Canada is a country blessed like few others. Blessed in
that the last time a battle was fought on our soil was in the 19th
century. Many countries which share this distinction with us have unfortunately
bested us in the field of government repression, and so Canada is historically
one of the least bloodied countries in the modern age. Only New Zealand
probably has a greater record of non-violent governance. That said, this
reality of peace threatens one of our most significant days: Remembrance Day.
It is already not conceived as significant by our
society. Outside of the military, the only public recognition of the day is
limited to sporting events. There is one important place where the day is
recognized, and that is our school system. They observe the day with
assemblies, with poetry and artwork. However, they do not observe the day with understanding.
That is because for the average Canadian the meaning of the day is utterly
foreign.
The average Canadian student lacks something very
important to the meaning of Remembrance Day. That is, they lack living memory
of war itself. There are very few children, born in this country, who have
relatives who have served in war. Their grandparents were too young for the
Second World War, perhaps even for Korea. Peacekeeping too, though not really a
focus of the Day is alien to the students, too, and only a handful of them have
relations or acquaintances who served in Afghanistan. As such, our population
is, or has already forgotten the horrors of war. The horrors of war are a cliché.
However, we still have people in this country to whom war
is a very personal experience. There are the small numbers of veterans from Afghanistan,
it is true. More importantly, we have immigrants. Hundreds of thousands of
people arrive from abroad every year, many of them fleeing from countries whose
wars have cost them personally. These people, and their children, are the real
link our country has nowadays to the meaning of Remembrance Day.
It is worth remembering at this point that Remembrance
Day is not solely about remembrance of our fallen. The real meaning of the Day
has a more universal attribute – it is a day meant to emphasize the horror of
war. Death is only a small component of the horror of war. Oftentimes survival
is far worse, far crueler. My grandmother used to speak of the men who survived
the First World War. They were gassed and shell-shocked. Because of the former
they could hardly breathe. Because of the latter they had no desire to speak.
They were living reminders of the cost of war, brought home from the
battlefield. They showed the costs incurred long after the armies were
disbanded.
In our country today there are few people who demonstrate
to us so clearly the cost of war. Instead, we have within our population
millions of foreign-born Canadians who have witnessed such things. They have
lost family to war, and homes and cities and farms. If Remembrance Day truly is
about “never again!” then these are the only people who can truly relate it to
the majority of us.
No longer should Remembrance Day be a day solely for the commemoration
of our past struggles as a country. Such a view limits its scope, and
trivializes war. Truly, so many countries have suffered far greater than our
country ever has. By expanding Remembrance Day to encompass the experiences of the
entire world, we do ourselves a service. Only in this way will we truly teach the
next generations of Canadians what war really costs. Only then will they
respect war, and only then will we truly have fulfilled the spirit of the Day.
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