Remembrance Day here...
11-11-2016, 01:28 PM
#1
Remembrance Day here...
Attended another Remembrance Day today here in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It is the 100th anniversary of Battle of the Somme this year and the service looked at the incredible sacrifice of The Newfoundland Regiment. Although not a part of Canada at the time, they always felt more a part of the Dominion than GB. " As they moved over the top, it was as if they were bending into a snowstorm back home..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumo...dland_Memorial
I also had a friend email me this today...
As most of you know, "We the Canadian People" just buried one of our finest young soldiers and in this light and that of our Remembrance Day observations, I forward this article of praise to Canada by an English reporter, written November 2013.
British newspaper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words......Salute to a brave and modest nation
Kevin Myers , 'The Sunday
Telegraph' LONDON: November 2013.
Until the deaths of
Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably
almost no one outside their home country had been
aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the
region.
And as always,
Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the
world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it
always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does. It
seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to
the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete
strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be
well and truly ignored.
Canada is the
perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the
hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a
dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to
rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious
injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the
dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower
still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort
across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet
again.
That is the price
Canada pays for sharing the North American continent
with the United States , and for being a selfless
friend of Britain in two global conflicts.
For much of the 20th
century, Canada was torn in two different directions:
It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an
address in the new one, and that divided identity
ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it
deserved.
Yet it's purely
voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two
world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven
million people served in the armed forces during the
First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great
Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian
troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the
entire British order of battle.
Canada was repaid
for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique
contribution to victory being absorbed into the
popular memory as somehow or other the work of the
'British.'
The Second World
War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war
with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing
nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack.
More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the
Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian
soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone.
Canada finished the war
with the third-largest navy and the fourth largest air force in
the world. The world thanked Canada with the same sublime
indifference as it had the previous time.
Canadian participation in
the war was acknowledged in film only if it was
necessary to give an American actor a part in a
campaign in which the United States had clearly not
participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of
course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any
notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule
that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their
nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus
Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland,
Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David
Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter, Mike Weir and
Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become
American, and Christopher Plummer, British.
It is as if, in the very act
of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian,
unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably
Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada
has proved quite unable to find any takers.
Moreover, Canada is every bit as
querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and
daughters as the rest of the world is completely
unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of
themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1%
of the world's population has provided 10% of the
world's peacekeeping forces.
Canadian soldiers
in the past half century have been the greatest
peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates,
and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to
East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.Yet the only
foreign engagement that has entered the popular
non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in
Somalia , in which out-of-control paratroopers
murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was
then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act
of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians
received no international credit.So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbor has given it in
Afghanistan ?Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being
thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost.
This past year (2013) more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
Lest we forget.
Lest we forget.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumo...dland_Memorial
I also had a friend email me this today...
As most of you know, "We the Canadian People" just buried one of our finest young soldiers and in this light and that of our Remembrance Day observations, I forward this article of praise to Canada by an English reporter, written November 2013.
British newspaper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words......Salute to a brave and modest nation
Kevin Myers , 'The Sunday
Telegraph' LONDON: November 2013.
Until the deaths of
Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably
almost no one outside their home country had been
aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the
region.
And as always,
Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the
world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it
always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does. It
seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to
the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete
strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be
well and truly ignored.
Canada is the
perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the
hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a
dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to
rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious
injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the
dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower
still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort
across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet
again.
That is the price
Canada pays for sharing the North American continent
with the United States , and for being a selfless
friend of Britain in two global conflicts.
For much of the 20th
century, Canada was torn in two different directions:
It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an
address in the new one, and that divided identity
ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it
deserved.
Yet it's purely
voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two
world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven
million people served in the armed forces during the
First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great
Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian
troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the
entire British order of battle.
Canada was repaid
for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique
contribution to victory being absorbed into the
popular memory as somehow or other the work of the
'British.'
The Second World
War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war
with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing
nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack.
More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the
Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian
soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone.
Canada finished the war
with the third-largest navy and the fourth largest air force in
the world. The world thanked Canada with the same sublime
indifference as it had the previous time.
Canadian participation in
the war was acknowledged in film only if it was
necessary to give an American actor a part in a
campaign in which the United States had clearly not
participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of
course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any
notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule
that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their
nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus
Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland,
Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David
Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter, Mike Weir and
Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become
American, and Christopher Plummer, British.
It is as if, in the very act
of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian,
unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably
Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada
has proved quite unable to find any takers.
Moreover, Canada is every bit as
querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and
daughters as the rest of the world is completely
unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of
themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1%
of the world's population has provided 10% of the
world's peacekeeping forces.
Canadian soldiers
in the past half century have been the greatest
peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates,
and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to
East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.Yet the only
foreign engagement that has entered the popular
non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in
Somalia , in which out-of-control paratroopers
murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was
then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act
of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians
received no international credit.So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbor has given it in
Afghanistan ?Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being
thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost.
This past year (2013) more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
Lest we forget.
Lest we forget.
11-11-2016, 02:05 PM
#3
So it is a general rule
that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their
nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus
Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland,
Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David
Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter, Mike Weir and
Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become
American, and Christopher Plummer, British.
How could you possibly forget Pam?
that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their
nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus
Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland,
Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David
Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter, Mike Weir and
Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become
American, and Christopher Plummer, British.
How could you possibly forget Pam?
11-11-2016, 05:16 PM
#4
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: St Augustine, Fl.
Posts: 212
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have friends who deployed with Canadian counterparts to the Stan......I also served beside a few guys when I was in Iraq. I always remember how funny and high spirited they were. Great soldiers who had my back as much as I had theirs.
