Last Post for legions?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2011 (5074 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Darts on Wednesdays. Closed all other times.

Members of the General Monash Legion, Winnipeg’s Jewish legion, know its days are numbered.

They plan to go quietly into that good night. They recently voted to donate the proceeds from the sale of their Main Street building to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba when the time comes to turn out the lights (although the Royal Canadian Legion provincial command has final say on assets).

The legion is suffering from the same disease as all other legions across the country: age. The average age of Second World War vets is now 88. Few are under the age of 85. Korean War vets are getting into their 80s, too.

Meantime, returning soldiers from Canada’s military operation in Afghanistan don’t identify with the legions. It’s almost a generational thing. As one legionnaire put it, the young men “want to go to a place where there are girls.” Or else, many are young family men and women and don’t have time for the legion.

Many legions still offer cheap beer and shots, and their famous “meat draws” — a raffle of various cuts of beef and pork — have been held every Friday since, well, the invention of refrigeration.

And legion patrons will tell you their bars are less noisy and more intimate than regular bars.

“You go and everybody knows everybody. It’s like Cheers,” said John Villers, a vice-president for the Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario Command and a member of a legion in Brandon.

But how long can they go on?

The legions sprung up at a different time. Winnipeg formed the first legion in the country in 1925. There were few supports for people returning from combat back then. The legions, which don’t receive government funding but do get tax breaks as non-profit organizations, were designed to help vets reintegrate into society.

The legion was, said Mel Reimer, president of the Morden Legion, “a place to sit down with people who had gone through similar experiences that the rest of society wouldn’t understand.”

Legions often helped veterans with housing or medical support, and even basics like clothing, and still do today. They help others, too, like when the Morden legion raised money for two seniors apartment buildings, one in the 1980s and one in 1990s. It also raised $500,000 to assist local Boundary Trails Hospital.

“People think we’re an Old Boys club and just sit around and drink. But we’re one of the biggest social-assistance agencies in Canada,” said Villers. “We help old vets who need it, help out athletes. In southwestern Manitoba, we have an athletic youth camp at the Peace Garden.”

Then there’s the poppy drive. Last year, legions for Manitoba and northwestern Ontario collected $677,537 from poppy donations, minus costs of $250,000 to run the campaign. Poppy money does not fund legion halls. It goes to many veterans’ causes, as well as to assist seniors with purchases such as wheelchairs and funding cadets.

While several legions have closed in recent years, it’s a case of “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” There are 115 legions in Manitoba. Just about every small town had a legion at some time, although not all have a building. For example, towns such as Manitou and Emerson still have charters with Royal Canadian Legion but no buildings.

Four small rural legions have closed in the past couple of years in Hamiota, Alonsa, Altamont and Miniota — all west of Portage la Prairie. Meanwhile, the legion in Portage la Prairie is experiencing a lot of difficulty, in part because of its aging building and poor location.

The legions face stiff costs. Morden’s legion hall pays $10,000 a year for insurance. It also pays property taxes to the tune of $5,000 to $6,000 a year. (Most legions no longer pay property taxes thanks to arrangements with their local municipalities.)

A glance at membership figures shows why legions are disappearing. There are more than 25,000 legion members in Manitoba, half the 50,000 who belonged in 1995.

The largest membership group, at 15,000, is “associate members.” They are usually family members of a veteran. About 5,000 are “affiliated” members who have no connection to the military. That leaves about 5,000 who are what’s called “ordinary” members, most of whom are veterans.

But listing all the problems sounds like so much crying in your beer to a typical legion member. Where it all seems to be heading is amalgamations. In Winnipeg, where there are 19 legions, that could mean dividing the city into quadrants with one legion in each quarter.

“We’re trying to encourage most of these legions to amalgamate. For a city our size, we have the most legions for all of Canada,” said Art Wattis, past president of the Winnipeg South Osborne Legion.

Edmonton and Calgary, with populations of well over one million each, have only a half dozen legions apiece, said Wattis. Winnipeg legions reflect the city’s greater pluralism along ethnic and even religious lines, such as the General Monash Legion. Polish veterans have two legions in Winnipeg, Andrew Mynarski on Main Street, and a breakaway legion, the Winnipeg Polish Canadian, a few doors down.

In recent years, both the St. Vital Legion and the Monte Cassino have merged with the Fort Rouge Legion to form the Winnipeg South Osborne Legion.

This is, of course, a common pattern in society, from retailers to churches to community clubs and now to legions, where smaller branches close to create super-centres. However, in the case of the legions, there was fierce opposition from St. Vital members.

The General Monash Legion is just seeking to get its will in order. The legion was created in the early 1930s and is named after John Monash, an Australian commander in Gallipoli during the First World War. His name was chosen because he was Jewish.

Morris Faintuch, a Holocaust survivor, is president. Israel Yamron is treasurer and Dave Chochinov is secretary. Faintuch served in the Israeli army after the Second World War. Yamron, who is 90, served in the Canadian Forces as an aircraft technician for seaplanes on Vancouver Island in the Second World War.

The General Monash Legion has about 50 members, down from the nearly 350 it had in 1995. The youngest member today is 81. Then comes Faintuch. “I’m the young one. I’m 82, going to be 83 soon.”

The General Monash Legion gave up its liquor licence about five years ago. It rents its upstairs to the Ziegfeld School of Dance, which pays for 85 per cent of the building costs.

The legion’s existence advertises the Jewish war effort in the Second World War.

“A lot of people think we weren’t there,” said Faintuch. In fact, Jewish men had among the highest rates of enlistment among any group, he said. Yamron always carries the Israeli flag at Remembrance Day and other ceremonies for that purpose, “to show we were there,” he said.

Members accept that their the legion won’t continue when they’re gone. It was a close vote but in the end the members opted to leave their assets with the Jewish Foundation instead of to legion command.

Ultimately, the national command believes legions have to attract new veterans. A few years back, Canadian legions ran a campaign that raised up to $7,000 per month to buy coffee for military personnel at Kandahar’s Tim Hortons outlet. And while Canadian Forces were on patrol in Afghanistan, members wore something red to the legion on Fridays.

Since Canada’s active role in Afghanistan ended, legions across the nation have welcomed veterans home with parties and socials in their honour.

“It was simply telling current military people we admire and respect what they’re doing, and that the legion is your friend,” said Reimer.

After all, said Reimer, “that’s what the legion stands for; for remembering the sacrifices military people have made over the last century.”

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca