Remembrance Day ceremonies don’t reflect this country

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This article was published 12/11/2015 (3708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There were some moving moments at Wednesday’s huge, standing-room-only Remembrance Day service at the convention centre, and a surprisingly tense one.

Bruce Miles, the reverend who has given the key address at the Joint Veterans’ Association service for several years now, told the story of his friend Ned Sparkes, a British pilot shot down over Düsseldorf who spent five months hiding in school attics, forest camps and Dutch farm houses evading the Germans. At one point, armed with fake identification that claimed he was deaf and mute, Sparkes found himself trying to blend in with Dutch passengers in a crowded train next to a nurse and a German officer. The train lurched, Sparkes accidentally stepped on the nurse’s toe and blew his cover by blurting, “I’m awful sorry.”

That moment, as described by Miles, captured one of a million moments of danger, courage and luck that defined the experiences of many Canadian soldiers. But as poignant as that moment was amid a fine Remembrance Day service, Wednesday’s memorial was overwhelmingly white and Christian, in a way the military still is, but Canada is no longer.

The 90-minute ceremony featured addresses by two Christian ministers. It featured two hymns, one less overtly religious than the other, and both sung beautifully by members of the Armed Forces. It featured a reading of the famous Bible verses from Ecclesiastes that begins: “To every thing there is a season.” Soldiers stood guard next to the small cenotaph, a stark white cross. There were benedictions and prayers. There were many references to a God rooted in British tradition, all very familiar to any old-stock, United Church kid from a Scottish family whose grandfather was a squadron leader in the RCAF.

The ceremony, and many like it around Winnipeg, has changed little in years, a testament to the honourable traditions that anchor the Canadian military. But these ceremonies no longer reflect Canada, especially a Canada that seems very proud to have appointed Harjit Sajjan, an outstanding soldier of Sikh faith and a veteran of the Afghan war, as defence minister.

Though nearly every public event in Winnipeg now starts with an acknowledgement of the province’s indigenous roots and its treaty history, there was little mention of Manitoba’s original peoples during Wednesday’s ceremony. A small contingent of Métis and First Nations veterans were among those laying wreaths, but there was little else to reflect the often-overlooked contribution indigenous soldiers made to various war efforts, even though I saw several indigenous people in the audience of 5,500.

Nor was there any real mention or inclusion of any other faiths during the ceremony, or the contributions Allied soldiers from colonial countries such as India or the Philippines made to various war efforts, even though those countries have produced some of Winnipeg’s most vibrant and successful immigrant communities. That’s perhaps to be expected, given the military’s poor record attracting people of colour or new Canadians to its ranks. At last count, visible minorities represented less than five per cent of the country’s regular forces, and there are even fewer indigenous soldiers. That’s nowhere close to the military’s targets.

Colleagues who attended other ceremonies around town say they are similarly lacking in diversity and overly reliant on Christian religious content.

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One exception this year, though, might be the outdoor service on Valour Road in the West End, where reporter Carol Sanders says residents go every year to hear the story of the Pine Street boys — the three Victoria Cross recipients whose courage in the First World War was honoured by changing their street’s name.

This year, area MLA Andrew Swan spoke about a recent visit to Clifton School, where students were learning about Remembrance Day. One of the kids he met was a newcomer from the Philippines. Swan told the crowd two of the three Pine Street boys were recent immigrants to Canada. He reminded the crowd a person’s willingness to sacrifice for Canada has nothing to do with how many generations their family has lived here or whether they speak with an accent.

It was a small nod to the not-so-new diversity of a country founded on immigration, a nod that was jarringly lacking in the large service at the convention centre.

We must continue to honour the remarkable contributions of Canadian veterans such as the late Ned Sparkes — who was saved by a nurse and German officer who quietly ignored his English apology that day on the train. But we must do more to make such important public ceremonies better reflect the country we have, and the next generation of soldiers we want.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca