It has become somewhat of a tradition here at Site O Canada to write a special post for November 11, Remembrance Day in Canada and Australia, Veterans Day in the United States, Remembrance Sunday in Great Britain, Armistice in France. From when I begun writing such addresses to this present one, I have noticed a marked change at least in myself and in Canada about the approach to Remembrance Day. When once Canada was a peaceful nation, using her pen when conflict broke out and sword only for peacekeeping, Canada is now once again a nation at war. Our losses of soldiers and support troops in Afghanistan has been a shock to Canadians, as it is something we are not used to.

I’m not going to go on this time on the importance of remembering the deeds of our soldiers, past, present and future, those alive and those who have perished. I won’t go in to trying to imagine who these people are, what it must have been like for them all, and how fortunate we, who have not had to experience war in person, are. That, I believe, is for each of us to do on our own and within ourselves.

War has been a common facet of human existence since before recorded history. The wars that have marked history in the last century are different than those of the far past, however, in that they are fought ideologically. I don’t want to get into the right or wrongness of war for today is not the day for it. Love or hate war, agree or disagree, men and women have fought, are fighting, and are willing to fight Canada’s battles and this is what I write for today. “We love our troops because of their selflessness, because of their unswerving love of Canada…because we gain a vivid vital appreciation of the sacrifice of our past veterans” as one speaker on tv said today. I have always gone on in the past that our past veterans fought so that we might be free. Freedom is the one ideology that unites all of the West - freedom of the nation, freedom of a people, and freedom of the individual. And once again our forces are fighting for this, but not only for the continued freedoms of the west, but also for the freedoms of others who do not share what we know and often take for granted.

It is not only about wars and why they are fought, but the people who fight them. This is not a day to show support war; this is a day to say we support and “we love our troops.” Therefore, in the honour and dignity of our fighting men and women of the past and present, I salute them and observe a moment of silence to remember and to reflect.

— JGM

In Flanders Field