Canada Post is honouring Mona Parsons, the only non-military Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the German army during the second World War, with its annual Remembrance Day stamp.
Parsons’ story, although unfamiliar to most Canadians, is one of “courage, determination, and overcoming obstacles,” says Canada Post.
The stamp, unveiled on Monday, shows the portrait of a young Parsons with a photograph of infantry soldiers of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders advancing into the Netherlands in the background. It was designed by Larry Burke and Anna Stredulinsky from Halifax’s marketing boutique, Burke & Burke.
Monday’s unveiling includes a large-sized, eight-foot-six version of the stamp, serving as a permanent installation outside of a post office in Wolfville, N.S., the town where Parsons grew up.
Doug Ettinger, president and CEO of Canada Post, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview this is the first time Parsons is getting this level of recognition in Canada.
“I think this is a story that Canadians will be inspired by,” he said.
“She’s a hero that really put everything on the line and sacrificed everything for the good of her values, her basic dignity and democracy back in (the Second World War).”
Canada Post’s Remembrance Day stamp of Mona Parsons was unveiled on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Submitted)
Parsons was born in Middleton, N.S., in 1901. She was the youngest of four children and grew up in a generally comfortable situation as her father was a businessman and a stockbroker.
The family moved to Wolfville, where Parsons started her post-secondary journey in Acadia University before moving to New York to pursue a career in theatre. However, her theatrical pursuits did not take her far and she eventually became a nurse.
In 1937, Parsons married a Dutch businessman named Willem Leonhardt and moved to Holland, where they lived a privileged life until Germany invaded the nation in 1940.
The couple joined a resistance unit that rescued allied airmen whose planes had been shot down. They helped with false identity papers, ration cards, clothing, shelter and offered their house as a stopping point. In 1941, they were arrested and held in separate prisons.
Parsons was one of the first and few women to be trialed by a military tribunal in Nazi occupied Netherlands, according to Andria Hill-Lehr, author of Mona Parsons: From Privilege to Prison, from Nova Scotia to Nazi Europe.
“She showed such poise and dignity and calm that the head of the tribunal went to her afterwards and said that they would allow her to appeal,” said Hill-Lehr, who nominated Parsons for the stamp feature.
Instead of being sentenced to death, Parsons was transported to a jail in Germany where she spent the next three years under “atrocious conditions,” explained Hill-Lehr.
There she met Baroness Wendelien van Boetzelaer who helped her escape in 1945.
By the time Parsons reached safer grounds in the Netherlands, she weighed just 87 pounds as a five-foot-eight woman. She sought help and had a serendipitous encounter with a soldier from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders unit who had advanced into the country.
Eventually, Parsons returned to Nova Scotia, where she remarried and lived until her death in 1976.
“Mona never wore a uniform, never carried a gun and she was willing to put everything on the line for her values, which were justice and freedom,” said Hill-Lehr.
More than highlighting a war hero, Hill-Lehr said this stamp is about bringing positive change in society as women have often been overlooked in history.
“I’m hoping that by bringing these women’s stories to light and appreciating who they were as human beings that we might actually begin to affect real change and departure from the status quo,” she said.
Parsons’ stamps will be available for purchase across Canada starting Tuesday, Nov. 7. The booklets of 10 permanent stamps will cost $9.20 and the five stamps package cost $4.60.
Remembrance Day stamps have been issued as part of Canada Post’s annual commemorative stamp program since 2012.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
Canada Post’s Remembrance Day stamp of Mona Parsons was unveiled on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. (Submitted)
