soldiers

Saturday November 11, 2023

On Remembrance Day, we must honour the sacrifices made by those who fought for freedom and democracy, while also recognizing the need to speak out against injustice and work towards a peaceful world.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 11, 2023

“Remembering Sacrifice: Honouring the Past and Building a Peaceful Future”

May 5, 2000

On Remembrance Day, it is important to reflect on the conflicts currently happening worldwide and hold a strong desire for peace. The men and women we honour on this day understood things that we may not fully comprehend. They enlisted and fought not just for their own countries, but for the ideals of freedom and democracy that we enjoy today. They recognized that totalitarianism and injustice in faraway places threatened the very fabric of society and democratic values that allowed them to live in a free society.

The atrocities committed during the Holocaust and other instances of genocide remind us of the importance of speaking out against injustice. As Eli Wiesel said, “neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.” Silence only encourages the tormentor. It is our responsibility to stand up against any form of violence and oppression, even in the face of conflicts that may seem distant or complex.

June 6, 2019

We must remember that in any conflict, there are victims on all sides. The grief and loss experienced by these victims should not be diminished by knowing who is responsible. It is crucial to recognize and speak out against all forms of violence, even the silent ones that often go unnoticed.

The conflicts in the world today serve as a reminder that peace is not a given. We must actively work towards peace by rejecting leaders and systems that perpetuate violence and oppression. Ordinary people on all sides of a conflict have the power to make a difference by speaking up and standing against injustice.

News: Damage to Gaza War Cemetery shows challenge of caring for monuments in conflict zones  

June 6, 2023

On this Remembrance Day, let us honour those who sacrificed themselves for the greater good. Let us wear the poppy as a symbol of our commitment to peace and strive to do more for peace each day. We must not glorify war, but rather acknowledge the failure of finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. Together, let us say and do more for peace, starting today. (AI)

 

Thursday June 6, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 6, 2019

When the tide turned: Canadians hold massive D-Day event at Juno Beach

World leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, gathered on France’s Normandy coast today to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the remarkable military and political achievement known as D-Day.

May 5, 2000

There have been two commemoration events along the 10-kilometre stretch of coastline that Canadians fought to liberate — one Canadian, one international.

As many as 5,000 people, including French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, attended the Canadian event. Thursday’s commemoration in France follows another memorial, on Wednesday in the U.K., that was attended by leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and Justin Trudeau.

Their chests laden with medals, Canadian veterans listened solemnly, overlooking the tall grass and sandy expanse below in Normandy on Thursday.

Naturally, the beach today looks entirely different from the one that greeted the invading allies on June 6, 1944. The three major communities along the coastline have regained in many respects the sleepy resort quality they enjoyed before the Germans came.

Three-quarters of a century ago today, Fred Turnbull was sitting in a landing craft plowing through the grey, choppy surf towards the shell-raked Normandy coast.

November 11, 2009

His landing craft took ashore a section of troops from the Régiment de la Chaudière, a reserve brigade.

His first hint of the invasion’s cost in blood was the sight of the bodies of military divers floating in the surf — killed as they tried to disarm metal obstacles booby-trapped by the Germans.

The rising tide carried the landing craft over the deadly traps, but all six boats — including Turnbull’s barge — were blown up after they had delivered their troops and turned back to sea to get more.

Turnbull and his men had to swim from the barge to the beach. There they waited as the battle raged around them for three hours before a larger landing ship came in and took them off.

“That was the worst part of it, waiting to be rescued,” said Turnbull.

The soldiers cracked jokes about their plight and tried to remain calm while waiting for retrieval. One enterprising sailor liberated a bottle of rum from the wreckage — which no doubt made the time pass more comfortably.

June 6, 2014

Canadian military planners had expected 1,800 casualties on D-Day — killed, wounded and captured. According to federal government records, the day saw 1,074 Canadian casualties during the taking of the beachhead.

D-Day was just the beginning, though. By the end of the Normandy campaign, more than 5,000 troops had been killed out of roughly 18,000 Canadian casualties. (CBC)

A crazy amount of social media shares on this one…


 

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Tuesday, February 4, 2014Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Julian Fantino insults veterans so he blames union: Tim Harper

When my cell phone rang last week, the voice on the line was agitated and somewhat incoherent.

It took a couple of minutes, but it became clear that Daniel was a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, feeling frustrated and abandoned by a political and court system he has battled over the years.

He figuratively pointed his finger at me and the rest of the media for not helping our veterans.

A veteran’s war story

“Please exercise patience and tolerance with me,’’ he subsequently wrote in an email.

I didn’t snap back at him. I didn’t hang up the phone and I didn’t accuse him of being a pawn of a big union.

That’s the Julian Fantino playbook and Stephen Harper is again watching what happens when the messenger, not the message, becomes the story in the protracted slanging match between the veterans affairs minister and those who served our country.

Ottawa hasn’t seen a communications fiasco of this magnitude since then public safety minister Vic Toews accused his Liberal opponent of standing with the child pornographers by questioning his stillborn electronic surveillance bill.

Fantino appeared bereft of empathy and respect when he belatedly encountered the veterans who were in Ottawa last week to protest the closing of eight Veterans Affairs offices on Friday.

They did close Friday, as some demonstrators shed tears and others vented their anger at their government. (Continued: Toronto Star)

SOCIAL MEDIA

This cartoon appeared on a number of blogs and news sites. Among them, the Royal Canadian Legion and Yahoo Canada News.

Thursday November 11, 2010

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 11, 2010

There is a bill we must pay

It has been often observed that old men start wars and young men are sent off to fight them. For all the truth in that, it lets countless others — us — off the hook. It is nations — the governors and the governed — who send their young men and women off to fight, to kill or be killed.

The reality is that most of us born after 1945 don’t have a clue what being in a war is like; even soldiers’ stories are often draped in the compassionate veil of time.

It is those at home who drape the war in glory, triumph and patriotism. We bask in the reflected glory of battling barbarism, genocidal ambitions, repression and cruelty. We feel we, thousands of kilometres from what may pass for a front line, are part of the grand fight for freedom, democracy, eventual world peace, or even the right of young girls to go to school without having acid splashed on their faces.

Part of the enormous debt we recognize in Remembrance Day observances and ceremonies today is that Canada’s warriors fought far away so we didn’t have to fight at home. Whether the fight is against fascism or dictatorship or terrorism, soldiers go to fight in our stead.

Soldiers give what we civilians could not imagine losing: a part of their young lives, innocence, comrades with whom they shared a bond forged in the military experience. They lose limbs. They lose peace of mind, even their sanity. They lose their lives.

In return, they ask us to remember. A soldier’s greatest fear is that he or she will be forgotten. In Canada in the past decade, coinciding with the passing of the last of the veterans of the First World War and the increasing thinning of the ranks of Second World War and Korean War vets, there has been a resurgence of respect for Remembrance Day, the veterans it honours and the fallen it remembers. This is a very good thing. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Thursday April 3, 2008

Thursday April 3, 2008Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 3, 2008

MPs pass motion on lowering flag for military dead

A Liberal motion calling for Ottawa’s Peace Tower flag to be lowered whenever Canadian soldiers are killed abroad was passed in the House of Commons Wednesday.

The motion passed 142-115, supported by the Liberals and the NDP.

However, the Conservative government is suggesting it will ignore the non-binding motion and ask a committee to come up with a wide-ranging policy on when the flag should be at half-mast.Rather than lowering the national flag every time a Canadian soldier is killed, the Tories wants to put more emphasis on Remembrance Day, lowering the flag once a year in honour of all Canadian soldiers killed.

MPs voted Wednesday on the Liberal motion that would require a moment of silence and lowering the Canadian flag on the Peace Tower for all dead soldiers, even as a report recommends cutting back on the honour.
Jason Kenney, secretary of state for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, told CTV’s Canada AM on Wednesday that the current policy, which sees the flag lowered for every soldier’s death, hurts the flag’s status as a symbol of national pride.
Royal Canadian Legion and other veteran’s associations, as well as many in the military, support the position, Kenney said.
“If we had lowered the flag during the First and Second World War it would have never been at full mast, and so they say to us a country that’s in perpetual mourning can’t necessarily be a proud symbol,” he added.
The panel — led by Robert Watt, Canada’s former chief herald — would restrict lowering the flag to mark the deaths of current and former representatives of the Crown, the prime minister and the Supreme Court’s chief justice.
Kenney said the report recommends finding other significant ways of honouring Canada’s fallen soldiers. That could include lowering other flags at Parliament Hill, but not the main flag mounted on the Peace Tower.
He also said it would be difficult to have to pick and choose when different groups request lowering the flag.
“I think we need to take into account all the different days of mourning and anniversary days and find other appropriate national ways of acknowledging those, but to ensure the national flag maintains that sense of permanent pride up there on the Peace Tower.” (Source: CTV News)