An absolutely beautiful and heart rending essay..I read it aloud to my husband, having to stop occasionally to choke back the tightness in my throat. I have visited those places with my son when he was only 14, and I prayed he would never have to experience what those men did..
What an article. I cried throughout the entire article. For the fallen brave men, for our failure to teach their story to today’s kids, for our inability to do even basic things right, on time and on budget. We’d still be building the St. Lawrence Seaway if we had started at the turn of the century. Go to the moon? How about crossing Ottawa on the Queensway in under an hour? Thank you for the first part of the article. Shame on us for the second part.
This is so moving Andrew. There’s nothing I can add that will rise to this level, except to say I made the same pilgrimage a few years back with some CAF veteran friends. And every line you’ve written here turns me inside out again.
I do not see a nation of shared values when I see mobs of my fellow Canadians screaming for death to the jews in the streets and on our university campuses while our political leadership turns away while counting the votes. Canada was a force for good in two world wars. Now we cannot even agree that the slaughter and rape of jewish citizens, men women and children, in their homes is evil.
For me, the lesson from D-Day is that Canada fought not just a determined enemy, but an ideologically captured one. Eighty years later, all they fought for has been squandered by a citizenry that likely puts more thought into the drive home from work than they do about Canada at Juno. Or Dieppe.
That I'm here - at age 80 - is because of the (collective, multi-ethnic, multi-whatever and, in my case, survival) extraordinary efforts of Canadian, Russian, American, Commonwealth, Indian and other combatants. And today? Slava Ukraini.
Thank you Andrew, you have recaptured many of the thoughts and emotions I went through three springs ago as we visited most of the same places.
The question as to whether I would have, in my mid 30's with a young family, volunteered to defend King and Country an ocean away as my grandfathers did, still gives me pause. Thankfully they both came home and formed a significant part of my life.
While I have faith in younger Canadians I agree it is even harder to see that commitment happening in the future.
The hardest thing my generation (born late 50's) had to do was wash our hands, wear a mask, isolate and get vaccinated. Way too many didn't have enough regard or respect for our country and our fellow citizens to even do that so expecting actual sacrifice may be a bridge too far.
The fact that the residents of France, Belgium and the Netherlands revere and honour the efforts of Allied, and especially Canadian and NL soldiers, while we barely seem to acknowledge our veterans and military outside of Remembrance Day, is an ongoing stain on our national psyche.
You are right, none of what the Allies accomplished could have been done alone, and all of the challenges facing Canada 🇨🇦 will be easier to meet together, not being torn apart by the selfish and meek who ignore history and a collective good.
Both my mother and father served in the Canadian Forces during WWll and both overseas. I know my father was in Africa and Italy campaigns.
In his brief life he never spoke of it and my mother only ever referred to the screaming bombs.
I think the piece that’s missing is beyond your reference to hardship in PEI. My fathers family moved from Bedeque County in the late 1890’s to Alberta looking for opportunities
Sitting here today we have little concept of the hardships faced across the nation through the 30’s. Paved roads didn’t exist, farm mechanization was in early stages, labour was disposable and treated as a commodity. News travelled slowly.
The person Hitler was didn’t really become part of the public awareness till post war after the liberation of the death camps.
I believe the unifying factor that took men and women to war was three fold. Duty to the crown, poverty and adventure.
Regardless of the how and the why I personally am grateful to them.
I once had the opportunity to publicly thank Jean Chrétien for not sending us into the Gulf War, my son could have been called on to have served.
Could I have served? I don’t know. I have the advantage of hind sight which the armies of WWll didn’t have
Your unifying factor is right on! And then loyalty to your brothers and sisters in arms takes over.
Some hold the view that a woman is not complete until she has given birth. Or a man until he has been to war. This view seems to have been suppressed in Canada. Thank God it still exists in the US. Otherwise we would be speaking German, Russian or Chinese.
It's pretty obnoxious to politicize Juno Beach in support of government mass immigration policy.
Let's just say that the immigrants of the years before WW2 were mostly from the founding peoples, the peoples of the Red Ensign, and that nearly all of them were from the continent D-Day was fought for and in.
"Some now worry about national cohesion in the wake of mass immigration. Would we fight together, arm-in-arm? Is there even a Canada, or are we Justin Trudeau’s post-national hotel? But in the late 1930s Canada, like now, was a country of immigrants." Pretty clearly a comment on current immigration debate.
Lovely tribute to a generation that so many have forgotten about. Purpose can be found in family formation or nation building. Sometimes it happens simultaneously. Canadian history is short but vast. Unfortunately, the repatriation of the constitution and the creation of the charter has had the unintended consequence of ignorance.
Ignorance of those Canadians who came to this country long before rights were enshrined and personal responsibility was the North Star.
The essay tried to do something admirable — to give hope for a unified Canada today (even after the Trudeau temp-resident surge) by drawing a parallel to a time in the past with high immigration followed by fielding a very powerful army in support of a national cause.
You’re saying: that parallel doesn’t hold because the immigrants today aren’t white christians (Europeans).
Guess what, that ship sailed a long time ago, multiculturalism was (since the 1960s), is, and will forever be core Canadian policy.
One can deploy rhetoric and national myths in service of building a unified Canada under our actually-existing immigration policy (like this essay does, among other things), or one can whine that nothing will be like it was before Trudeau Sr.
I don’t think our ability (or lack thereof) to fight a D-Day today has much to do with the ethnic or religious makeup of the country. We did lose national purpose to digital anomie and all the other “post-national” cliches of the Trudeau Jr era, but we had unity of purpose under multiculturalism before that.
No, not because of colour and religion but because of a stark difference in values.
The immigrants alongside my family's military service very much shared those same western enlightenment values both my parents supported in uniform and wartime service and arguably understood and defended them much more strongly than so many native born. Also, the urban immigrants' goal was assimilation especially for their kids and the bright future this promised (but now completely squandered in the name of social progress). This shared patriotism by many immigrants was often displayed through deep immigrant involvement in civic affairs, community investment, and donations.
In stark contrast and conflict with this history is a recent immigration wave under the false flag of multiculturalism of all kinds of people who do not hold in esteem western values. Very often and even on regular display are sets of values expressed that are often opposite to and in conflict with them.
In addition, there are entire ethnic communities now established and with growing populations that do not have any particular affiliation to their Canadian counterparts. None. We now have politicians using these growing ethnic bases to advance greater toleration and even support for anti-western, anti-liberal values in public policies while busy obtaining privileges in law for these 'exceptions' under the banner of 'respecting' multiculturalism... as if this were a good thing by fiat rather than a bad thing determined by compelling and growing evidence.
To pretend the very real and divisive problems such unfettered immigration imposes on the country by claiming those who complain about it do so out of bigotry and ignorance is a tactic favourable to further divide and dissemble the country for which this blood and sacrifice was spent. It is the opposite of patriotic.
The essay clearly takes sides in a current political debate, one that you want to rule off limits. I disapprove of that in relation to Juno Beach just as much as I would have disapproved of an equally valid comment intended to make the opposite point. On the anniversary of D-Day, he could have just given the politics a rest.
Great article. I was in Beny-Sur-Mer two weeks ago and visited my uncle's grave for the second time. He stepped on mine a week after D-Day fighting for the North Shore Regiment. His younger brother got sniped in the head commanding an armoured vehicle later in Belgium, but survived it like Andrew's grandfather. It's important to keep the memory of these men and the horrors they faced alive, so that we don't forget to avoid war where we can or face it square if we must.
Brilliant, heart-rending, and honest. It captures the moment precisely, both then and now. As someone with a father who served in many WWII theatres (but not at D-Day) I applaud the respect you show to those brave souls.
I meet new immigrants. I speak with them and hear the pride they have in Canada. They chose to come here. They stay because they believe in the life that they're building here as Canadians. They're baffled by why so many are turning against them when they followed the rules and arrived here hopeful.
Maybe it's because I'm older than the author by 18 years, but I think Canadians would heed the call to arms. I think that if we were called to defend our country as Ukrainians have been called to defend theirs, that we would step up and do what we could. I know I would support the resistance if my country was invaded.
I agree 100% with your comments. I also believe both old stock and new Canadians would rise and fight for their country.
The timing of this story coincided more or less with Memorial Day weekend and made me think how US citizens honor their fallen warriors and more importantly thank them for their service all year round. Canadians IMHO certainly could use more of this instead of leaving it to Government and politicians that promise assistance which they are too stingy to provide and then offer MAID as relief. Articles like these and the discussion they generate can only help.
I still have my father's war paraphernalia, medals, army tam, discharge papers. Like most veterans he didn't talk about it much, just once about being wounded and once about the hardship of the Italian people as his regiment moved north from Africa.
His papers indicate that he enlisted the week after Pearl Harbour. Perhaps a sign that the conflict was getting too close? He never said.
I'm blessed that he and all the others stepped up to do their duty. While there is currently no armed conflict that would test our metal, we owe it to them to make this country better than it is through our efforts as upright citizens.
They are beautiful and simple. They are all the same shape. The stone indicates country; rank, name, unit, and place of death; their faith; and last, a quote chosen by the family.
When soldiers died, they were buried on site; moved to central cemeteries at a later date.
An absolutely beautiful and heart rending essay..I read it aloud to my husband, having to stop occasionally to choke back the tightness in my throat. I have visited those places with my son when he was only 14, and I prayed he would never have to experience what those men did..
“Lest we forget”
What an article. I cried throughout the entire article. For the fallen brave men, for our failure to teach their story to today’s kids, for our inability to do even basic things right, on time and on budget. We’d still be building the St. Lawrence Seaway if we had started at the turn of the century. Go to the moon? How about crossing Ottawa on the Queensway in under an hour? Thank you for the first part of the article. Shame on us for the second part.
This is so moving Andrew. There’s nothing I can add that will rise to this level, except to say I made the same pilgrimage a few years back with some CAF veteran friends. And every line you’ve written here turns me inside out again.
I do not see a nation of shared values when I see mobs of my fellow Canadians screaming for death to the jews in the streets and on our university campuses while our political leadership turns away while counting the votes. Canada was a force for good in two world wars. Now we cannot even agree that the slaughter and rape of jewish citizens, men women and children, in their homes is evil.
For me, the lesson from D-Day is that Canada fought not just a determined enemy, but an ideologically captured one. Eighty years later, all they fought for has been squandered by a citizenry that likely puts more thought into the drive home from work than they do about Canada at Juno. Or Dieppe.
That I'm here - at age 80 - is because of the (collective, multi-ethnic, multi-whatever and, in my case, survival) extraordinary efforts of Canadian, Russian, American, Commonwealth, Indian and other combatants. And today? Slava Ukraini.
Lest we forget indeed.
Thank you Andrew, you have recaptured many of the thoughts and emotions I went through three springs ago as we visited most of the same places.
The question as to whether I would have, in my mid 30's with a young family, volunteered to defend King and Country an ocean away as my grandfathers did, still gives me pause. Thankfully they both came home and formed a significant part of my life.
While I have faith in younger Canadians I agree it is even harder to see that commitment happening in the future.
The hardest thing my generation (born late 50's) had to do was wash our hands, wear a mask, isolate and get vaccinated. Way too many didn't have enough regard or respect for our country and our fellow citizens to even do that so expecting actual sacrifice may be a bridge too far.
The fact that the residents of France, Belgium and the Netherlands revere and honour the efforts of Allied, and especially Canadian and NL soldiers, while we barely seem to acknowledge our veterans and military outside of Remembrance Day, is an ongoing stain on our national psyche.
You are right, none of what the Allies accomplished could have been done alone, and all of the challenges facing Canada 🇨🇦 will be easier to meet together, not being torn apart by the selfish and meek who ignore history and a collective good.
Thank you.
We will remember them.
Good piece.
Both my mother and father served in the Canadian Forces during WWll and both overseas. I know my father was in Africa and Italy campaigns.
In his brief life he never spoke of it and my mother only ever referred to the screaming bombs.
I think the piece that’s missing is beyond your reference to hardship in PEI. My fathers family moved from Bedeque County in the late 1890’s to Alberta looking for opportunities
Sitting here today we have little concept of the hardships faced across the nation through the 30’s. Paved roads didn’t exist, farm mechanization was in early stages, labour was disposable and treated as a commodity. News travelled slowly.
The person Hitler was didn’t really become part of the public awareness till post war after the liberation of the death camps.
I believe the unifying factor that took men and women to war was three fold. Duty to the crown, poverty and adventure.
Regardless of the how and the why I personally am grateful to them.
I once had the opportunity to publicly thank Jean Chrétien for not sending us into the Gulf War, my son could have been called on to have served.
Could I have served? I don’t know. I have the advantage of hind sight which the armies of WWll didn’t have
Good points. For me, that generation knew their duty to the country and each other. Now ......
Your unifying factor is right on! And then loyalty to your brothers and sisters in arms takes over.
Some hold the view that a woman is not complete until she has given birth. Or a man until he has been to war. This view seems to have been suppressed in Canada. Thank God it still exists in the US. Otherwise we would be speaking German, Russian or Chinese.
I think we hold different views here. I’ll stop it there.
It's pretty obnoxious to politicize Juno Beach in support of government mass immigration policy.
Let's just say that the immigrants of the years before WW2 were mostly from the founding peoples, the peoples of the Red Ensign, and that nearly all of them were from the continent D-Day was fought for and in.
This is no way politicized Juno beach in support of mass immigration. Jeepers
"Some now worry about national cohesion in the wake of mass immigration. Would we fight together, arm-in-arm? Is there even a Canada, or are we Justin Trudeau’s post-national hotel? But in the late 1930s Canada, like now, was a country of immigrants." Pretty clearly a comment on current immigration debate.
Lovely tribute to a generation that so many have forgotten about. Purpose can be found in family formation or nation building. Sometimes it happens simultaneously. Canadian history is short but vast. Unfortunately, the repatriation of the constitution and the creation of the charter has had the unintended consequence of ignorance.
Ignorance of those Canadians who came to this country long before rights were enshrined and personal responsibility was the North Star.
Pure mendacity, AE. Pure mendacity. Nothing but a blatant attempt to sow division from someone with an axe to grind.
Are you saying that "some now worry ..." isn't a reference to a current political debate? Really? What is it then?
The essay tried to do something admirable — to give hope for a unified Canada today (even after the Trudeau temp-resident surge) by drawing a parallel to a time in the past with high immigration followed by fielding a very powerful army in support of a national cause.
You’re saying: that parallel doesn’t hold because the immigrants today aren’t white christians (Europeans).
Guess what, that ship sailed a long time ago, multiculturalism was (since the 1960s), is, and will forever be core Canadian policy.
One can deploy rhetoric and national myths in service of building a unified Canada under our actually-existing immigration policy (like this essay does, among other things), or one can whine that nothing will be like it was before Trudeau Sr.
I don’t think our ability (or lack thereof) to fight a D-Day today has much to do with the ethnic or religious makeup of the country. We did lose national purpose to digital anomie and all the other “post-national” cliches of the Trudeau Jr era, but we had unity of purpose under multiculturalism before that.
No, not because of colour and religion but because of a stark difference in values.
The immigrants alongside my family's military service very much shared those same western enlightenment values both my parents supported in uniform and wartime service and arguably understood and defended them much more strongly than so many native born. Also, the urban immigrants' goal was assimilation especially for their kids and the bright future this promised (but now completely squandered in the name of social progress). This shared patriotism by many immigrants was often displayed through deep immigrant involvement in civic affairs, community investment, and donations.
In stark contrast and conflict with this history is a recent immigration wave under the false flag of multiculturalism of all kinds of people who do not hold in esteem western values. Very often and even on regular display are sets of values expressed that are often opposite to and in conflict with them.
In addition, there are entire ethnic communities now established and with growing populations that do not have any particular affiliation to their Canadian counterparts. None. We now have politicians using these growing ethnic bases to advance greater toleration and even support for anti-western, anti-liberal values in public policies while busy obtaining privileges in law for these 'exceptions' under the banner of 'respecting' multiculturalism... as if this were a good thing by fiat rather than a bad thing determined by compelling and growing evidence.
To pretend the very real and divisive problems such unfettered immigration imposes on the country by claiming those who complain about it do so out of bigotry and ignorance is a tactic favourable to further divide and dissemble the country for which this blood and sacrifice was spent. It is the opposite of patriotic.
The essay clearly takes sides in a current political debate, one that you want to rule off limits. I disapprove of that in relation to Juno Beach just as much as I would have disapproved of an equally valid comment intended to make the opposite point. On the anniversary of D-Day, he could have just given the politics a rest.
How are Germans and Ukrainians people of the red ensign?
Wow. This in no waya ‘politi
Great article. I was in Beny-Sur-Mer two weeks ago and visited my uncle's grave for the second time. He stepped on mine a week after D-Day fighting for the North Shore Regiment. His younger brother got sniped in the head commanding an armoured vehicle later in Belgium, but survived it like Andrew's grandfather. It's important to keep the memory of these men and the horrors they faced alive, so that we don't forget to avoid war where we can or face it square if we must.
Brilliant, heart-rending, and honest. It captures the moment precisely, both then and now. As someone with a father who served in many WWII theatres (but not at D-Day) I applaud the respect you show to those brave souls.
I meet new immigrants. I speak with them and hear the pride they have in Canada. They chose to come here. They stay because they believe in the life that they're building here as Canadians. They're baffled by why so many are turning against them when they followed the rules and arrived here hopeful.
Maybe it's because I'm older than the author by 18 years, but I think Canadians would heed the call to arms. I think that if we were called to defend our country as Ukrainians have been called to defend theirs, that we would step up and do what we could. I know I would support the resistance if my country was invaded.
I agree 100% with your comments. I also believe both old stock and new Canadians would rise and fight for their country.
The timing of this story coincided more or less with Memorial Day weekend and made me think how US citizens honor their fallen warriors and more importantly thank them for their service all year round. Canadians IMHO certainly could use more of this instead of leaving it to Government and politicians that promise assistance which they are too stingy to provide and then offer MAID as relief. Articles like these and the discussion they generate can only help.
I still have my father's war paraphernalia, medals, army tam, discharge papers. Like most veterans he didn't talk about it much, just once about being wounded and once about the hardship of the Italian people as his regiment moved north from Africa.
His papers indicate that he enlisted the week after Pearl Harbour. Perhaps a sign that the conflict was getting too close? He never said.
I'm blessed that he and all the others stepped up to do their duty. While there is currently no armed conflict that would test our metal, we owe it to them to make this country better than it is through our efforts as upright citizens.
The first photo shows commonwealth grave stones.
They are beautiful and simple. They are all the same shape. The stone indicates country; rank, name, unit, and place of death; their faith; and last, a quote chosen by the family.
When soldiers died, they were buried on site; moved to central cemeteries at a later date.
Thanks for sharing.
A poignant homage to your grandfather and his generation, Andrew. Thank you.
My father saw combat in WWII and the Korean War, speaking of it to me only once. Even then very briefly.
Lest We Forget.