Pipers from Canada, an amalgamation of several BC pipe bands, who are on their way to the Netherlands to mark V-E Day, play for the Last Post at the Menin Gate, with the names of 6940 Canadian soldiers who have no known graves etched into the wall behind them.Sally Armstrong/The Globe and Mail
Sally Armstrong is a journalist, author and human-rights activist. Her latest book, written with Sima Samar, is Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan.
“Take up our quarrel with the foe.” Those historic words from In Flanders Fields penned by John McCrae in 1915 resonate poignantly but sharply with Canadians visiting sites in France and Belgium associated with the First and Second World Wars these days.
Eighty years after V-E Day (Victory in Europe) was declared on May 8, 1945, U.S. President Donald Trump wants to rename V-E Day and Veterans Day to Victory Day because he says, “We won both wars; nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance.”
Here in Arras in northern France and at Vimy and in Belgium at Passchendaele and in Flanders Fields and over on the English Channel at Juno Beach and Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, his ego-driven pronouncements fail the facts in the ground.
This blood-soaked land that pushes poppies and miniature daisies and forget-me-nots and sometimes unexploded ordnance out of its soil is the sacred place where allies fought fascism. I read McCrae’s poetry through a different lens the day I visited the memorial to this Canadian Army Medical Officer deployed during the First World War because now there is an aggressor at our gate.
Of the Americans I meet at the sites, most shrug off their President’s treatment of Canada saying, with a grin, “Oh that’s Trump.” What’s worse is the fact that most of them are astonished to learn that Canada had anything to do with either the First World War or the Second.
For example, at the McCrae memorial, an American woman asks why there are there so many Canadian flags at this site.
Mary Ann Mann who hails from Fredericton points to the plaque that tells the life story of McCrae as well as the poem in his own handwriting and says gently, “He was Canadian.” The American replies, “Huh?”
The tombstone of the unknown Canadian soldier in Vimy explains that he had been repatriated to the War Memorial in Ottawa.Sally Armstrong/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Mann continues, “A lot of Canadians are in there,” while she points to the cemetery beside the plaque. Again, the American visitor replies, “Huh.” And then Ms. Mann continues, “In fact, there are Canadians here too, including me.”
And at the famed beaches of Normandy where allied troops landed on June 6, 1944, and started the beginning of the end of the war, of course American visitors flock to Utah and Omaha Beaches where the U.S. forces came ashore.
But a tour guide tells me most are very surprised to know that the Canadians – including the North Shore Regiment from New Brunswick, the Queen’s Own Rifles from Toronto, the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and the Royal Regina Rifles – also stormed Juno Beach. And then he adds that 66 per cent of the soldiers who came ashore that day were from either Canada or Britain.
While the beautifully kept sites and meticulous records tell a story of courage and immense bravery that reinforces the past, it’s hard not to reflect at the same time on our current battle with a former friend and ally.
There’s an automobile in the parking lot with a Canadian flag stuck on its back window. The owner, Jon Haslock, a Brit who moved here 20 years ago to conduct guided tours of the sites, says, “The day Trump declared he would annex Canada, I put that flag on my car.”
Juno Beach, where the Canadians stormed ashore, was part of the greatest amphibian attack in history.Sally Armstrong/The Globe and Mail
In the same parking lot, a Tesla with a French licence plate has a sign on the back that says, “Vintage Tesla, pre-madness edition.”
Mr. Haslock says he’s seen a considerable increase in inquiries and bookings from Canadians to come to the Western Front, which includes Juno Beach as well as Passchendaele, Vimy and Flanders Fields.
“I think it could be an increased sense of identity with Canadians who fought here. That tends to come with a crisis; standing by friends and allies, as it increases awareness. Canada being next door to America is looking at its present and back at one of the defining moments of its own history.”
In Ypres, Belgium, there are thousands of memorials and graves, and every night at the Menin Gate, where the names of 6,940 Canadian soldiers who have no known graves are etched into the limestone, The Last Post is still played and still attended by thousands of tourists and townspeople.
On the night I visit, the bagpipers are from Canada (an amalgamation of several B.C. pipe bands on their way to the Netherlands to mark V-E Day) and local children carry wreaths of poppies to the cenotaph.
But even here the Trump effect lingers: A bookstore called the British Grenadier Bookshop on the main street of Ypres has a sign in the window that says in large red letters “Canada is not for sale but this shop is” and includes an e-mail address for more information. It seems Canada is everywhere in memory, in solidarity and even in jest.
One of the defining moments in Canada’s history is said to be Vimy Ridge, a piece of land that spreads only a few kilometres, but is above sea level, and therefore a buttress for whichever force managed to take it and hold it.
Many tried and failed but on April 12, 1917, the Canadians overcame extraordinary odds and took Vimy Ridge. It was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps came together to score this brilliant victory and it is said that this is when Canada truly became a nation.
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, a symbol of sacrifice and achievement – built starting in 1925, unveiled in 1936 and restored in 2007 – can be seen for miles and is lit up at night like an inukshuk. The monument includes 20 sculptures that represent peace, justice, honour, hope, charity, faith, truth and knowledge. It includes the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who died in France and have no known grave.
Canada Bereft is the achingly beautiful statue of a woman with her head bowed in sorrow.Sally Armstrong/The Globe and Mail
One of the achingly beautiful statues called Canada Bereft lingers with me: A woman with her head bowed in sorrow speaks of loss and I cannot fail to equate her expression with the loss of an ally and a friend on our own border. Vimy brought us together as a nation. Now from coast to coast to coast, Canadians are coming together again in ways that surprise even every one of us.
John McCrae wrote, “Take up our quarrel with the foe. To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Battle of Vimy Ridge marked the first time all four Canadian battalions fought together. It was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together. This version has been updated.