On Remembrance Day in Canada, people wear red poppies to honour those who have died in wars. Wherever you are at 11:00 am, two minutes of silence will be observed. You may hear the bugle playing “The Last Post” - a military call  that draws the symbolic association between the soldier’s last duty of “sitting sentry” (death) and his “rising” above his mortal duties (reveille). Someone will be reciting the poem: “Flanders Fields”. 

The message: “Lest We Forget”.

The killing finally stopped on November 11th, 1918, at 11:00 am - the end of hostilities of the “Great War” (“great” in those days meant “huge” - not “fantastic”). An armistice was agreed upon. Armistice descends from Latin word “sistere”, meaning "to come to a stand" or "to cause to stand or stop," combined with “arma”, meaning "weapons." An armistice, therefore, is literally a cessation of arms. 

Hundreds of thousands of men and boys straggled home with arms, legs, eyes, ears, hands, and souls missing. Sometimes it took them years to make the journey back. Many soldiers who had not perished in the battles ended up dying of heartbreak, exhaustion, and hunger on the way home. They had been fighting and killing non-stop from 1914 - 1918. Globally, there were approximately 40 million military and civilian casualties from the fighting alone, including 20 million deaths. 

The youngest casualty was just 15 years old.

The artillery shells alone churned up the soil so intensely that it triggered the dormant poppy seeds which grow on scarred land - even in the cemeteries. The soldiers - and the land - were decimated. It is said that the red of the poppies resembles the sea of blood upon which they grow.

WWI has special significance for Canada. Some say it is when Canada, as a nation, was actually born. Although Britain declared Canada a Dominion on July 1st 1867, this Act united the three separate territories of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single dominion called Canada. Prior to this, there were some scattered territories as colonizing powers had carved up the land. For example, the Province of Canada was made up of Upper Canada (British, now Ontario) and Lower Canada (French, now Quebec). 

WWI called “Canada” to fight. 

Suddenly, settlers from all origins stood shoulder-to-shoulder under the first iteration of the Canadian flag “The Red Ensign” - which bore the coats of arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and the Kingdom of France, the four founding nations of Canada. Canada had a total population of eight million people. 650,000 were in uniform. 66,000 were killed

The most famous of the battles was at Vimy Ridge. For 17 days and nights straight - during one barrage alone - the soldiers were awake, under constant attack. In fact, from 1914 to 1918, Flanders Fields was a major battle theatre on the Western Front. A million soldiers from more than 50 different countries were wounded, missing or killed in action here. In 1922, the government of France gave the 90 hectares of land to Canada in perpetuity to honour all those who fell. We still travel there to see those poppies, to bear witness to the crosses, and to pay tribute to those who died for our freedoms - and the very unusual illusion of peace in our lifetimes. 

The war united Canadians in a common cause even as the extremity of national effort nearly tore them apart. They were fighting for liberal freedoms against Prussian militarism, but in so doing enacted compulsory military service, broke promises to farmers and factory workers, created high inflation, exacerbated deep social and linguistic divisions, and even suspended many civil liberties. Women could serve in some capacities, but could not vote. 

In fact, indigenous women were not given the right to vote until 1960, and it wasn’t until 1985 that women who married white men were allowed to still retain their indigenous identity by law.

And here we open a can of worms.

Indigenous Veteran’s Day is November 8th. As in practically all things, they are not included.  And why a separate day of remembrance? Because in WWI & II, they were uncounted and unrecognized. Many soldiers even hid their statuses because the military deemed them “inferior soldiers”. Henry Norwest was Cree. He was also the most effective sniper in the entire British Empire, let alone Canada. Many indigenous soldiers lay down their lives for Canada, the colonizer, in the face of the “Central Powers” of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.

The indigenous soldiers may even have been the deciding factor in victory.

In fact, the “Cree Code Talkers” formed elite units, tasked with developing a coded system for Allied communications based on the Cree language to disguise military intelligence. The enemy never broke the code. Yet upon their return home, many were stripped of their Indian status and denied the same rights, benefits, and honour given to Euro-Canadian veterans. They were sworn to secrecy about their involvement and little was known about their contributions until 2016, when the story finally came to light.

Canada is founded on genocide, and the struggle continues to this day.

95% of BC, for example, is unceded territory. The Wet’suwet’en in the north-west of the province, just recently had their Chief jailed, again. Amnesty International has made the unprecedented decision to designate Likhts’amisyu Clan Wing Chief Dsta’hyl of the Wet’suwet’en Nation as the first-ever designated Amnesty International prisoner of conscience in Canada. We have unjustly criminalized and confined Chief Dsta’hyl for defending the land and rights of the Wet’suwet’en people - in July, 2024.

When did all the fighting in Canada begin?

Well, in 1003 the Vikings attacked the Skraeling people - Inuits from what is now Newfoundland. The Iroquois fought the French all through the 1600s, and France and England brought their conflict home from 1635 through to … well … is it done … even now? We have two official languages, but neither of them is an indigenous tongue.

Since WWI, we have seen a continuation of conflict from the Russian Civil War and WWII to Korea, Congo, Persia, Somalia, Bosnia, Serb-Croatia, Kosovo, Timor, Afghanistan, Libya and the Iraqi Civil War and the Red Sea crisis, both of which are ongoing. Canada has been involved in it all. Since 2022, we have spent at least $19 billion on the Russian - Ukraine war.

So what happened to “Lest We Forget”? In more contemporary language, it means “Unless We Remember”. Have we become so numb to war, we simply don’t appreciate the tenuous nature of peace and the effort it takes to embrace the “other” as ourselves? Is not a basic tenet of all religions some form of “love thy brother as thyself”? 

Unless we remember, we will continue to fight, kill, and die. For me, I will wear a white poppy, not a red one. I will live not in the shadow of bloodshed, but in the light of peace. That is all and everything we can hope for. 

And compassionate action is hope in motion.

In Flanders Fields

By John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

About the Author

Anna is an organizational psychologist and executive coach, with a special interest in all things technology. We’re part of the team at Garleff Coaching and Consulting Group. If this article has struck a chord, please let us know.
Anna Garleff Cell: +1 587 224 3793 / anna@garleffcoaching.com
www.garleffcoaching.com