This week is Veterans Week all across Canada, where our nation pauses to reflect on the sacrifices made by Canadians at the request of their country, and to remember the over 117,000 who lost their lives in the service of our great nation.
We have just experienced a hotly contested federal election, where ordinary citizens chose to remove one government and install a new one.
An exercise in democracy that was completed without a hint of bloodshed, intimidation, forced voting, or for that matter, anything other than a peaceful nation demonstrating the unbelievable power of democracy, and its essential partner, freedom.
Freedom. Easy to accept when you have it in abundance, but around the world there are so many that have nothing of what we take for granted in Canada.
The right to lead a peaceful life, free of tyranny, and the ability to remove and replace a government at will.
Freedom is not free, of course, and it’s not a quaint notion. It has been acquired through struggle and sacrifice, and commitment to the ideals of freedom, liberty, free speech, assembly and association, even to those with whom we disagree.
Freedom in its ultimate form was paid for with the blood of Canadians, and is symbolized by the bright red poppy you will see everywhere at this time of year.
The poem In Flanders Fields by Canadian soldier John McCrae (1915) begs us to remember those who lost their lives in the service of our country, a country that vigorously defends freedom, both in the past and even to this day, when more than 700 Canadians are currently deployed around the world at Canada’s request.
Around our community this week you will see your neighbours distributing poppies, and asking for a donation to veterans support initiatives via the Richmond Poppy Fund, with support from the army, navy, and airforce veterans in Canada, and the Royal Canadian Legion.
The poppy you will receive has already been paid for in the form of sacrifice of Canadian lives.
Your donation is a greatly appreciated acknowledgment of that sacrifice. Wear your poppy with pride and gratitude.
On Nov. 11, the army, navy and airforce veterans in Canada Unit 284 (Steveston) and the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #291 (Richmond), and unaffiliated veterans, will muster at the Richmond Cenotaph outside Richmond City Hall.
And, along with political representatives and members of the Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP, Richmond Fire Rescue, members of Richmond’s Army, Navy and Air Cadet Corps, Canadian Border Services Agency, St. John’s Ambulance, and the Royal Canadian Marine Search And Rescue, we will remember Canada’s war dead in a Remembrance Day service culminating in a two-minute period of silence at 11 a.m.
See you there. Wear your poppy.
Matthew McBride is the chair of the Richmond Remembrance Day Committee, and a retired Royal Canadian Navy Leading Seaman
