second World War in 1945, long before today’s youths were born, and Stephen Davies, who teaches history at Vancouver Island University, hopes the Canadian Letters and Images and Nanaimo Remembers projects, publishing letters and names of war vets respectively, educate about the importance of both global conflicts. Being able to preserve stories and letters for future generations is “absolutely crucial,” said Davies, and when his students see names or read letters, they realize that some of the soldiers were between 18 and 20 years of age, much like them. Davies said he thinks it puts the reality back as to what those sacrifices actually meant. The human component that’s been lost is so rich, he said. “I use the letters and try to understand the human component because if you talk about World War I, Canada’s loss is over 60,000 dead, it’s so large, it’s so abstract that they really don’t get it,” said Davies. “So we take an individual soldier with their letters and lives and we dissect that essentially and they get to see these people as individuals. “They love chocolate and
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Stephen Davies, Vancouver Island University history professor, by a screen displaying the Nanaimo Remembers project, a video memorial of soldiers from the First and Second World Wars. they had a dog and had a girlfriend and they had all these hopes and ambitions and they realize, how real these people were and then you extrapolate it to 60,000. Then they begin to get it, ‘Wow! The human component.’ The loss that we suffered is really something.” The letters project is an online archive and Davies said the Nanaimo Remembers project sees names from the downtown cenotaph and First and Second World War records displayed in prominent places around the city until Nov. 11, Remembrance Day. The project began last year and this year, Davies said additional information like occupation and attachment to Nanaimo, was added. “We also have some First Nations involvement that’s been brought in from the
area, so we’re trying to expand from last year,” said Davies. In addition to VIU’s welcome centre at the Nanaimo campus, the project can be viewed at Beban Park and Oliver Woods community centres, Nanaimo Museum, Port Theatre, Woodgrove Centre, Habourfront, Nanaimo North and Wellington libraries and schools, social media sites and the website of Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools. “Hopefully … everyone will get a chance to, at least spend a few minutes looking at these names and understanding their connection to Nanaimo and then perhaps on Nov. 11, if they’re down at the cenotaph, then they can look at those names themselves and appreciate this is who that person was,” said Davies.
We honour those who have given their lives serving Canadians.
Lest we forget.
Mayor Leonard Krog, at a council meeting Nov. 4, expressed his thanks to the university and its elders-in-residence for their work on the project and let people know about where and when it was being displayed. “This tells the story of the lives of Nanaimo soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the First and Second World War … and I think this is a very important project,” he said. For more information on the Canadian Letters and Images Project, go to www. canadianletters.ca. The Nanaimo Remembers project video can be seen by searching for Nanaimo Remembers 2019 on YouTube. For additional video content related to this article, visit www.nanaimobulletin. com. reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
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Emily Armour, a classical pianist and piano instructor from Cobble Hill, on Vancouver Island, has composed a suite called Stories from Yugoslavia: Reflections on Canadian Peacekeeping. With Remembrance Day right around the corner, the recently recorded work is particularly timely. The pieces are for solo piano and Armour says she was inspired by Canadian peacekeeping veterans who served in Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s. “I have been very fortunate to learn from these veterans and the subject matter is deeply personal. Their honesty, willingness to share, and patience, while I worked on this project has opened my eyes and helped me understand a very significant part of Canadian history,” she said. “It is my hope that this work will inspire questions from those like me who once knew little about this conflict, and provoke further inquiry into veterans’ issues relating to peacekeeping.” The four movements listed in order are No Birds in Sarajevo, Elegy, The Pocket, and Epilogue. It was recorded in one live take at Silverside Sound Recording Studio in Cobble Hill. In the video caption there is a short poetic fragment written by the composer’s colleague, Lucas McKinnon: “Heavy arms anticipate the burden of time. As the last leaves fall, we walk into pale woods.”
SUBMITTED PHOTO
‘Stories from Yugoslavia: Reflection on Canadian Peacekeeping’ is a suite of compositions by Emily Armour, inspired by conversations she has had with veterans of those missions. This photo is of her partner on duty. Armour said she never planned on composing the work. “I’ve just been fortunate enough to know a few veterans who served overseas and hearing them talk about their experiences has really inspired me actually. I got my masters in music a few years ago but I never composed during that time period. Composing is a new thing for me,” she said. “I’ve written for my students a bit – a couple of pieces that are more accessible for kids – but I haven’t written any pieces like this one.” Armour said she was inspired by her partner, who served overseas in Croatia and other friends who are veterans. “I’ve just been really lucky to hear their stories. It’s really opened my eyes about what peacekeeping really means
and what it has done to the veterans who have done that particular thing.” Bosnia and Croatia are not conflicts that are on everybody’s lips but the peacekeepers who went to the Balkans were all marked by that experience,” Armour said. “That’s maybe why I was kind of moved by it. These veterans who went there saw a lot of terrible things. They experienced PTSD. I think we need to acknowledge their sacrifices and honour them,” she said. “I think it’s sometimes overlooked. That particular aspect of the military – peacekeeping – is misunderstood sometimes. Just to hear them talk about it highlighted how little I know about it.” Listening to the music and looking at the picture of Armour’s partner that accompanies the video is intended to make the listener think about
what happened there. “That’s what I was hoping for. I didn’t really grow up learning about Canadians in Bosnia and Croatia, and I didn’t know how significant it was for the people living there and for the veterans who went there,” she said. “My whole point was that people will hear and have questions about it, what it has been like for them, and maybe, if they know a veteran, to ask them about it. It’s a significant time.” The poetic comment by McKinnon – the owner of Silverside studio – was inspired by his hearing the music. “He also writes poems, and he came up with that fragment while I was playing,” Armour said. “He’s very insightful. He did a great job, understanding what I was playing.” lexi.bainas@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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First World War poppies tour country as a symbol of hope and resilience Mail that made its way from Flanders Fields ‘whispers’ about past
1956, when Campbell was about two years old. Campbell said her aunt recognized the historical significance of the letters she inherited and put the exhibition HINA ALAM into motion. CANADIAN PRESS Viveka Melki, the curator of War Flowers, said she was Two years ago when Heathtouched by the simplicity of er Campbell was sorting the letters. through a box of books she “This man sends these came across a Bible from her letters even in the darkest grandmother. Tucked inside of times. He sends them to was an envelope carrying a his daughter as a symbol of yellowing letter and a poppy beauty amongst darkness,” from Flanders Fields sent she said. “He doesn’t write an during the First World War. extensive letter, but he writes “When I discovered that what’s essential – I love you.” poppy in the Bible it was like Nancy Holmes, associate – I don’t know if this is going professor of creative and critto sound silly – it was almost ical studies at the University like a tap on the shoulder, a of British Columbia, said quiet yet powerful whisper the flowers sent a message of from the past,” Campbell hope. said in a recent interview. “I “And if you send flowers to was really quite shocked.” your family – dried flowers That poppy was among CANADIAN PRESS/RYAN REMIORZ PHOTO or pressed flowers – they are the many flowers that her Dried flowers picked by Canadian soldier Lieutenant-Colonel George great-grandfather, lieuStephen Cantlie from the fields and gardens of war-torn Europe are seen in going to imagine that at least you are some place where tenant-colonel George Stean exhibition at the Chateau Ramezay museum last week in Montreal. there is flowers growing so it phen Cantlie, sent home with can’t be that bad,” she added. Folded inside is a twig with In a recording shared by letters to his family. Cantlie Stacey Barker, a historian red poppies. served as the first command- Campbell, her late aunt ElsAnother letter dated “Flan- at the Canadian War Musepeth Angus, who was Canter of the 42nd Battalion of um in Ottawa, said flowers lie’s granddaughter, describes ders, At the Front. 28.6.16,” the Royal Highlanders of are not what come to mind how he came about his daily contains daisies. “Dear Wee Canada. when someone thinks about Celia,” it reads. “From the The flowers are now part of ritual. trenches and shell holes with the First World War. “Every night, without fail a touring exhibit called War “You think about mechamuch love from Daddy.” while he was over there, he Flowers that is on display at nized warfare and the horrors Campbell said the letters the Chateau Ramezay Histor- wrote two letters. During of the frontline and death and flowers are “probably a ic Site and Museum of Mon- the day … he would pick a and killing and these flowers flower no matter what it was, translatable story into any treal until the new year. It are really a stark juxtaposiwill then move to Edmonton. whether it was a dandelion or time of war, any type of adtion,” said Barker. a rose, a forget-me-not, or a versity.” “This exhibit tells stories She said it was “quite poidaisy, and put it between two “Maybe this is a universal in a way that balances hope gnant” that Cantlie found pieces of paper that he had message to everyone that and love with reality, reach“these little bits of life on the brought over with him and people do survive the best ing across continents,” said battlefield.” they can,” she said. “They Campbell, who is a registered press it in a book to dry out “These little, beautiful, so he could use it.” still can find beauty amidst nurse in Toronto. The letters to his baby things that are pretty horrific, fragile things in the midst of Cantlie enlisted when he and we should celebrate that absolute carnage and horror was 48 years old in 1915. He daughter Celia were only a few words long. and remember that. It’s really and devastation. He was able fought in battles in Belgium to find these living, beautiIn one dated July 4, 1916, symbolism, isn’t it?” and France. He sent his wife ful, delicate things to send he wrote: “Dear Wee Celia: Her mother described and one of his five children home.” pressed flowers from the bat- With much love from Daddy. Cantlie as kind and gentle. www.bclocalnews.com At the front Flanders. 1916.” He died aged 89 on Aug. 30, tlefield with his letters.
Thursday, November 7, 2019 A21
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A22 Thursday, November 7, 2019
Nanaimo News Bulletin REMEMBERING THE BRAVE
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OPINION
Canada needs to recognize sacrifices, contributions of indigenous veterans Cowichan Chronicles columnist sees gaps in war history books T.W. PATERSON COWICHAN CHRONICLES
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We’re living in the age of reconciliation. For the first time, many Canadians have turned the telescope around and are viewing their country and its history from the viewpoint of its indigenous peoples. It’s been a long, long road from the racism and segregation of colonialism to reach this point and we’ve a long way to go. A good stepping-stone towards reconciliation is the correction of a long overdue omission in our military heritage: honouring the contributions made by indigenous servicemen in both world wars and Korea. But we’re working on it. Four years ago, the Cowichan Valley Citizen wrote of a “never-before-seen” celebration at the Somena Longhouse. This, explained spokesperson Marlene Rice, was the blessing of a totem pole carved by George Rice and a warrior canoe carved by Harold Joe, Roger and Cory George, Walter Thomas and George Rice in honour of First Nations veterans. The totem pole and warrior canoe were destined for permanent display at Vancouver Island University although the canoe can be borrowed by other First Nations who choose to use it in honouring their veterans. According to government statistics, 12,000 aboriginal people along with an undetermined number of Inuit,
WORLD WARS ABORIGINAL VETERANS/AV.CANADIANA.CA PHOTOS
Oliver Milton Martin, left, rose to the rank of brigadier general, Francis Pegahmagabow was decorated three times for marksmanship, George McLean served in the Boer and First World Wars. Métis and non-status aboriginals served Canada in the First and Second World wars and the Korean War; 500 were killed and many more were wounded. That’s more than any other ethnic group in Canada as a percentage of their population. Since then, others have served and are serving in overseas peacekeeping missions. In recent years some indigenous Canadians have been wearing hand-crafted, beaded poppies similar to those which have been distributed by the Royal Canadian Legion for decades. These poppies, designed to honour First Nations service personnel, are meant to complement rather than compete with the traditional Flanders Fields poppy symbol. In 2016, National Aboriginal Veterans Day honoured indigenous veterans. Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, who laid a wreath at the ceremony, noted that, “Everything from Vimy Ridge through Juno Beach throughout peacekeeping missions and today in our armed forc-
es, they signed up, served and continued to serve and do our nation proud every day.” (In 2016 there were more than 2,500 aboriginal people serving in the Canadian military, representing 2.7 per cent of the approximately 95,000 full and part-time service members – almost double the representation of 10 years before but still short of a targeted 3.5 per cent.) For Betty Ann Lavilee, former head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and a fourth-generation military veteran, National Aboriginal Veterans Day was a bittersweet occasion. It troubled her that indigenous veterans, upon their return to Canada, were no longer wanted and were shuffled between the Department of Veterans Affairs and what was then the Department of Indian Affairs. In this beaurocratic no-man’s-land they were denied the land, housing, medical and educational benefits made available to white veterans. They were still denied the right to vote and barred from legion halls because
they weren’t, legally, allowed to drink liquor. In 2003, the federal government apologized and offered compensation of $20,000 per veteran – a pittance instead of the $120,000 recommended by a national roundtable. Also in 2016, in April, 66 veterans from Coast Salish tribes were honoured for the first time in a ceremony at VIU campus. Hundreds watched as a veterans’ prayer totem pole was unveiled. By then more than 200 living Coast Salish veterans had been identified on both sides of the border. As Marlene Rice, by then an elder-in-residence at VIU’s Cowichan campus, sadly reminded Canadians, “It’s a fact that, unlike non-aboriginal soldiers, First Nation soldiers were not recognized for their service until recently and received no pensions. “But they wanted to fight for their country and they did because they felt it was the right thing to do, and now we’re honouring them.” Continued on A23
We Remember and Salute Our Veterans Thank You for the Freedom We Enjoy Today
Nanaimo News Bulletin
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Continued from A22 In 1993, Veterans Affairs Canada published a booklet, Native Soldiers/Foreign Battlefields. It begins with a quote by Mike Mountain Horse who served during the First World War: “The war proved that the fighting spirit of my tribe was not squelched through reservation life. When duty called, we were there, and when we were called forth to fight for the cause of civilization, our people showed all the bravery of our warriors of old.” Joining the army was more traumatic for indigenous recruits than for most. Coming, for the most part, from remote and isolated reserves, few spoke English or French. For many, joining a Canadian battalion “marked their first exposure to the dress, terminology and unique customs of British military tradition.” And, we can bet, although it’s not stated in this government publication, they sometimes had to endure discrimination, personal and systemic. Some of the statistics given are startling. For example, during the Great War, one in three able-bodied Canadian indigenous men of age to serve volunteered and approximately 4,000 of them
served overseas. “Approximately 4,000,” because the records fail us in determining how many actually did volunteer for military service. Why this uncertainty? The department’s “main concern was status Indians [and the] records rarely took into account the number of Inuit, Métis and other Canadian Natives who signed up.” How ironic that Prime Minister Robert Borden’s government, for all the need of volunteers, initially barred recruitment of indigenous participation. By late 1915, however, the government had changed its mind before a continuing flood of indigenous enlistment applications and the continuing slaughter of Canadian soldiers in the Belgian and French trenches. Not all Canadian First Nations were onside, some tribes demanding a recognition by Great Britain of their independent status. This wasn’t forthcoming and, with the advent of conscription, in August 1917, some indigenous leaders resisted further enlistment. For their part, young men continued to volunteer in droves; in some areas, enlistment was almost total. To give just one example, B.C.’s Head of the Lake Band “saw
every single man between the ages of 20 and 35 volunteer.” Despite the fact that the Iroquois Six Nations of Brantford, Ont. opposed reserve enlistment, it provided more soldiers than any other Canadian Indian band. Most of them served in the Canadian Infantry with the Canadian Corps in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. As a final note, it should be added that indigenous peoples on the home front, few of whom had decent incomes, gave generously to war relief. Sadly, the homecoming for most indigenous servicemen who’d known the casual cameraderie of their mates in uniform and had been allowed to participate as equals in social affairs while on leave in Allied countries such as England, was disappointing, even shattering. As Marlene Rice has pointed out, there were no veterans’ benefits, no official or public recognition, no pensions. Some eventually died of despair; paying homage then and now is all, alas, too little and too late. T.W. Paterson’s columns are published in the Cowichan Valley Citizen, a Black Press publication.
Thursday, November 7, 2019 A23
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Canada’s War Experience One Soldier’s Letter at a Time The experience of ordinary Canadians in wartime is told in 20,000+ personal letters, photos and memorabilia, all found on the Canadian Letters and Images Project website. View a vast online archive created and updated in the History Department at Vancouver Island University.
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we salute our canadian armed forces for all their sacrifices
A24 Thursday, November 7, 2019
Nanaimo News Bulletin
All Quality Foods stores are closed November 11, to allow all of our people the opportunity to observe Remembrance Day with their family, friends and neighbours.
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