The annual Rembrance day services in Ottawa were once again very impressive, and it's encouraging to see that the tradition of honouring our fallen soldiers remains strong in most parts of Canada. Our Governor General and Prince Charles made a welcome statement to our present-day troops by showing up in military uniform - a nice touch that we don't often see.
It probably shouldn't surprise me that Remembrance Day in Nunavut is not a very big deal. In fact, it's not even a small deal. With the exception of Iqaluit, where the Royal Canadian Legion apparently put in a notable effort, most smaller communities in the territory do little to honour our military men of past and present conflicts who have given so much, up to and including their very lives, to ensure that we enjoy the freedoms that the younger generation takes for granted.
Canada is changing - and not, in my view, for the better. The population is now composed of a large percentage of people who, even if they are old enough to have some inkling of the major wars of the last century, have lost the appreciation for the sacrifices made by those generations of Canadians. Few Inuit served overseas and only a small number have taken the time to educate themselves either, so it's understandable that they would take the privileges they currently enjoy without much recognition that those freedoms were payed for by the tears of earlier generations of "southern" Canadians.
Still, it's disheartening to see how the community of Cambridge Bay, to name just one, has come to terms with the inconveniences of Remembrance Day. In that community, services were held on the 10th of November, during working hours. Why? Because nobody, it seems, is willing to give up any part of their paid holiday to honour the fallen of past wars and would prefer to be compensated for doing so on the day preceding the proper moment of remembrance. Our fallen soldiers died far from home, on the beaches of Normandy, in the North Atlantic, in the air over Germany and the jungles of the far east, but the people of Cambridge Bay won't give up a couple of hours of snooze time to recognize their sacrifices.
Shame!
Larry
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
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2 comments:
Larry
I can see the lash marks already on your back for saying this. Good for you. It needed to be said. It was the same here (a rushed cobbled together gathering on Tuesday) in *********, NT and apparently there are two WW2 vets here. Very sad indeed.
Not all hope is gone. I was always surprised to see how well Remembrance day was done in the community in Nunavut I used to live in. Both schools put on assemblies and all RCMP attended in full serge. The kids decorated the schools with tons of red construction paper poppies and hand written copies of Flanders field.
I'm not the youngest generation, but I am still young, 26, and I made sure my daughter and I were at the ceremony in the new city I live in down south. Most of my friends also share in how important I feel about this day. I actually had friends complaining that their professors (of an older generation) didn't stop for a moment of silence during their 11am classes. So it's not all the young ones. :)
Your right though, I do worry this important day and it's meaning will be lost, but not by my children.
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