------------------------\
INSPIRING MOVIE THAT BRINGS SO MUCH JOY ABOUT A DOLPHIN WHO LOSES A FIN... AND GETS SAVED BY 2 CHILDREN.... TRUE STORY... DOLPHIN TALE
WINTER THE DOLPHIN WITH A NEW BUILT TAIL... STARS IN THE MOVIE HERSELF...
WEBCAM: http://www.ustream.tv/winterthedolphin
------------------
CANADA AND RUSSIA HAVE PRICKLY AND STRONG RELATIONSHIP OF RESPECT- DID YA KNOW THAT CANADA HAD ALREADY DECLARED WAR ON RUSSIA IN EARLY 1900S.../Idle No More Canada/We have Much in common- like the Arctic/our Sochi Winter Paralympics in Mother Russia and Terry Fox-matters 2 global folks/EU's country grabbing is no different than Russia's determination 2 keep- so everybody just back off Ukraine and let them decide their own future- if Crimea wants 2 go- LET THEM/Come on Canada -Were better than this $$$Media bought roadkill sheeet.... get back 2 fixing Canada/troops in Afghanistan and home again/Canada's Women are afraid and want all Goverments backing and protecting them and our Canada's children/
DO
NOT F**K WITH OUR CANADA PARALYMPIC KIDS PARTICIPATING IN A 4-YR WAIT – SOCHI
WINTER PARALYMPICS 2014 IN MOTHER RUSSIA-
the world’s children and Terry Fox fans will NEV-A 4give u ever..... NOR
WILL WOUNDED WARRIOR NATO VETS...
TX
MINISTER BAIRD AND CANADA- our Paralympic Athletes are the best of who we are
on this planet and teach all that disabilities are abilities in disguise....
MARCH
3 2014-03-03
Paralympic athletes ar riving in Sochi
MONTREAL (CP) — Canada’s Paralympic athletes continue to arrive in Sochi even as a crisis unfolds in nearby Ukraine.
A sp okesman for the Canadian Paralympic Committee says the organization continues to monitor the situation but has no plans to back out now.
Martin Richard says the goal remains to place among the top three nations in the gold medal count .
The Paralympic Games begin Friday.
Russia’s troops have moved into U kraine and the military has seized the Crimean peninsula, west of Sochi on the Black Sea.
Sochi is only 475 kilometres from the Crimean regional capital, Simferopol.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird also says Canada won’t withdraw its athletes from Sochi.
Baird says he doesn’t want them to have to pay the price for Russia’s intervention.
For now, Richard says Canada’s Paralympic committee will be watching things closely.
XI
Paralympic Winter Games
|
||
Sochi
2014 Winter Paralympics official logo
|
||
Host city
|
||
Motto
|
Hot.Cool.Yours.
|
|
Nations participating
|
45
|
|
Events
|
72 in 5 sports
|
|
Opening ceremony
|
7 March
|
|
Closing ceremony
|
16 March
|
|
Paralympic Stadium
|
||
Winter:
|
||
he venues for the Paralympic
games are the same as for the Olympics:
Venue
|
Location
|
Sports
|
Capacity
|
Ref.
|
coastal Sochi
|
Opening and closing ceremonies;
medals ceremonies
|
40,000
|
||
coastal Sochi
|
Sledge Hockey
|
7,000
|
||
coastal Sochi
|
Wheelchair curling
|
3,000
|
||
Biathlon, Cross country skiing
|
7,500
|
|||
Alpine Skiing
|
7,500
|
|||
Snowboarding
|
6,250
|
Mascot[edit]
Ray of
Light and Snowflake ("Luchik" and "Snezhinka")
A shortlist of 10 Olympic and 3
Paralympic designs were shown to the public on February 7, 2011, while the
winners were revealed on February 26, 2011.[10] This marks the third time (after
Vancouver) that both Olympic and Paralympic mascots were unveiled at the same
time. Ray of Light and Snowflake are the
two mascots that were chosen for the 2014 Paralympic Games.[11] The Fire Boy and the Snow Girl
come from different planets. The Fire Boy comes from a planet where it's always
hot, while the Snow girl came to earth on an icycomet.
She looks like a snowflake, while he has hair that looks like fire.[12]
The Games[edit]
Participating
nations[edit]
Forty-five National
Paralympic Committees (NPCs) have athletes competing at
the 2014 Winter Paralympics.[13] This is one more that were
represented at the 2010 Winter Paralympics.
Brazil, Turkey and Uzbekistan will be
taking part in the Winter Paralympic Games for the first time.
South
Africa, which participated in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter
Paralympics, will not be sending athletes to Sochi, resulting in no participating
countries from Africa at this Winter Paralympics.
Sports[edit]
The sports scheduled to be
competed in Sochi include:
Calendar[edit]
OC
|
Opening ceremony
|
●
|
Event competitions
|
#
|
Event finals
|
CC
|
Closing ceremony
|
March
|
7th
Fri |
8th
Sat |
9th
Sun |
10th
Mon |
11th
Tue |
12th
Wed |
13th
Thu |
14th
Fri |
15th
Sat |
16th
Sun |
Events
|
Ceremonies
|
OC
|
CC
|
|||||||||
6
|
3
|
3
|
6
|
3
|
5
|
3
|
3
|
32
|
|||
6
|
6
|
6
|
18
|
||||||||
2
|
4
|
6
|
2
|
6
|
20
|
||||||
●
|
●
|
●
|
●
|
●
|
●
|
1
|
1
|
||||
●
|
●
|
●
|
●
|
●
|
●
|
●
|
1
|
1
|
|||
Total events
|
12
|
5
|
7
|
12
|
6
|
3
|
11
|
7
|
9
|
72
|
|
Cumulative total
|
12
|
17
|
24
|
36
|
42
|
45
|
56
|
63
|
72
|
||
March
|
7th
Fri |
8th
Sat |
9th
Sun |
10th
Mon |
11th
Tue |
12th
Wed |
13th
Thu |
14th
Fri |
15th
Sat |
16th
Sun |
Events
|
Medals[edit]
Sochi's medal design was unveiled
in May 2013. The design is intended to resemble Sochi's landscape, with a
semi-translucent section containing a "patchwork quilt" of diamonds representing
mountains; the diamonds themselves contain designs that reflect Russia's
regions.[14]
Medal
table[edit]
To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click or tap on the
icon next
to the column title.
Rank
|
Nation
|
Gold
|
Silver
|
Bronze
|
Total
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||
Total
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
----------------
BLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: South Pole
Wounded Warriors Allied Challenge-Incredible story and victory of 4 counries of
Wounded Warriors - Antartica 2 South Pole- Victory run/walk success- in
harshest climates- UK/Canada/Australia and USA- The Journey and success proving
2 a billion folks proudly- disabilities are abilities in disguise- did we make
u proud- u surely did and do..Environmentalists could NOT make it.... u ran and
walked it.... the world rejoiced and Santa and NORAD hugged u along the way.The
Journey 2 Victory blogged daily- December 2013/O CANADA TROOPS- we love u so-
honour
BLOGGED:
SWEET
JESUS, MOTHER MARY AND JOSEPH- Canada's 221 Olympians of Sochi 2014 honour us
-CANADA'S POLITICIANS SHAME US- let Ukraine fix themselves and stop horrid
gossip mongering- come 2 Sochi Winter Paralympics 2014 March 7-16 AND WE WANT
ELECTED OFFICIALS BOOKS AUDITED- each and all - R KIDS R BETTER THAN US -Don't
let Roadkill Murdering- 4$$$$-truthrnot- Media destroy our world
From a child 2 a soldier..... on this day... people in the hard parts of the world only trust boots 2 the ground troops who actually give a care..... and this child's note and love reflects all our world's children... folks we must start more love and getting things achieved 4 our children with measured results.... we truly believed this in the 60s... and now the world has lost it's conscience and dignity and people matter....
note: John Kerry sitting behind Jane Fonda during an anti-war rally at Valley Forge, PA in September 1970.
.jpg)
AND...is there any honour left in America??? John Kerry and Jane Fonda betrayed ur nations troops... BETRAYED AND CAUSED MANY TROOPS 2 DIE...
The U.S. Debate Over Ukraine Has Everything to Do With Iran
BY DAVID RIEFF
What can and should the United States do about the apparent de facto Russian annexation of the Crimea and the real possibility that it will move to exert effective control of at least parts of eastern Ukraine? If the goal is to significantly affect events on the ground in the short term, then the short answer is that nothing Washington can realistically do is likely to have much effect. Force is clearly off the table, as well it should be, which makes the welter of suggestions that there should be shows of force such as U.S. naval exercises in the Black Sea, the deployment of missiles in the Czech Republic, and the beefing up of NATO forces on the Polish-Ukrainian border, seem as unserious as they would be costly. Yes, the United States can impose unilateral sanctions and freeze some bank accounts, but Europe is unlikely follow in any serious, prolonged way for the simple reason that major nations in the E.U., above all Germany, are at least as dependent on Russia economically as Russia is on them.
To me, the more interesting question is why in 2014 the conviction persists among much of the policy establishment that the wishes of the United States should prevail everywhere in the world, including in a region bordering on Russia? Is it because people in Washington believe that the march of liberal capitalist democracy across the world is inevitable—Fukuyama’s "End of History," and all that? At the very least, the consensus seems to be that Russia’s actions were the direct result of American weakness, or, more precisely, the Obama administration’s fecklessness. The possibility that they were, instead, the result of Russian strength must be simply too horrible to contemplate.
It’s an old Washington trope, this "Who lost _____?" In the case of the Crimea, the accusations have already begun to fly thick and fast. Asked on CNN Sunday what he would do, Senator Lindsay Graham replied, “I would like to tie a democratic noose around Russia.” Presumably he meant granting NATO membership to Georgia, and making as many forward deployments of NATO ground, air, and missile forces along the Russian border. If the senator imagines this will make Putin back down, he’s an idiot; if he thinks that should Russia persist, those forces should be used, he’s a monster.
My own intuition is that the storm over Ukraine is actually mostly a displacement of the Iran debate. It seems inexplicable otherwise: a Russian takeover of the Crimea, where the Russian Black Sea fleet already was based and came and went as it pleased, changes nothing about the geo-strategic calculus in the region. What makes a bit more sense is that those who believe that Iran will never relinquish its nuclear weapons program and that, sooner or later, the U.S. must grasp the nettle and launch military strikes, look at American impotence in Ukraine and worry it’s a harbinger of the future. For Simferopol, read Natanz.
David Rieff’s most recent book is Against Remembrance, a critique of political memory.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116834/us-debate-over-ukraine-has-everything-do-iran
-------------------
Oh Lord.... America's going 2 hell in a basket.... it's all about movie stars and oscars, and rat poison in their faces and refusing vets care and love when them come home... if they come home...
GOP filibuster kills bill to expand veterans benefits - UPI.com
United Press International
4 days ago - U.S. Senate Republicans used a filibuster to prevent a vote on expanded veterans benefits after Democrats blocked efforts to add an amendment on Iran sanctions. ... 27, 2014 at 6:06 PM | Comments. 95 ... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., refused to allow an up-or-down vote on a Republican ...
AND...
CBS accusation: Obama asks Israel to stop killing Iran's nuclear scientists
March 2, 2014
It isn't much of a secret in the worlds of diplomacy and journalism that Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu aren't exactly going to be inviting each other to their homes for weekend barbecues. But in what's raising eyebrows from Juneau to Jerusalem is CBS News reporter Dan Raviv dropping a journalistic bombshell on Mar. 1, 2014 by accusing the Obama Administration of attempting to convince Israel to stop blowing-up more than a few Iranian scientists assigned to the country's nuclear program.
In the light of the Islamic Republic of Iran stating more than once that they have every intention of wiping Israel off the face of the map, CBS newsman Raviv, who also co-authored Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars, has penned in no uncertain terms why so many Iranian nuclear program heavyweights are either finding out way too late that a bomb has been strapped to their car's undercarriage, or they're being found in the woods with extra holes in their heads they weren't born with:
Recently, as I sought to update a book I co-wrote about the history of Israel's intelligence agencies, sources close to them revealed that they felt pressure from the Obama Administration - more than a hint - to stop carrying out assassinations inside Iran.
Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, has long been accused of being behind the assassinations. The rift between Israel's Prime Minister Netanyau and Obama has been long brewing.
History of mistrust ...
Israeli distrust of Obama hit a high point in May of 2011 when he called on Israel to voluntarily withdraw to it's pre-1967 borders, which at the narrowest point, Israel was a mere 9 miles wide.
It was during that year's Six-Day War when Egypt with the full cooperation of its Arab allies, committed an act of war against the Jewish State when they placed an armed naval blockade against the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba, which leads to the shipping lanes of the Red Sea and beyond.
It was during the Six-Day War that Israel sized the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula while crushing the combined armed might of Jordan, Syria and Egypt.
The other shoe just fell ...
Within a handful of months since outraging the Israeli in what many considered an insult on the world stage, Barack Obama was caught in a "hot mic" moment with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Without either realizing the microphone was still on, Sarkozy was heard to say to Obama, "I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar."
Not exactly covering his buddy's six, Obama responded:
You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you.
http://www.examiner.com/article/cbs-accusation-obama-asks-israel-to-stop-killing-iran-s-nuclear-scientists
------------------------------
.jpg)
--------------------
--------------------
The
Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses issues
faced by the Arctic governments and the indigenous people of the Arctic. It has
eight member countries: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia,
Sweden, and the United States.
.svg)
-------------
CANADA,
RUSSIA, DENMARK, NORWAY AND USA- SIGN PROTECTION ON ARCTIC FISHING- FINLAND,
ICELAND, SWEDEN.... REFUSE
Canada
agrees to deal on Arctic fishing
Feb
27, 2014
Canada
and four other Arctic nations have agreed to work toward a deal to block
commercial fishing in the central Arctic Ocean until more is known about the
potential of the resource.
The
agreement with the United States, Russia, Denmark and Norway was reached late
Wednesday in Nuuk, Greenland, after three days of talks.
"The
participants recognized the need for interim precautionary measures to prevent
any future commercial fisheries without the prior establishment of appropriate
regulatory mechanisms," said a news release issued from Nuuk.
"The
participants will work toward the establishment of such interim measures."
The
five Arctic coastal nations each regulate fishing up to 200 kilometres from
their shores, but that leaves a large regulatory hole in the central Arctic
Ocean.
No
commercial fishery currently exists in that part of the ocean, which was until
recently permanently covered by sea ice. Scientists say as much as 40 per cent
is now clear at least part of the year, opening it up to commercial
exploitation.
In
2012, more than 2,000 scientists from 67 countries called for a moratorium on
commercial fishing in the Arctic until more research is completed. The
scientists said the regulatory gap could make the region a target for large
bottom trawlers, which would put stress on fish populations.
Going
into the meeting, Canada, the U.S. and Denmark were backing the fishing ban.
Norway and Russia were not.
"The
good news coming out of Nuuk is that the five countries achieved a consensus
that the central Arctic Ocean is not ready for commercial fishing until science
and management measures are more developed," said Scott Highleyman, a
representative of the environmental arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts and a
member of the American delegation.
"They
set themselves an ambitious agenda for the rest of 2014 to confirm the results
of the Nuuk meeting and reach out to other nations."
Since
the waters under discussion don't actually come under the jurisdiction of any
of the five countries involved, they acknowledged the need to bring the rest of
the world on board. Their statement promises to start talks on getting other
countries to commit to staying out of the central Arctic Ocean before the end
of the year.
"The
best way to achieve the stated goal is an international agreement signed by
Arctic and non-Arctic countries," Highleyman said. "That is how we
should measure ultimate success toward protecting this ocean emerging from the
ice."
The
statement also commits the countries to scientific research to try to
understand what's happening with fish populations.
No
commercial fishing in those waters is expected in the immediate future.
Note
to readers: This is a corrected story. Headlines on an earlier version said
Canada had signed the deal.
By
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
-----------------
China
pushes for Arctic foothold, from a thousand miles away
As
global warming pushes back the Arctic Sea ice, uncovering new natural-resource
deposits, China is looking to establish its presence in the north.
--------------
CANADA: Protecting
our Environmental Heritage
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Protecting our Environmental Heritage
Canada's
North is home to some of the world's most spectacular scenery, unique wildlife
and pristine wilderness. However, the North also has fragile and unique
ecosystems which are being affected by the impacts of climate change.
Canada
is taking a comprehensive approach to the protection of environmentally
sensitive lands and waters in our North, ensuring conservation keeps pace with
development and that development decisions are based on sound science and
careful assessment. As part of this effort, the Government has enhanced
pollution prevention legislation in Arctic waters and is taking steps to clean
up abandoned mine sites across the North.
Canada
is already at the forefront of several international efforts to study the
impacts on both the Arctic and Antarctic of a changing climate, and is
investing to help Northerners adapt to these impacts.
Key
Accomplishments and Initiatives
---------------------
CANADA
POLAR BEARS- WEBCAM GOOGLE
Waiting
for the Ice Pack 1 11 5 2013 1126 47 AM
The
Tundra Buggy Lodge is strategically situated for optimum polar bear
observation. Our goal with the Polar Bear Cam is to provide a window into the
polar bear's world—and, working with our conservation partner, Polar Bears
International, to inspire action to save them. - See more at: http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/playe...
Google
Street View hunting for polar bears as it maps Canada’s North l
OTTAWA
— The Globe and Mail
Published
Wednesday, Feb. 26 2014, 10:45 PM EST
Google
is taking the world on a polar-bear hunt in Northern Canada.
Last
October, the popular search engine brought its Street View technology to
Churchill, Man., at the same time the bears were waiting for the winter ice to
set in along the shores of Hudson Bay.
For
several years, Street View has provided panoramic, ground-level photography
that allows users to drive virtually through the streets of cities and towns
around the globe. Starting Thursday, armchair travellers will be able to move
in the same way across the Arctic tundra, taking in the 360-degree image of
sea ice, lichen-covered plains and, of course, the bears.
More
Related to this Story
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/in-pictures-google-captures-the-polar-bears/article17132990/?from=17130819
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/in-pictures-google-captures-the-polar-bears/article17132990/?from=17130819
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/in-pictures-google-captures-the-polar-bears/article17132990/?from=17130819
gallery
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video/article16406288/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video/article16406288/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video/article16406288/
Video
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-video/video-ctv-toronto-polar-bear-cubs-public-debut/article16828767/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-video/video-ctv-toronto-polar-bear-cubs-public-debut/article16828767/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-video/video-ctv-toronto-polar-bear-cubs-public-debut/article16828767/
Video
There
have been Street Views completed of the Arctic communities of Iqaluit and
Cambridge Bay, said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, a geo-data specialist at Google. But
“this is the first time that we have gone out specifically to look for
wildlife.”
The
trekker camera can now be placed on bikes, boats, backpacks and dog sleds, said
Ms. Tuxen-Bettman. In the Canadian sub-Arctic, it was affixed to tundra buggies
supplied by an adventure company in Churchill. When they headed out of town on
the appointed day, there were concerns that the bears would not be there. But
“we saw a ton of them,” said Ms. Tuxen-Bettman.
To
ensure minimal damage to the delicate Arctic ecosystem, the buggies were
restricted to a series of old military trails. So sometimes the bears are
visible only in the distance, she said.
“With
some of the [polar-bear] images it’s kind of like a scavenger hunt, which we
think is going to be kind of fun for classrooms,” Ms. Tuxen-Bettman said. “But
some of them are closer than others so you can say, ‘There’s a polar bear right
there.’ ”
The
project was the idea of a group called Polar Bears International which was
created to preserve the bears through research, conservation and programs to
reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
The
aim was part inspiration and part conservation. With the images taken in the
fall, and those that will be taken in future years, Polar Bears International
and other environmental groups will be able to monitor changes in the sea ice
and the bear population over time.
Krista
Wright, the head of Polar Bears International, said polar bears ignite the
human spirit. In that way, she said, they are like the elephant or the tiger of
this continent.
“Two-thirds
of the world’s polar bears live in Canada,” Ms. Wright said. “This is our
iconic species of North America and, most importantly, they tell a story of a
much bigger picture and that is of a changing climate. You have an ecosystem
that is not just changing, it’s disappearing.”
As
the traditional habitat of the polar bear is altered, scientists predict there
will be fewer bears born and fewer young bears surviving to maturity, she said.
So
taking Google Street View across the tundra “is an opportunity to connect
people to the Arctic and to connect people to the changes that are happening in
the Arctic,” Ms. Wright said. “It will connect people to this ecosystem that
not very many people will have the opportunity to come and experience for themselves.”
Meanwhile,
Google is lending its technology to Parks Canada and has already filmed virtual
tours of 76 national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas with
more work planned this year. Some of the trails that were filmed near Churchill
were in Wapusk National Park, which receives few visitors on the ground.
“We
want to make our places more accessible to Canadians,” said Ellen Bertrand, the
director of external relations for the parks agency, “and to inspire them to
come visit Parks Canada locations across the country.”
----------------------
Poppies made by our beloved Inuit Peoples- IDLE NO MORE CANADA --Americas First Peoples 30,000 years
European
politicians are breathtakingly hypocritical about sealskins
BLOGGED
CANADA
MILITARY NEWS: Nov26-SEALS- IDLE NO MORE CANADA- FREE TRADE THIS CANADA: Every
four or five days Europe kills more animals for their fur than the entire
annual Canadian hunt does in a year
-------------------
Seal
Ban: The Inuit Impact
For
more Eye On The Arctic videos visit http://www.rcinet.ca/eyeonthearctic
The
EU ban on seal products has profoundly affected Canada's Inuit community.
Despite the fact that the Inuit are exempt from the ban, they no longer have a
market for sealskins; a by-product of their subsistence hunt.
This
short documentary brings together commentary from Inuit hunters, community
leaders and an emotional testimonial from Lisa Eetuk Ishulutak, who is affected
by the ban because she is learning Fur Design at the Arctic College, and her
main design material is sealskin.
----------------
CANADA STEPPING UP AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILD ABUSE...
Child abuse Monument- Toronto- Canada - Only one in the world... designed 2 honour MartinKruze- 'I was a PAEDOPHILE'S DREAM'
I was abused as a child and served in Vietnam- the child abuse was harder
-----------------------
come
visit...NOVA SCOTIA... we'd love 2 see u
BLOGGED
IDLE
NO MORE CANADA- MI'KMACK MONTH IN NOVA SCOTIA- 11,000 years- We mourn Albino
Moose murdered- must learn Mi'kmaq nature's way pls./Some fall fun Annapolis
Valley/Good Books/Mi'kmaq traditions, history and videos
------------------
Canada's
Shania Twain wrote Black Eyes, Blue Tears back in the 90s.... and put it 2
music and played it around the world.... Shania kicked country music's ass and
the black hats... and woke the world up 2 girls count... girls are equal and
... girls can do anything they dream on.... Shania Twain was adopted when she
was 2 by Objiway Gerry Twain (she adored her Grandpa Twain) who adored his
wife, Sharon. Shania grew up in the 'Reserves, Bands' of First Peoples of
Canada - 10,000 and knew exactly what it was like 2 live in poverty, dispair
and the injustice of the horrible treatment of Canada's First Peoples as all
Governments of Canada and all polticial stripes- throwaway trash..... Shania
Twain is a hero to so many women globally.... and has over one billion fans....
shania walked the talk and kept her soul, her honour and the respect of herself
and her fans....
Shania
started food banks at all her shows, including kids from each and every town,
supported and played 4 troops be4 it became noticed, and said - feed your own
kids first and those of your communities, villages and cities- 4God's sake look after ur kids..... Shania is
one of China's favourite artists- and
one of the world's - Shania made women
matter and girls believe in empowerment of education and freedom... and
equality....
BLACK
EYS, BLUE TEARS... SHANIA TWAIN
"Black
Eyes, Blue Tears"
Black
eyes, I don't need 'em
Blue tears, gimme freedom
Positively never goin' back
I won't live where things are so out of whack
No more rollin' with the punches
No more usin' or abusin'
I'd rather die standing
Than live on my knees
Begging please-no more
Black eyes-I don't need 'em
Blue tears-gimme freedom
Black eyes-all behind me
Blue tears'll never find me now
Definitley found my self esteem
Finally-I'm forever free to dream
No more cryin' in the corner
No excuses-no more bruises
I'd rather die standing
Than live on my knees
Begging please-no more
Black eyes-I don't need 'em
Blue tears-gimme freedom
Black eyes-all behind me
Blue tears'll never find me now
I'd rather die standing
Than live on my knees, begging please...
Black eyes-I don't need 'em
Blue tears-gimme freedom
Black eyes-all behind me
Blue tears'll never find me now
It's all behind me, they'll never find me now
Find your self-esteem and be forever free to
dream
--------------------
Amazing Grace - Inuit 4 our Canadian Daughters gone 2 soon
-----------------------------------
THE
WOLVES- WE ARE COUNTING ON U 2 SAVE OUR WORLD-
OUR NATURE 4 THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDRENS- LOOK AROUND WORLD... LOOK
AROUND...
IDLE
NO MORE CANADA- our beautiful First Peoples of 10,000 years- u matter-Canada
matters
}} this day and age.... u would come 2 Canada
and trophy hunt OUR BEARS????- let alone the First Peoples of 10,000 years in
Canada- u would insult our First Peoples-
had to cry- watched this on APTN- Canada's First Peoples Television
Station- how could we not mourn and cry- and 2 leave the carcass- like the
billion buffalo stolen from USA First Peoples.... Come one it's 2013
Bear
Witness: a film by BC's Coastal First Nations
Published
on Sep 3, 2013
When
'Cheeky' the bear is ambushed and decapitated in front of a lone witness, a
chain of events is set in motion up and down the coast. You're the next link.
---------------------
Russia,
Canada And the U.S. Co-operate On Vigilant Eagle Exercise
August
30, 2013. 10:16 am • Section: Defence Watch
------------------
Japan
Self Defense Force participates in the Planning Conference for joint
NORAD-Russia exercise
14-02-04
| February 14, 2014
February
14, 2014 Colorado Springs - Members of the Japan Air Self Defense Force
participated in Vigilant Eagle 14 Initial Planning Conference (IPC) in Colorado
Springs with their military Russian and NORAD counterparts this week. The Vigilant Eagle 14 exercise will be
conducted in August this year as a Computer Command Post Exercise and will
incorporate a more complex scenario to be further discussed and developed
during this IPC.
“We
recognize the importance of mutual cooperation,” said Colonel Hidetada
Inatsuki, JASDF, Air Staff Office, Deputy Head, and Operations Division. Since 2007, the Vigilant Eagle Exercise
Series focuses on national procedures for monitoring the situation and conduct
a hand-off of a hijacked aircraft from one nation to the other while exchanging
air track information.
Last
year’s live-fly Vigilant Eagle 13 exercise took place August 27-28 between
Anchorage, Alaska and Anadyr, Russia, and involved Russian, Canadian and U.S.
military personnel and aircraft operating from command centers in Russia and
the United States.
“We
are very happy to welcome members of the Japan Air Self Defense Force to
NORAD. This meeting is the start of
another valuable security partnership with Japan which will help all of us make
the airspace safer and more secure,” said Joe Bonnet, Director of Joint
Training and Exercises for NORAD and U.S. Northern Command.
Working in partnership with the civilian
Federal Aviation Agency and its Russian counterpart, all players will focus on
coordinating their response to the incident.
The U.S.-Russian Federation Armed Forces
Military Cooperation Work Plan is the basis that allows the Russian Federation
and NORAD personnel to conduct Vigilant Eagle conferences and execution.
---------------
CANADA
AND WWI AND WWI
The
first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in ... after Russia
---------------
Canada //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/En-ca-Canada.ogg
i/ˈkænədə/ is a country in North America consisting of 10
provinces and 3 territories. Located in the northern part of the
continent, it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the
Arctic Ocean. At 9.98 million square kilometres in total, Canada is the world's
second-largest country by total area, and its common
border with the United States is the world's longest land border shared
by the same two countries.
i/ˈkænədə/ is a country in North America consisting of 10
provinces and 3 territories. Located in the northern part of the
continent, it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the
Arctic Ocean. At 9.98 million square kilometres in total, Canada is the world's
second-largest country by total area, and its common
border with the United States is the world's longest land border shared
by the same two countries.
The
land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal
peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British
and French colonies were established on the region's Atlantic
coast. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and
lost North American territories until left in the late 18th century with what
mostly comprises Canada today. On July 1, 1867, three British colonies joined
to form the federal
dominion of Canada. Other colonies subsequently joined and the
remainder of Britain's lands were transferred to Canada.
Canada
is a federal parliamentary
democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as
its head of state. The country is officially
bilingual at the federal level. It is one of the world's most
ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale
immigration from many countries, with a population of approximately 35 million
as of December 2012. Its advanced economy is one of
the largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural
resources and well-developed trade networks. Canada's long
and complex relationship with the United States has had a
significant impact on its economy and culture.
Canada
is a developed
country and one of the wealthiest in the world, with the eighth highest per capita income globally, and
the eleventh highest ranking in the Human Development
Index. It ranks among the highest in international
measurements of education, government transparency, civil liberties, quality of
life, and economic freedom. Canada's participation in international and
intergovernmental institutions or groupings includes the G8 (Group of Eight), the Group of Ten
(economic), the Group of Twenty (G-20 major economies), the North
American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum.
Aboriginal
peoples
Archaeological
studies and genetic analyses have indicated a human presence
in the northern Yukon
region from 24,500 BC, and in southern Ontario from 7500 BC.[15][16][17] The Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats
and Bluefish Caves
are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada.[18] The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal
societies included permanent settlements, agriculture, complex societal
hierarchies, and trading networks.[19][20] Some of
these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late
15th and early 16th centuries, and have only been discovered through
archeological investigations.[21]
The aboriginal population at the time of the first
European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000[22] and two million,[23] with a figure of 500,000 accepted by
Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Health.[24] As a consequence of the European
colonization, Canada's aboriginal peoples suffered from repeated outbreaks of
newly introduced infectious
diseases such as influenza,
measles, and smallpox (to which
they had no natural immunity), resulting in a forty- to eighty-percent
population decrease in the centuries after the European arrival.[22] Aboriginal peoples in present-day Canada include
the First Nations,[25] Inuit,[26]
and Métis.[27] The Métis are a mixed-blood people
who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people
married European settlers.[28]
In general, the Inuit had more limited interaction with European settlers
during the colonization period.[29]
Geography
Main
article: Geography
of Canada
Canada
occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with
the contiguous
United States to the south (the longest border between two countries
in the world) and the US state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from
the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north
lies the Arctic Ocean.[81] Greenland is to the
northeast, while Saint Pierre and Miquelon is south of Newfoundland.
By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after
Russia. By land area alone, Canada ranks fourth.[81] The country lies between latitudes 41° and 84°N, and
longitudes 52°
and 141°W.
/wiki/File:Canada-satellite.jpg
/wiki/File:Canada-satellite.jpgA
satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield,
while ice and tundra
are prominent in the Arctic.
Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains.
The flat and fertile prairies
facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River in the southeast, where
lowlands host much of Canada's population.
/wiki/File:Canada-satellite.jpgA
satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield,
while ice and tundra
are prominent in the Arctic.
Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains.
The flat and fertile prairies
facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River in the southeast, where
lowlands host much of Canada's population.
Since
1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60° and
141°W longitude,[82] but this claim is not
universally recognized. Canada is home to the world's northernmost settlement, Canadian Forces Station Alert,
on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island – latitude 82.5°N – which lies 817 kilometres
(508 mi) from the North Pole.[83]
Much of the Canadian Arctic is covered by ice and permafrost. Canada has the longest coastline in
the world, with a total length of 202,080 kilometres (125,570 mi);[81] additionally, its border with the United
States is the world's longest land border, stretching 8,891 kilometres (5,525
mi).[84]
Since
the end of the last glacial
period, Canada has consisted of eight distinct forest regions,
including extensive boreal
forest on the Canadian Shield.[85]
Canada has around 31,700 large lakes,[86]
more than any other country, containing much of the world's fresh water.[87] There are also fresh-water
glaciers in the Canadian
Rockies and the Coast Mountains. Canada is geologically active,
having many earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes, notably Mount Meager, Mount Garibaldi,
Mount Cayley,
and the Mount
Edziza volcanic complex.[88]
The volcanic eruption of the Tseax Cone in 1775 was among Canada's worst natural disasters,
killing 2,000 Nisga'a
people and destroying their village in the Nass River valley of northern British Columbia.
The eruption produced a 22.5-kilometre (14.0 mi) lava flow, and, according to Nisga'a legend,
blocked the flow of the Nass River.[89]
Canada's population density, at 3.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (8.5 /sq
mi), is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the
country is the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor, situated in
Southern Quebec and Southern
Ontario along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.[90]
Average
winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary from region to
region. Winters can be harsh in many parts of the country, particularly in the
interior and Prairie provinces, which experience a continental climate,
where daily average temperatures are near −15 °C (5 °F), but can drop below −40 °C (−40 °F) with
severe wind chills.[91] In noncoastal regions,
snow can cover the ground for almost six months of the year, while in parts of
the north snow can persist year-round. Coastal British Columbia has a temperate
climate, with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coasts, average
high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F), while between the
coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86
°F), with temperatures in some interior locations occasionally exceeding 40 °C
(104 °F).[92]
-------------------
CANADA
1914-1918 YPRES
In
1914, at a time of intense nationalism and imperial competition, war broke out
in Europe. What started as an isolated assassination in Serbia of Archduke
Ferdinand in July 1914 triggered international treaties and alliances, and
within months Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Japan,
the Austro-Hungary, Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand, the
Dominion of Newfoundland , Greece and others were all at war.
The
fighting soon reached a scale beyond what anyone could have imagined. The
conflict spread to many regions of the world and eventually became known as the
Great War. Fighting on such a magnitude and of such relentlessness had never
been known before. By November 11, 1918 when the final gun fell silent, 9.5
million had been killed, and the lines of battle on the Western Front in Europe
were essentially back where they had begun. Canada was a small nation of 7
million in 1914, yet 68,000 never returned from the battlefields.
In
1919 the Paris Peace Conference drew up treaties and revised national
boundaries that in many cases revived national tensions. Today we still live with
the political consequences of those decisions. The Paris Peace Conference also
decided on ‘reparations’, or economic punishment, for a defeated Germany who
was to pay for the death and destruction it had wrought.
At
the Peace Conference, American President Woodrow Wilson was insistent that an
international organization be established to prevent future conflicts and the
League Of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations, was created. But
ingrained nationalism remained strong and the League Of Nations received
inadequate support. The League was unable to prevent the next war in 1939, WWII
that killed more than 60 million. The United Nations was founded in 1946.
The
experience of WWI helped bring about social changes. The historic class system
was further eroded. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) was created
to bury the more than 1.1 million dead from the Commonwealth countries. The
Commission decided that officers and ordinary soldiers would be buried in the
same cemeteries with little distinction. This had rarely been done before.
Officers had traditionally been from the ruling classes and had given special
privileges even in death. In the name of equality the Commission also decided
that officers would be allowed no special grave monuments but instead would
share the same headstone design as all other soldiers. The completion of the
CWGC cemeteries took many years, even decades, and Canada still contributes to
maintaining them.
On
returning home many WWI veterans, having fought for freedom abroad, felt they
had the right to ask for better wages and working conditions at home. They
became involved in labour activism and the union movement. In 1919 many
veterans took part in the Winnipeg General Strike. Tragically, in the violence
of that strike, there were veterans on opposing sides. There is no doubt that
the Russian revolution of 1917 and the dream of the Communist ideal also
contributed to the general agitation, but there is also no doubt that the drive
for labour rights and social equality was widespread.
Canadian
women finally got the vote in 1921, having contributed so much to the labour
force during the war when so many men had been absent. First-Nations soldiers
achieved recognition and a degree of equality in the army that they were not
given at home in Canada. But many minority groups, having fought for Canada
abroad, returned home to discriminatory conditions that would not be rectified
for a long time. For example, Japanese-Canadians veterans of WWI even though
they had fought bravely for Canada were not recognized as citizens of Canada
until 1931. Many francophone Quebecers had ambivalent feelings about the
fighting in Europe, and when the Canadian government brought in conscription in
1917 there was strong resentment.
It
is said that Canada emerged as a more confident nation after WWI. Its soldiers
had earned respect on the battlefield, particularly at < Vimy Ridge and
Passchendaele . Canadian politicians and senior officers had gained more
independence from British command. Canada was given a seat at the Paris Peace
Conference as an independent nation, rather than as a member of the British
Commonwealth delegation.
At
writing, only three WWI veterans remain alive in the world. The last Canadian
veteran died in February 2009 at age 109. When all are gone the book of living
history will be shut forever. We must forget neither them nor the war they
fought. The earth has not forgotten. Battles such as Passchendaele , the Somme
and Verdun were so intense and prolonged that more than one hundred thousand
bodies were never recovered. Even to this day soldiers’ remains surface in the
fields of France and Belgium and are gathered for burial in some of the 6,000
war cemeteries. We too must not forget. The families and descendants of these 68,000
Canadians must know that they are remembered in our hearts and in our nation’s
history.
------------------
On
the occasion of the visit of Pope John Paul II on May 17, 1985, Ypres was given
the title and also the important mission of 'Ypres City of Peace'. Every three
years Ypres awards the international Peace Prize to persons or organisations
that have distinguished themselves in the field of peace. The secretariat of
the worldwide organisation 'Mayors for Peace', more specifically of martyr
cities, is also established in Ypres. The last witnesses of the First World War
are no longer with us, yet their memory is kept alive, not only so we should
know, but even more importantly, to prevent a repetition of what happened.
In
August 1914 when the war broke out the Germans had planned to reach the French
Channel Ports by a route through Belgium. To do so they had to capture the old
cloth city of Ypres. The heights around Ypres were of major strategic
importance. The British, who had rushed to the rescue, defended 'The Ypres
Salient', as the allied bulge into German territory became known. Under
repeated German shelling the Cloth Hall burned down on November 22, 1917. This
marked the beginning of the complete destruction of Ypres. The fighting along front
came to a virtual standstill.
Five
months later, on April 22, 1915, the Germans used chlorine gas for the first
time between Steenstrate and Langemark. Death and panic ensued and at least
2000 Canadians died. During that period the Canadian physician John McCrae was
working in his Advanced Dressing Station near Essex Farm. In mid May the
military authorities ordered all remaining Ypres citizens to leave the city.
For
the next two years there was relative 'calm' on the Western Front during which
the front line hardly moved. Although there were no major battles, minor
confrontations resulted in 100,000 deaths. During those years, in June 1916,
the Canadians recaptured the heights around Hill 62 and Mount Sorrel and
suffered heavy losses of some 10,000 men.
The
Mine Battle near Messines Ridge that started on June 7, 1917 was the forerunner
of what would become the Battle of Passchendaele. Capturing the height on which
the village of Passchendaele stood took 100 days. The fighting started on July
31, 1917 and was the bloodiest battle in the area. Here too the Canadians were
courageous but suffered more than 15,000 casualties.
In
the successful German offensive in the spring of 1918, it was mainly the
Belgian army to the north and the French armies to the south that took a severe
beating. But on September 28, the allied liberation offensive was launched, and
on November 11, 1918 the First World War ended.
In
Belgium, front line towns like Diksmuide and Ypres and tens of villages were
entirely destroyed. After the war the population gradually returned;
reconstruction in the towns and villages started and the moon landscape of the
surrounding countryside was evened out. Even to this day live artillery shells
are found in the fields and disposed of by the authorities. More than one
hundred cemeteries were built and monuments erected for the 500,000 soldiers
who had been killed in the Ypres area. Most historic buildings were accurately
reconstructed: Ypres has the appearance of an old city, but in fact it isn't even
100 years old. The Menin Gate, a monument to the missing, was unveiled in 1927
and is the best known Commonwealth war memorial. There was not enough space on
it to list the names of all the missing. Yet, among the 54,896 names engraved,
we do find the names of 6,940 Canadians who fell during the Great War in the
vicinity of Ypres and who do not have a known grave. Since 1928, the Last Post
is sounded every evening under the arches of the Menin Gate in remembrance of
the dead of both sides. (www.lastpost.be)
Today
Ypres is a lively, modern and pleasant city. The 'In Flanders Fields Museum'
was opened in 1998 in the rebuilt Cloth Hall, and by 2012 this will be given a
facelift (www.inflandersfields.be).
But Ypres is far more than the memories of WWI. In this city you will find
history from 1300 to 1900 in the rebuilt churches, facades and museums. The
17th century fortifications around the city were transformed into a unique
walking area back in the 19th century. The green periphery around Ypres offers
numerous recreation options. A varied range of events is on offer as well as a
broad diversity of accommodation facilities. Ypres is an ideal base from which
to explore the 'Flanders Fields Country' (www.visitypres.be)./images/historyofypres/present/FINAL_Yorkshire-Trench.jpg
In
its role as 'City of Peace', literary days and excursions are organised,
lectures given and conferences held. We continue to inaugurate new monuments,
as well as restoring and opening up existing sites. Ypres plays a role in
international cooperation, coordinating with other museums and sites along the
Western Front. Temporary exhibitions highlight major aspects of that war. And
thematic car, bicycle and walking routes narrate the story of the First World
War on site.
As a
'City of Peace' Ypres is a city of remembrance, never forgetting the tremendous
human cost of WWI to soldiers and civilians alike.
Ter
gelegenheid van het bezoek van Paus Johannes-Paulus II op 17 mei 1985 kreeg
Ieper de titel maar tevens belangrijke opdracht van 'Ieper Vredesstad'
toebedeeld. Zo reikt Ieper om de drie jaar de internationale Vredesprijs uit
aan personen of organisaties die zich op dat vlak verdienstelijk maken. Ook het
secretariaat van de wereldwijde organisatie 'Mayors for Peace' van vooral
martelaarssteden is in Ieper gevestigd. De laatste getuigen van de Eerste
Wereldoorlog zijn er niet meer, maar toch wordt de herinnering levend gehouden,
niet alleen opdat we het zouden weten, maar nog veel meer om herhaling te
vermijden.
Bij
het uitbreken van de oorlog wilden de Duitsers de Franse kanaalhavens bereiken.
Daarvoor moesten ze de oude lakenstad Ieper innemen. De hoogtes rond Ieper zijn
strategisch van groot belang. De toegesnelde Britten verdedigen 'The Ypres
Salient', de Ieperboog als Britse bult in Duits gebied. Op 22 november 1914
branden de Lakenhallen en is de vernieling van Ieper ingezet. Het front valt
stil.
Vijf
maanden later, op 22 april 1915 gebruiken de Duitsers, tussen Steenstrate en
Langemark, voor het eerst chloorgas. Dood, paniek, …. en de verrassing is
compleet. Minstens 2000 Canadezen laten het leven. John McCrae werkt in die
periode in zijn Advanced Dressing Station nabij Essex Farm. Midden mei moet de resterende
Ieperse bevolking van het militaire bestuur de stad verlaten.
Daarna
blijft het twee jaar 'kalm' aan het Westelijk Front en wijzigt de frontlijn
praktisch niet. Geen grote veldslagen, wel kleine confrontaties, met toch wel
100.000 doden tot gevolg. Met zware verliezen, bijna 10.000 man, heroverden de
Canadezen de hoogtes rond Hill 62 en Mount Sorrel in juni 1916.
De
Mijnenslag rond 'Messines Ridge' vanaf 7 juni 1917 is pas de voorbode van wat
de Slag bij Passendale zou worden. 100 dagen waren er nodig om vanaf 31 juli
1917, de meest bloedige dag rond Ieper, Passendale in te nemen. Ook hier
maakten de Canadezen zich verdienstelijk, maar verloren tevens 15.000 man.
In
het voorjaar van 1918 krijgen vooral de Belgen in het noorden en de Fransen in het
zuiden het hard te verduren. Op 28 september wordt het bevrijdingsoffensief
ingezet, en op 11 november 1918 komt een einde aan de Eerste Wereldoorlog.
In
de frontstreek zijn de steden Diksmuide en Ieper en tientallen dorpen volledig
vernield. De bevolking keert gedeeltelijk terug; de heropbouw kan beginnen, het
maanlandschap wordt geëffend. Tot op vandaag wordt scherpe munitie boven
gehaald en onschadelijk gemaakt. Voor de 500.000 gedode soldaten worden
tientallen begraafplaatsen aangelegd en monumenten opgericht. De meeste
historische gebouwen werd nauwgezet gereconstrueerd. Ieper lijkt een oude stad,
maar is nog geen 100 jaar oud. De Menenpoort, een monument voor vermisten, werd
in 1927 onthuld en is het bekendste Commonwealth oorlogsgedenkteken. Ze kon
echter niet alle namen van vermisten dragen. We vinden er de namen van 6.940
Canadese soldaten terug, gesneuveld tijdens de Grote Oorlog in de omgeving van
Ieper, en die geen gekend graf hebben. Sedert 1928 wordt elke avond onder de
gewelven, en voor alle gevallenen van beide partijen, de Last Post geblazen. (www.lastpost.be)
Vandaag
is Ieper een bruisende stad, modern, op mensenmaat, waar het aangenaam
vertoeven is. In de heropgebouwde Lakenhallen werd in 1998 het 'In Flanders
Fields Museum' geopend, en tegen 2012 krijgt het al weer een facelift (www.inflandersfields.be).
Maar Ieper is ook méér dan alleen maar oorlog. In deze stad vindt u niettemin
ook nog de geschiedenis van 1300 tot 1900 terug in de wederopgebouwde kerken,
gevels, musea. De 17de-eeuwse vestinggordel rond de stad werd al in de 19de
eeuw omgetoverd tot een uniek wandelgebied. De groene rand van Ieper biedt
talrijke recreatiemogelijkheden. Er is een gevarieerd aanbod van evenementen,
en tevens een ruime verscheidenheid van overnachtingsmogelijkheden. Kortom, een
ideale uitvalsbasis voor wie de 'Flanders Fields Country' uitgebreider wil
verkennen (www.visitypres.be).
Binnen
de rol van 'Ieper, Vredesstad' worden literaire dagen en uitstappen
georganiseerd, lezingen en conferenties gehouden. Nog steeds worden nieuwe
monumenten onthuld. Er wordt gewerkt aan de restauratie en ontsluiting van nog
bestaande sites. Ieper speelt een voortrekkersrol op het vlak van
grensoverschrijdende samenwerking met musea en sites langs het Westelijk Front.
Tijdelijke tentoonstellingen belichten belangrijke aspecten uit die oorlog. Met
thematische auto-, fiets- en wandelroutes komt het verhaal van de Eerste Wereldoorlog
in situ aan bod.
Als
'Vredesstad' is Ieper een stad van herinnering, waar nooit de hoge tol aan
mensenlevens bij soldaten en burgers in de Eerste Wereldoorlog mag vergeten
worden.
----------------------
CANADIAN
ENCYCLOPEDIA...
CANADA- First World War (WWI)
The
First World War of 1914–1918 was the bloodiest conflict in Canadian history,
taking the lives of more than 60,000 Canadians.
World
War I, Map
Soldiers
wounded at Vimy Ridge
Canadian
soldiers bringing back the wounded at Vimy Ridge in France. April, 1917. Image:
the Canadian Department of National Defence/Library and Archives
Canada/PA-001042.
Laying
mats at Battle of Passchendaele
Laying
trench mats over the mud during the Battle of Passchendaele, November, 1917.
Image courtesy of William Rider-Rider/Canadian Department of National
Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-002156.
Wounded
at the Battle of Passchendaele
Canadian
soldiers wounded during the Battle of Passchendaele, November, 1917. Image
courtesy of the Canadian Department of National Defence/Library and Archives
Canada/PA-002089.
Anti-conscription
rally in Montreal, 1917.
Anti-conscription
rally in Victoria Square, Montréal, Quebec on May 24th, 1917. Image: Library
and Archives Canada/C-006859.
Union
Government Poster
Union
Government campaign poster, 1914-1918. Image courtesy of Library and Archives
Canada, 1983-28-726.
Robert
Borden
Sir
Robert Laird Borden. Image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada/C-00170.
Halifax
Explosion-aftermath
The
aftermath of the Halifax Explosion, December 6th, 1917. Image courtesy of
Canadian Patent and Copyright Office/Library and Archives Canada/C-001832.
Cdn
soliders at Vimy in German wire entanglements
Canadians
soliders advancing through German wire entanglements at Vimy Ridge. April,
1917. Image: Canadian Department of National Defence/Library and Archives
Canada/PA-001087.
Cdn.
soldiers returning from Vimy Ridge
Canadian
soldiers returning from Vimy Ridge in France, May, 1917. Image courtesy of W.I.
Castle/ Canadian Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/
PA-001332.
Howitzer-Battle
of Somme
A
Canadian heavy howitzer during the Battle of Somme, France. November, 1916.
Image courtesy of Canadian Department of National Defence/Library and Archives
Canada/PA-000917.
Sam
Hughes
General
Sir Sam Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, 1914-1919. Image:
Canadian Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/C-020240.
W.A.
Bishop
WWI
Captain W.A. Bishop, V.C., Royal Flying Corps in France, August, 1917. Image
courtesy of William Rider-Rider/Library and Archives Canada/PA-001654.
School
of Aviation, 1917
School
of Aviation, Royal Flying Corps Canada, University of Toronto, 1917. Image:
Canadian Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada.C-020396.
Henri
Bourassa
Henri
Bourassa, 1917. Image: Library and Archives Canada/C-009092.
WWI
recruitment poster
WWI
recruitment poster for French Canadians, 1914-1918. Image: Library and Archives
Canada/1983-28-794.
Cdn.
Patriotic Fund
Canadian
Patriotic Fund Poster, 1917. Image: Library and Archives Canada/1983-28-581.
WWI
Victory Bond poster
Victory
Bond poster on College Street in Toronto, Ontario, 1917. Image: John
Boyd/Library and Archives Canada/PA-071302.
Sam
Hughes
General
Sir Sam Hughes talking to wounded Canadians at Red Cross Special Hospital in
Buxton, England, 1914-1918. Image: Canadian Department of National
Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-022662.
WWI
Navy Recruitment poster
Recruitment
poster for the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve, 1914-1918. Image:
Library and Archives Canada/1983-28-839.
WWI
recruitment poster for women
WWI
recruitment poster for women, 1914-1918. Image: Library and Archives
Canada/1983-28-1504.
Cdn.
solider-Battle of Somme
Canadian
soldiers returning from the Battle of the Somme in France. November, 1916.
Image: W.I. Castle/Library and Archives Canada/PA-000832.
Battle
for the Hindenburg Line
Canadian
advance east of Arras, France: Cambrai on fire, October 1918 (courtesy Library
and Archives Canada/PA-3420).
Vimy
Ridge
Canadian
machine gunners dig themselves into shell holes on Vimy Ridge, France, April
1917 (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/PA-1017).
Trenches,
Vimy Ridge
The
preserved WWI trenches at Vimy Ridge, France (photo by Jacqueline Hucker).
The
First World War of 1914–1918 was the bloodiest conflict in Canadian history,
taking the lives of more than 60,000 Canadians. It erased romantic notions of
war, introducing slaughter on a massive scale, and instilled a fear of foreign
military involvement that would last until the Second World War. The great
achievements of Canadian soldiers on battlefields such as Ypres, Vimy and
Passchendaele, however, ignited a sense of national pride and a confidence that
Canada could stand on its own, apart from the British Empire, on the world
stage. The war also deepened the divide between French and English Canada, and
marked the beginning of widespread state intervention in society and the
economy.
Going
to War
The
Canadian Parliament didn't choose to go to war in 1914. The country's foreign
affairs were guided in London. So when Britain's ultimatum to Germany to
withdraw its army from Belgium expired on 4 August, 1914, the British Empire,
including Canada, was at war, allied with Serbia, Russia, and France against
the German and Austro-Hungarian empires.
The
war united Canadians at first. The Liberal opposition urged Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden’s
Conservative government to take sweeping powers under the new War Measures Act.
Minister of Militia Sam Hughes summoned 25,000 volunteers to train at
a new camp at Valcartier near Québec; some 33,000 appeared. On 3 October the
first contingent sailed for England. Much of Canada's war effort was launched
by volunteers. The Canadian Patriotic Fund collected money to support soldiers'
families. A Military Hospitals Commission cared for the sick and wounded.
Churches, charities, women's organizations, and the Red Cross found ways to
"do their bit" for the war effort. In patriotic fervour, Canadians
demanded that Germans and Austrians be dismissed from their jobs and interned (see
Internment),
and pressured Berlin, Ont, to rename itself Kitchener.
A
Canadian perspective, from the Legion's Legacies.
|
War
and the Economy
At
first the war hurt a troubled economy, increasing unemployment and making it
hard for Canada's new, debt-ridden transcontinental railways, the Canadian
Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific, to find credit. By 1915, however,
military spending equalled the entire government expenditure of 1913. Minister
of Finance Thomas White opposed raising taxes. Since Britain could not afford
to lend to Canada, White turned to the US.
Also,
despite the belief that Canadians would never lend to their own government,
White had to take the risk. In 1915 he asked for $50 million; he got $100
million. In 1917 the government's Victory Loan campaign began raising huge sums
from ordinary citizens for the first time. Canada's war effort was financed
mainly by borrowing. Between 1913 and 1918 the national debt rose from $463
million to $2.46 billion.
Canada's
economic burden would have been unbearable without huge exports of wheat,
timber and munitions. A prewar crop failure had been a warning to prairie
farmers of future droughts, but a bumper crop in 1915 and soaring prices
banished caution. Since many farm labourers had joined the army, farmers began
to complain of a labour shortage. It was hoped that factories shut down by the
recession would profit from the war. Manufacturers formed a Shell Committee,
got contracts to make British artillery ammunition, and created a brand new
industry. It was not easy. By summer 1915 the committee had orders worth $170
million but had delivered only $5.5 million in shells. The British government
insisted on reorganization. The resulting Imperial
Munitions Board was a British agency in Canada, though headed by a
talented, hard-driving Canadian, Joseph Flavelle. By 1917 Flavelle had made the
IMB Canada's biggest business, with 250,000 workers. When the British stopped
buying in Canada in 1917, Flavelle negotiated huge new contracts with the
Americans.
Recruitment
at Home
Unemployed
workers flocked to enlist in 1914–15. Recruiting, handled by prewar militia
regiments and by civic organizations, cost the government nothing. By the end
of 1914 the target for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was 50,000; by
summer 1915 it was 150,000. During a visit to England that summer, Prime
Minister Borden was shocked with the magnitude of the struggle. To demonstrate
Canadian commitment to the war effort, Borden used his 1916 New Year's message
to pledge 500,000 soldiers from a Canadian population of barely 8-million. By
then volunteering had virtually run dry. Early contingents had been filled by
recent British immigrants; enlistments in 1915 had taken most of the
Canadian-born who were willing to go. The total, 330,000, was impressive but
insufficient.
Recruiting
methods became fervid and divisive. Clergy preached Christian duty; women wore
badges proclaiming "Knit or Fight"; more and more English Canadians
complained that French Canada was not doing its share. This was not surprising:
few French Canadians felt deep loyalty to France or Britain. Those few in
Borden's government had won election in 1911 by opposing imperialism. Henri Bourassa,
leader and spokesman of Québec's nationalists, initially approved of the war
but soon insisted that French Canada's real enemies were not Germans but
"English-Canadian anglicisers, the Ontario intriguers, or Irish
priests" who were busy ending French-language education in the
English-speaking provinces. In Québec and across Canada, unemployment gave way
to high wages and a manpower shortage. There were good economic reasons to stay
home.
The
Canadian Expeditionary Force
Canadians
in the CEF became part of the British army. As minister of militia, Hughes
insisted on choosing the officers and on retaining the Canadian-made Ross rifle.
Since the rifle jammed easily and since some of Hughes's choices were
incompetent cronies, the Canadian military had serious deficiencies. A
recruiting system based on forming hundreds of new battalions meant that most
of them arrived in England only to be broken up, leaving a large residue of
unhappy senior officers. Hughes believed that Canadians would be natural
soldiers; in practice they had many costly lessons to learn. They did so with
courage and self-sacrifice.
At
the second Battle of Ypres, April 1915, a raw 1st Canadian Division
suffered 6,036 casualties, and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
a further 678. The troops also shed their defective Ross rifles. At the St Eloi
craters in 1916, the 2nd Division suffered a painful setback because its senior
commanders failed to locate their men. In June, the 3rd Division was shattered
at Mont Sorrel
though the position was recovered by the now battle-hardened 1st Division. The
test of battle eliminated inept officers and showed survivors that careful
staff work, preparation, and discipline were vital.
Canadians
were spared the early battles of the Somme in the summer of 1916, though a separate
Newfoundland force, 1st Newfoundland Regiment, was annihilated at Beaumont
Hamel on the disastrous first day, 1 July. When Canadians entered the battle on
30 August, their experience helped toward limited gains, though at high cost.
By the end of the battle the Canadian Corps had reached its full strength of
four divisions.
The
embarrassing confusion of Canadian administration in England, and Hughes's
reluctance to displace his cronies, forced Borden's government to establish a
separate Ministry of Overseas Military Forces based in
London to control the CEF overseas. Bereft of much power, Hughes resigned in
November 1916. The Act creating the new ministry established that the CEF was
now a Canadian military organization, though its day-to-day relations with the
British army did not change immediately. Two ministers, Sir George
Perley and then Sir Edward Kemp, gradually reformed overseas
administration and expanded effective Canadian control over the CEF.
Other
Canadian Efforts
While
most Canadians served with the Canadian Corps or with a separate Canadian
cavalry brigade on the Western Front, Canadians could be found almost
everywhere in the Allied war effort. Young Canadians had trained (initially at
their own expense) to become pilots in the British flying services. In 1917 the
Royal Flying
Corps opened schools in Canada, and by war's end almost a quarter of
the pilots in the Royal Air Force were Canadians. Three of them, Maj William A.Bishop,
Maj Raymond
Collishaw, and Col. William Barker, ranked among the top air aces of
the war. An independent Canadian air force was authorized in the last months of
the war. Canadians also served with the Royal Navy, and Canada's own tiny naval
service organized a coastal submarine patrol.
Thousands
of Canadians cut down forests in Scotland and France, and built and operated
most of the railways behind the British front. Others ran steamers on the
Tigris River, cared for the wounded at Salonika (Thessaloniki), Greece, and
fought Bolsheviks at Archangel and Baku (see Canadian Intervention in Russian Civil War).
Vimy
and Passchendaele
British
and French strategists deplored diversions from the main effort against the
bulk the German forces on the European Western Front. It was there, they said,
that war must be waged. A battle-hardened Canadian Corps was a major instrument
in this war of attrition. Its skill and training were tested on Easter weekend,
1917, when all four divisions were sent forward to capture a seemingly
impregnable Vimy Ridge.
Weeks of rehearsals, stockpiling, and bombardment paid off. In five days the
ridge was taken.
The
able British commander of the corps, Lt-Gen Sir Julian
Byng, was promoted; his successor was a Canadian, Lt-Gen Sir Arthur Currie,
who followed Byng's methods and improved on them. Instead of attacking Lens in
the summer of 1917, Currie captured the nearby Hill 70 and used artillery to destroy wave after
wave of German counterattacks. As an increasingly independent subordinate,
Currie questioned orders, but he could not refuse them. When ordered to finish
the disastrous British offensive at Passchendaele in October 1917, Currie warned that
it would cost 16,000 of his 120,000 men. Though he insisted on time to prepare,
the Canadian victory on the dismal and water-logged battlefield left a toll of
15,654 dead and wounded.
Borden
and the Conscription Issue
A
year before, even the patriotic leagues had confessed the failure of voluntary
recruiting. Business leaders, Protestants, and English-speaking Catholics such
as Bishop Michael
Fallon grew critical of French Canada. Faced with a growing demand
for conscription, the Borden government compromised in August 1916 with a
program of national registration. A prominent Montréal manufacturer, Arthur
Mignault, was put in charge of Québec recruiting and, for the first time,
public funds were provided. A final attempt to raise a French Canadian
battalion—the 14th for Quebec and the 258th overall for Canada—utterly
failed in 1917.
Until
1917 Borden had no more news of the war or Allied strategy than he read in
newspapers. He was concerned about British war leadership but he devoted 1916
to improving Canadian military administration and munitions production. In
December 1916 David Lloyd George became head of a new British coalition
government pledged wholeheartedly to winning the war. An expatriate Canadian, Max
Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, helped engineer the change. Faced by
suspicious officials and a failing war effort, Lloyd George summoned leaders of
the Dominions to London. They would see for themselves that the Allies needed
more men. On 2 March, when Borden and his fellow premiers met, Russia was
collapsing, the French army was close to mutiny, and German submarines had
almost cut off supplies to Britain.
Borden
was a leader in establishing a voice for the Dominions in policymaking and in
gaining a more independent status for them in the postwar world. Visits to
Canadian camps and hospitals also persuaded him that the CEF needed more men.
The triumph of Vimy Ridge during his visit gave all Canadians pride but it cost
10,602 casualties, 3,598 of them fatal. Borden returned to Canada committed to
conscription. On 18 May 1917 he told Canadians of his government's new policy.
The 1914 promise of an all-volunteer contingent had been superseded by events.
Many
in English-speaking Canada—farmers, trade union leaders, pacifists—opposed
conscription, but they had few outlets for their views. French Canada's
opposition was almost unanimous under Henri Bourassa, who argued that Canada
had done enough, that Canada's interests were not served by the European
conflict, and that men were more needed to grow food and make munitions.
Borden
felt such arguments were cold and materialistic. Canada owed its support to its
young soldiers. The Allied struggle against Prussian militarism was a crusade
for freedom. There was no bridging the rival points of view. To win
conscription, Borden offered Sir Wilfrid Laurier a coalition. The Liberal leader
refused, sure that his party could now defeat the Conservatives. He also feared
that if he joined Borden, Bourassa's nationalism would sweep Québec. Laurier
misjudged his support.
Many
English-speaking Liberals agreed that the war was a crusade. A mood of reform
and sacrifice had led many provinces to grant votes to women and to prohibit
the sale or use of liquor (see Temperence). Although they disliked the
Conservatives, many reform Liberals like Ontario's Newton Rowell believed that
Borden was in earnest about the war and Laurier was not. Borden also gave
himself two political weapons: on 20 September 1917 Parliament gave the
franchise to all soldiers, including those overseas; it also gave votes to
soldiers' wives, mothers and sisters, as well as to women serving in the armed
forces, and took it away from Canadians of enemy origin who had become citizens
since 1902. This added many votes for conscription and removed certain Liberal
voters from the lists. On 6 October Parliament was dissolved. Five days later,
Borden announced a coalition Union government pledged to conscription, an end
to political patronage, and full Women's Suffrage.
Eight
of Canada's nine provinces endorsed the new government, but Laurier could
dominate Québec, and many Liberals across Canada would not forget their
allegiance. Borden and his ministers had to promise many exemptions to make
conscription acceptable. On 17 December, Unionists won 153 seats to Laurier's
82, but without the soldiers' vote, only 100,000 votes separated the parties.
Conscription was not applied until 1 January 1918. The Military Service
Act had so many opportunities for exemption and appeal, that of more
than 400,000 called, 380,510 appealed. The manpower problem continued.
The
Final Phase
In
March 1918 disaster fell upon the Allies. German armies, moved from the Eastern
to the Western Front after Russia's collapse in 1917, smashed through British
lines. The Fifth British Army was destroyed. In Canada, anti-conscription riots
in Québec on the Easter weekend left four dead. Borden's new government
cancelled all exemptions. Many who had voted Unionist in the belief that their
sons would be exempted felt betrayed.
The
war had entered a bitter final phase. On 6 December 1917 the Halifax Explosion
killed over 1,600, and it was followed by the worst snowstorm in years. Across
Canada, the heavy borrowing of Sir Thomas White (federal minister of finance)
finally led to runaway inflation. Workers joined unions and struck for higher
wages. Food and fuel controllers now preached conservation, sought increased
production and sent agents to prosecute hoarders. Public pressure to "conscript
wealth" forced a reluctant White in April 1917 to impose a Business
Profits Tax and a War Income Tax. An "anti-loafing" law threatened
jail for any man not gainfully employed. Federal police forces were ordered to
hunt for sedition. Socialist parties and radical unions were banned. So were
newspapers published in the "enemy" languages. Canadians learned to
live with unprecedented government controls and involvement in their daily
lives. Food and fuel shortages led to "Meatless Fridays" and
"Fuelless Sundays."
In
other warring countries, exhaustion and despair went far deeper. Defeat now
faced the western Allies, but the Canadian Corps escaped the succession of
German offensives. Sir Arthur Currie insisted that it be kept together. A 5th
Canadian division, held in England since 1916, was finally broken up to provide
reinforcements.
The
United States entered the war in the spring of 1917, sending reinforcements and
supplies that would eventually turn the tide against Germany. To help restore
the Allied line, Canadians and Australians attacked near Amiens on 8 August
1918 (see Battle of Amiens). Shock tactics—using airplanes,
tanks, and infantry—shattered the German line. In September and early October
the Canadians attacked again and again, suffering heavy casualties but making
advances thought unimaginable. The Germans fought with skill and courage all
the way to Mons, the little Belgian town where fighting ended for the Canadians
at 11 AM (Greenwich time), 11 November 1918. More officially, the war ended
with the Treaty
of Versailles, signed 28 June 1919.
Canada
alone lost 60,661 war dead. Many more returned from the conflict mutilated in
mind or body. The survivors found that almost every facet of Canadian life,
from the length of skirts to the value of money, had been transformed by the
war years. Governments had assumed responsibilities they would never abandon.
The income tax would survive the war. So would government departments later to
become the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Pensions
and National Health.
Overseas,
Canada's soldiers had struggled to achieve, and had won, a considerable degree
of autonomy from British control. Canada's direct reward for her sacrifices was
a modest presence at the Versailles conference and a seat in the new League of Nations.
However, the deep national divisions between French and English created by the
war, and especially by the conscription crisis of 1917, made postwar Canada
fearful of international responsibilities. Canadians had done great things in
the war but they had not done them together.
·
WWI
·
Borden
·
Vimy
·
1914
Suggested
Reading
·
E.
Armstrong, The Crisis of Quebec, 1914-1918 (1974 reprint); Pierre
Berton, Vimy (1986); W.R. Bird, Ghosts Have Warm Hands (1968); M.
Bliss, A Canadian Millionaire (1978); R.C. Brown, Robert Laird Borden,
vol II (1980); D.G. Dancocks, Legacy of Valour (1986) and Spearhead
to Victory: Canada and the Great War (1987); W.A.B. Douglas, The
Creation of the National Air Force (1986); D.J. Goodspeed, The Road Past
Vimy (1967); J.L. Granatstein and J.M. Hitsman, Broken Promises
(1977); Desmond Morton, A Peculiar Kind of Politics (1982), and Canada
and War (1981); G.W.L. Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary Force
1914-1919 (1964); J.A. Swettenham, To Seize the Victory (1965); J.
Thompson, The Harvests of War (1978); B. Wilson, Ontario and the
First World War, 1914-1918 (1977); S.F. Wise, Canadian Airmen and the
First World War (1980).
-------------
Canada- Second World War (WWII)
The
Second World War was one of the most significant events in Canadian history.
Canada played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic and the air war over
Germany, and contributed forces to the campaigns of western Europe beyond what
might be expected of a small nation of then only 11 million people.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Frigate
in North Atlantic
Depth
charges explode astern a frigate in the North Atlantic, January 1944 (courtesy
Library and Archives Canada/Lawrence/DND/PA-133246).
The
Second World War was one of the most significant events in Canadian history.
Canada played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic and the air war over
Germany, and contributed forces to the campaigns of western Europe beyond what
might be expected of a small nation of then only 11 million people. Between
1939 and 1945 more than one million Canadian men and women served full-time in
the armed services. More than 42,000 were killed. Despite the bloodshed, the
war against Germany and the Axis powers transformed Canada's industrial base,
elevated the role of women in the economy, paved the way for Canada's
membership in NATO, and left Canadians with a legacy of proud service and
sacrifice embodied in names such as Dieppe, Ortona and Juno Beach.
The
Path to War
Memories
of the First World War—the tragic loss of life, the heavy burden of debt and
the strain on the country's unity imposed by conscription—made Canadians, including
politicians of all parties, loath to contemplate another such experience.
Initially, Prime Minister Mackenzie King warmly supported British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasing German leader Adolf Hitler.
When Chamberlain postponed war by sacrificing Czechoslovakia in the Munich
crisis of September 1938, King thanked him publicly, and Canadians in general
certainly agreed. Nevertheless, the shock of this crisis likely turned opinion
towards accepting war to check the advance of Nazism. Only gradually did
ongoing Nazi aggression alter this mood to the point where Canada was prepared
to take part in another great war. King himself had no doubt that in a great
war involving Britain, Canada could not stand aside.
Declaration
and Mobilization
When
the German attack on Poland on 1 September 1939 finally led Britain and France
to declare war on Germany, King summoned Parliament to "decide," as
he had pledged. Declaration of war was postponed for a week, during which
Canada was formally neutral. The government announced that approval of the
"Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne," which stated the
government's decision to support Britain and France, would constitute approval
of a declaration of war.
On
September 9 the address was approved without a recorded vote, and war was
declared the following day. The basis for parliamentary unity had in fact been
laid in March, when both major parties accepted a program rejecting
conscription for overseas service. King clearly envisaged a limited effort and
was lukewarm towards an expeditionary force. Nevertheless, there was enough
pressure to lead the Cabinet to dispatch one army division to Europe. The
Allies' defeat in France and Belgium in the early summer of 1940 and the
collapse of France frightened Canadians. The idea of limited and economical war
went by the board, at which point the only limitation was the pledge against overseas
conscription. The armed forces were rapidly enlarged, conscription was
introduced June 1940 for home defence (see National
Resources Mobilization Act), and expenditure grew enormously.
Dieppe,
Hong Kong and Italy
The
army expanded, and by late 1942 there were five divisions overseas, two of them
armoured. In April of that year the First Canadian Army was formed in England under
Lieutenant-General A.G.L. McNaughton. In contrast with the First
World War, it was a long time before the army saw large-scale action. Until
summer 1943 the force in England was engaged only in the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid
(19 August 1942), whereas two battalions sent from Canada had taken part in the
hopeless defence of Hong Kong against the Japanese in December 1941.
Public opinion in Canada became disturbed by the inaction, and disagreement
developed between the government and McNaughton, who wished to reserve the army
for a final, decisive campaign.
The
government arranged with Britain for the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to join
the attack on Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently insisted upon building its
Mediterranean force up to a two-division corps (by adding the 5th Division).
This produced a serious clash with McNaughton, just when the British War Office,
which considered him unsuited for field command, was influencing the Canadian
government against him. At the end of 1943 he was replaced by
Lieutenant-General H.D.G.
Crerar.
The
1st Division was heavily engaged in the Sicilian campaign as part of the
British Eighth Army, and subsequently took part in the December 1943 advance up
the mainland of Italy, seeing particularly severe fighting in and around Ortona
(see Battle
of Ortona). In the spring of 1944 Canadians under Lieutenant-General
E.L.M. Burns
played a leading role in breaking the Hitler Line barring the Liri Valley. At
the end of August the corps broke the Gothic Line in the Adriatic sector and
pushed on through the German positions covering Rimini, which fell in
September. These battles cost Canada its heaviest casualties of the Italian
campaign.
The
final phase of Canadian involvement in Italy found 1st Canadian Corps, now
commanded by Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes, fighting its way across the
Lombard Plain, hindered by mud and swift-flowing rivers. The corps' advance
ended at the Senio River in the first days of 1945. The Canadian government, so
eager to get its troops into action in Italy, had soon begun to ask for their
return to join the main Canadian force in Northwest Europe. Allied policy
finally made this possible early in 1945, and the 1st Corps came under the
First Canadian Army's command in mid-March, to the general satisfaction of the
men from Italy. All told, 92,757 Canadian soldiers of all ranks had served in
Italy, and 5764 had lost their lives.
The
Normandy Campaign
Normandy
Landing
View
looking east along 'Nan White' Beach, showing personnel of the 9th Canadian
Infantry Brigade landing from LCI(L) 299 of the 2nd Canadian (262nd RN)
Flotilla on D-Day.(photo by G. Milne, courtesy Library and Archives Canada,
PA-137013).
In
the final great campaign in northwest Europe, beginning with the Normandy Invasion
(code name Operation Overlord) on 6 June 1944, the First Canadian Army
under Crerar played an important and costly part. The army's central kernel was
the 2nd Canadian Corps, under Lieutenant-General G.G. Simonds,
who had commanded the 1st Division in Sicily; it was composed of the 2nd and
3rd Canadian Infantry Divisions and the 4th Canadian Armoured Division.
Throughout, the army was part of the 21st British Army Group commanded by
General Sir (later Field-Marshal Lord) Bernard Law Montgomery.
In
the landing phase, only the 3rd Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade
were engaged and fighting under the 2nd British Army. These formations landed
on D-Day on a section of Canadian-designated shoreline code-named Juno
Beach. There was bitter fighting on the beach, and subsequently as
the Canadians moved inland.
The
Canadian formations played a leading part in the breakout from the Normandy
bridgehead in August, fighting against fierce opposition to reach the French
town of Falaise and subsequently to close the gap south of it through which the
enemy was retiring to avoid being trapped between the British and Canadians
coming from the north and the Americans approaching from the south. Falaise was
taken on August 16 and on the 19th the Allies finally made contact across the
gap.
Belgium,
Holland and Germany
The
next phase was one of pursuit towards the German frontier. The 1st Canadian
Army, with the 1st British Corps under command, cleared the coastal fortresses,
taking in turn Le Havre, Boulogne, and Calais. Early in September the British
took Antwerp, but the enemy still held the banks of the Scheldt River between
this much-needed port and the sea. The Canadians fought a bitter battle to open
the river through October and the first week of November.
The
first major Canadian operation of 1945, the Battle of the Rhineland,
was to clear the area between the Maas and the Rhine rivers; it began February
8 and ended only March 10 when the Germans, pushed back by the Canadians and
the converging thrust of the 9th US Army, withdrew across the Rhine. The final
operations in the west began with the Rhine crossing in the British area on 23
March; thereafter, the 1st Canadian Army, still on the left of the line,
liberated east and north Netherlands and advanced across the northern German
plain (see Liberation of Holland). When the Germans
surrendered on Field-Marshal Montgomery's front on 5 May, the 2nd Canadian
Corps had taken Oldenburg, and the 1st Canadian Corps was standing fast on the
Grebbe River line while, by arrangement with the Germans, food was sent into
the starving western Netherlands. The entire campaign had cost the Canadian
Army 11,336 fatalities. Some 237,000 men and women of the army had served in
northwest Europe.
The
Air Campaign
The
war effort of the Royal Canadian Air Force was deeply affected by its
management of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Great
numbers of Canadians served in units of Britain's Royal Air Force, and the
growth of a national Canadian air organization overseas was delayed.
Nevertheless, by the German surrender, 48 RCAF squadrons were overseas,
virtually completely manned by Canadian officers and men. A landmark was the
formation of No. 6 (RCAF) Bomber Group of the RAF Bomber Command on 1 January
1943. It grew ultimately to 14 squadrons. It was commanded successively by Air
Vice-Marshals G.E. Brookes and C.M. McEwen. The Bomber Command's task was the
night bombing of Germany, a desperately perilous job calling for sustained
fortitude. Almost 10,000 Canadians lost their lives in this command.
Canadian
airmen served in every theatre, from bases in the UK, North Africa, Italy,
northwest Europe and southeast Asia. Squadrons in North America worked in
antisubmarine operations off the Atlantic coast and co-operated with US air
forces against the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands. At one time or another seven
RCAF squadrons served in the RAF's Coastal Command over the Atlantic. RCAF
aircraft destroyed or had a part in destroying 20 enemy submarines. In the
northwest Europe campaign of 1944–45 , the RCAF deployed 17 squadrons. During
the war 232,632 men and 17,030 women served in the RCAF, and 17,101 lost their
lives.
The
Naval War
The
Royal Canadian Navy was tiny in 1939, but its expansion during the war was
remarkable: it enlisted 99,688 men and some 6,500 women. It manned 471 fighting
vessels of various types. Its primary task was convoy, protecting the troop and
supply ships across the Atlantic. It carried an increasing proportion of this
burden, fighting grim battles sometimes of several days' duration with U-boat
"wolfpacks." Its vast expansion produced some growing pains; in 1943
measures had to be taken to improve its escort vessels' technical equipment and
in some cases crew training. During the war it sank or shared in sinking 33
enemy submarines.
After
the Atlantic Convoy Conference in Washington in March 1943, the Canadian
Northwest Atlantic Command was set up, covering the area north of New York City
and west of the 47th meridian; a Canadian officer, Rear-Admiral L.W. Murrary,
was responsible for convoys in this area. Apart from their main task in the
Battle of the Atlantic, Canadian naval units took part in many
other campaigns, including supporting the Allied landings in North Africa in
November 1942; and to the Normandy operations of June 1944, the RCN contributed
some 110 vessels and 10,000 men.
During
the war it lost 24 warships, ranging from the "Tribal" class
destroyer Athabaskan, sunk in the English Channel in April 1944, to the
armed yacht Raccoon, torpedoed in the St Lawrence in September 1942 (see
U-Boat
Operations). In personnel, the navy had 2,024 fatalities.
The
Industrial Contribution
Canada's
industrial contribution to victory was considerable, though it began slowly.
After the Allied reverses in Europe in 1940, British orders for equipment,
which had been a trickle, became a flood. In April 1940 the Department of Munitions
and Supply, provided for in 1939, was established with C.D. Howe
as minister. In August 1940 an amended Act gave the minister almost dictatorial
powers, and under it the industrial effort expanded vastly. Various Crown Corporations
were instituted for special tasks. New factories were built, and old ones
adapted for war purposes.
Whereas
in the First
World War Canadian production had largely been limited to shells (no
weapons were made except the Ross Rifle), now a great variety of guns and
small arms was produced. Many ships, notably escort vessels and cargo carriers,
were built; there was large production of aircraft, including Lancaster
bombers; and the greatest triumph of the program was in the field of military
vehicles, of which 815,729 were made.
Much
of the work in the nation’s factories, and in the home-front military services,
was carried out by women, who were recruited into the labour force, many for
the first time, to fill jobs vacated by men on duty overseas.
More
than half the industrial war material produced went to Britain. Britain could
not possibly pay for all of it; so Canada, in the interest of helping to win
the war, and keeping her factories working, financed a high proportion. At the
beginning of 1942 a billion-dollar gift was devoted to this purpose.
The next year a program of mutual aid to serve Allied nations generally, but
still in practice mainly directed to Britain, was introduced. During the war
Canadian financial assistance to Britain amounted to $3,043,000,000.
Atomic
War
Canada
had a limited role in the development of atomic energy, a fateful business that
was revealed when atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in August 1945. Canada had
an available source of uranium in a mine at Great Bear Lake, which led to
Mackenzie King's being taken into the greater Allies' confidence in the matter
in 1942. That summer the Canadian government acquired control of the mine. A
team of scientists that had been working on the project in England was moved to
Canada.
Tension
developed between Britain and the US, but at the Québec Conference of September
1943 an Anglo-American agreement was made that incidentally gave Canada a small
share in control. A Canadian policy committee decided in 1944 to construct an
atomic reactor at the Chalk Nuclear Laboratories. The first reactor
there did not "go critical" until after the Japanese surrender.
Canada had no part in producing the bombs used against Japan, unless some
Canadian uranium was used in them, which seems impossible to determine.
Relations
with the Allies
Canada
had no effective part in the higher direction of the war. This would have been
extremely difficult to obtain, and King never exerted himself strongly to
obtain it. It is possible that he anticipated that doing so would have an
adverse effect upon his personal relations with British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which he considered
very important to him politically.
The
western Allies' strategy was decided by the Combined Chiefs of Staff, a purely
Anglo-American committee. Its most important decisions were made in periodical
conferences with political leaders, two of which were held at Québec. Even to
these King was a party only as host. Although Canadian forces were employed in
accordance with the Combined Chiefs' decisions, it is a curious fact that
Canada was never officially informed of the institution of the committee at the
end of 1941. Even formal recognition of Canadian sovereignty was minimal;
although the directives of the Allied commanders for the war against Japan were
issued in the names of the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the
directive to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander in northwest
Europe, under whom large Canadian forces served, made no mention of Canada.
Canadian
relations with the US became notably closer during the war. From the moment
King resumed office in 1935, he had cultivated his connection with Roosevelt.
During the first months of the war there was little contact, but the fears
aroused by early German victories immediately produced a rapprochement. On 18
August 1940, King and Roosevelt, meeting at Ogdensburg, NY, announced an
agreement (not a formal treaty) to set up a Permanent
Joint Board on Defence, which met frequently thereafter to discuss
mutual defence problems. In 1941 Canada's balance of payments with the US
became serious, largely because of the difficulty of financing imports from the
US resulting from Canada's industrial production for Britain. It was solved by
the Hyde Park Declaration on 20 April. Nevertheless, King sometimes worried
over what he saw as a danger of the US absorbing Canada. A reaction to American
activity in the Canadian North (eg, the building of the Alaska Highway
in 1942) was the appointment in 1943 of a Special Commissioner for Defence
Projects in the Northwest, to reinforce Canadian control in the region.
The
Conscription Issue
The
worst political problems that arose in Canada during the war originated in the
conscription question, and King had more difficulties in his own Liberal Party
than with the Opposition. The election of 26 March 1940, before the war reached
a critical stage, indicated that the country was happy with a limited war
effort and gave King a solid majority. French Canada's lack of enthusiasm for
the war and its particular opposition to conscription were as evident as in the
First World
War (voluntary enlistments in Québec amounted to only about 4 per
cent of the population, whereas elsewhere the figure was roughly 10 Per cent).
By 1942, agitation for overseas conscription in the English-speaking parts of
the country led King to hold a plebiscite on releasing the government from its
pledge. The result was a heavy vote for release in every province but Québec.
Nevertheless, there was still little active enthusiasm for conscription in
English Canada; when Arthur Meighen returned to the Conservative leadership and
advocated overseas conscription, he failed to be elected even in a Toronto
constituency. But the atmosphere changed after casualties mounted.
After
the Normandy campaign in 1944 a shortage of infantry reinforcements arose and
Minister of National Defence Colonel J.L. Ralston told Cabinet that the time for
overseas conscription had come. King, who had apparently convinced himself that
there was a conspiracy in the ministry to unseat him and substitute Ralston,
dismissed Ralston and replaced him with McNaughton. The latter failed to
prevail on any large number of home-defence conscripts to volunteer for
overseas service, and King, finding himself faced with resignations of
conscriptionist ministers, which would have ruined his government, agreed to
send a large group of the conscripts overseas. Québec reluctantly accepted the
situation, preferring King's to any Conservative administration, and he was
safe again until the end of the war.
Making
the Peace
Canada
had little share in making the peace. The great powers, which had kept the
direction of the war in their own hands, did the same now. The so-called peace
conference in Paris in the summer of 1946 merely gave the lesser Allies,
including Canada, an opportunity of commenting upon arrangements already made.
Canada signed treaties only with Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland. With
Germany divided and the eastern part of the country dominated by the Soviet
Union, there was never a German treaty. In 1951, Canada, like other Western
powers, ended the state of war with Germany by royal proclamation. That year a
treaty of peace with Japan, drafted by the US, was signed by most Allied
states, including Canada (but not including the communist powers).
Cost
and Significance
The
financial cost of the Canadian war effort was astronomical. Expenditure for the
fiscal year 1939–40 was a modest $118,291,000. The next year it rose to $752,045,000;
in the peak year, 1943–44, it was $4,587,023,000. The total through the fiscal
year 1949–50, for the 11 years beginning 1939–40, was $21,786,077,519.12. Other
costs due to the war have continued to accumulate. During the war, 1,086,343
Canadian men and women performed full-time duty in the three services. The cost
in blood was smaller than in the First World War, but still tragic: 42,042 lost
their lives.
The
significance of the Second World War in Canadian history was great, but
probably less than that of the First. National unity between French and English
was damaged, though happily not so seriously as between 1914–1918. The economy
was strengthened and its manufacturing capacity much diversified. National
pride and confidence were enhanced. The status as an independent country, only
shakily established in 1919, was beyond doubt after 1945. Canada was a power in
her own right, if a modest one. On the other hand, it had been made painfully
clear that "status" did not necessarily imply influence. A middle power
had to limit its aspirations. Real authority in the world remained with the big
battalions, the big populations, and the big money.
Suggested
Reading
·
J.A.
Boutilier, ed, The RCN in Retrospect 1910-1968 (1982); W.A.B. Douglas
and Brereton Greenhous, Out of the Shadows (rev. ed., 1995) and The
Creation of a National Airforce (1986); J.L. Granatstein, Canada's War
(1975); Brereton Greenhous et. al., The Crucible of War (1994); Marc
Milner, North Atlantic Run (1985); Terry Copp, Fields of Fire, The
Canadians in Normandy (2003); G.W.L. Nicholson, The Canadians in Italy
(1956); C.P. Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments (1970), Canada and the
Age of Conflict, vol II (1981),Six Years of War (1955), and The
Victory Campaign (1960); G.N. Tucker, The Naval Service of Canada,
vol II (1952).
---------------------
BATTLE OF TWO WOLVES IN US- WAR AND PEACE- which will u feed
When Canada Invaded Russia
On
January 11, 1914, Vilhjalmur Stefansson's flagship, Karluk, was crushed and
sunk by the tumultuous, rumbling ice of the East Siberian Sea. Not an
auspicious start for an invasion, but that is exactly what it turned out to be.
On
January 11, 1914, Vilhjalmur Stefansson's flagship, Karluk, was crushed
and sunk by the tumultuous, rumbling ice of the East Siberian Sea. Not an
auspicious start for an invasion, but that is exactly what it turned out to be.
Wrangel
Island, only 7300 square kilometres, is squarely north of Siberia. The
castaways of the Karluk disaster took refuge on wild and barren Wrangel,
living there for six months awaiting rescue. Despite its Asiatic location, in
1921 Canadian explorer Stefansson tried to claim it for Canada. Stefansson, a
man of vision, foresaw Wrangel's utility as a potential home for a weather
station and a landing strip for future over-the-pole flights. That the island
was 60 kms north of Russia and was claimed by that country didn't faze him. He
instigated a plan to occupy it for two years initially, with possible extended
occupation to strengthen his claim.
 |
To some the controversial
Stefansson was the prophet of the North. To others he was an arrogant
charlatan (NAC).
|
The
basis for Stefansson's claim was prior occupation of the island for six months
by the 17 survivors of the accidental sinking of the Karluk in 1914.
Now, in 1921, he would strengthen that claim by landing four white men and one
Inuit woman, Ada Blackjack, to continue occupying the island.
Stefansson's
five "colonists" did not do well. The party was soon running low on
food. Three of the men left the island on foot across the unstable sea ice
trying to reach the coast of Siberia for help. They were never heard from
again. The one remaining man, Lorne Knight, died of scurvy leaving Ada
Blackjack to fend for herself and scare off polar bears for two months, her
only companion a corpse. One day she looked out to sea and couldn't believe her
eyes. In her own words, "I was so tickled."
Her
rescue ship Donaldson carried a second wave of Stefansson's colonists,
all Americans: one white man, Charles Wells, and 13 Inuit men, women and
children, to maintain the Canadian occupation of the island.
After
the ship left, for almost a year, a dark blanket of silence descended upon
Wells and his Inuit "colonists." Then, in August 1924, the silence
was broken. The Russians had got wind of what was happening on their island and
did not like it one bit. They moved to end this impudence. The fuss was sparked
off by the arrival at Wrangel Island of a Russian gunboat, the Red October.
Captain B. D. Davydov arrested Charles Wells and his 14 Inuit -- yes, 14; a
baby was born on the Island -- took them on board the Red October and
headed for Vladivostok, his home port.
It
was not evident how 14 Americans stuck in post revolutionary Russia in 1924
could get home to Alaska from Vladivostok. The Russians were not about to spend
any money on living expenses for a group of penniless Inuit. The Russians tried
to solve their problem by deporting the group to the Chinese border post of Sui
Fen He in Manchuria on the Great Trans-Siberian Railway.
 |
Eleven of the 25 survivors of
the sunken Karluk died before rescue from Wrangel Island on 7 September 1914
(NAC).
|
The
Chinese would not accept them unless there was a guarantee that somebody would
sponsor them. At this point the American Red Cross put up $1600 US to get the
Inuit home. The money was made available to the American State Department
representative in Harbin, Manchuria, the nearest Chinese city with American
representation. The State Department took the destitute party under its wing
and used the Red Cross donation to point them toward home. The Chinese finally
relented and let the group ride the railway from the Russian border to Harbin.
From Harbin they chugged on by train to the port city of Darien on the Korea
Sea, and then by boat through the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan to Kobe. From
there a Japanese ship took them to Seattle where they boarded the Alaskan
Territorial Government's ship the SS Boxer to Nome, arriving very tired,
but happy to be home at last.
So
ended Canada's invasion of Russia.
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