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Canadian War Museum oral history project examines war’s aftermath

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2 years ago

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HALIFAX — The pride in Blanche Bennett’s voice was evident as she vividly recounted the day 80 years ago when she volunteered to serve in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.

Bennett, who turns 100 on Nov. 12, was just 19 when she signed up in 1942 to become one of the nearly 46,000 women who served their country in the military during the Second World War. She said in a recent interview that she immediately went home and informed her surprised mother of her plan.

“She said, ‘Well, you’re not going,’ and I said, ‘Of course I’m going,’” Bennett recalled. “She said, ‘You can’t, they don’t have women in the army,’ and I said, ‘They do now. They got me.’”

Bennett, a native of Summerside, P.E.I., who now lives in a Charlottetown long-term care home, is one of about 120 veterans and family members who have been interviewed as part of an ongoing oral history project by the Canadian War Museum. The project is taking a unique approach by focusing not on wartime experiences but on what followed.

Michael Petrou, the research project’s lead historian, believes In Their Own Voices will fill a gap in war historiography by highlighting the positive and negative effects on veterans and their families as they moved on with their lives.

“The military service doesn’t end when it officially ends. It continues to influence the lives of veterans afterwards,” said Petrou. “People forget the massive social change that military service and conflict has.”

Bennett said her pride in serving influenced her life following the war, and that is one of the reasons why she participated in the project.

“To be really honest, I think it’s great when people ask me to talk about the war, because for a long time after the war there were an awful lot of people who didn’t even know that women served,” she said.

Bennett was a member of a signals squadron and served as a telephone operator in Halifax until the war ended. She met and married her husband Murray during that time and went on to raise a family of three daughters as her husband embarked on a postwar career in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

“I don’t think I ever became a civilian, because after the war I was back in it again,” she said with a warm laugh.

In their retirement years, the couple were active in Remembrance Week activities and often gave talks in Island schools. Bennett said the recognition she and other women have since received is gratifying if late in coming.

“Things did change,” she said. “People began to notice that we were somebody and had done something. To me, it was the highlight of my whole life.”

By contrast, Toronto-area author Jonathon Reid’s experience as the son of a Second World War veteran who was captured after the downfall of Hong Kong is largely one of pain, bewilderment and loss.

The 74-year-old said he decided to be interviewed by Petrou because of his own journey in trying to understand his father, John Reid, who died in 1979 at the age of 65.

“I grew up with the results of his war experience, which were a broken family, a lack of a father most of the time and a very sad mother,” said Reid. “I realized that this project … was really a more public version of what I had been trying to do on a personal level.”

Reid recounted his father’s service as an army doctor and his family’s postwar experience in a 2020 book, “The Captain Was a Doctor.” The book details how John Reid led his men heroically through nearly four years of captivity, which included more than two years of forced labour in Japan.

Back home after the war, he and his wife started a family, but Reid said his father was distant and refused to talk about his experiences. Eventually, he abandoned his family.

He said despite the trauma that caused, both he and his brother strove to lead happy and productive lives.

“There is a resounding impact that goes down at least one generation and I would think two,” Reid said. “You have to accept it and go on. Just realize that your job then is to understand as best you can, but get up and keep going.”

Petrou said stories such as Bennett’s and Reid’s are the essence of what the project is trying to achieve.

“We want veterans to show themselves in all their complexities, their flaws and their successes too,” he said.

Petrou said he hopes to do as many as 200 more interviews, with an online video exhibition planned for 2025 as well as a book and an academic conference. There are also plans to provide educational materials for schools.

“My hope and my suspicion is that these interviews will echo in the museum in ways we don’t quite know yet for many years,” Petrou said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2022.

 

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

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Quick Quotes: What Liberal MPs have to say as the caucus debates Trudeau’s future

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6 hours ago

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October 23, 2024

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OTTAWA – Here are some notable quotes from Liberal members of Parliament as they headed into a caucus meeting Wednesday where they are set to debate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership.

Comments made after the caucus meeting:

“The Liberal party is strong and united.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

———

“Justin Trudeau is reflecting and he’s standing strong and we’re standing strong as a Liberal party.”

“We as a party recognize that the real threat here is Pierre Poilievre and that’s what we’re fighting for.”

“Trudeau has made very clear that he feels he’s the right choice but he appreciates all of what is being said because he’s reflecting on what is being done across Canada. I respect his decision, whatever that may be.”

Charles Sousa, MP for Mississauga—Lakeshore

———

“We had some open and frank discussions. People are relentlessly focused on serving Canadians and win the next election. This was really a rallying call to win the next election.”

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, MP for Saint Maurice—Champlain

———

“I don’t know how many people spoke, well over 50 I’m sure. They came at this from all angles and now (we’ve) got to go back and process this.

“We’re on a good path.

“It was very respectful. You know, caucus has always had the ability to get into some tough conversations. We did it again today and it went extremely well. Where we land? Who knows? You know we have to go and really process this stuff. But one thing that is absolutely, you know, fundamental is that we are united in the fact that we cannot let that creature from the Conservative party run the country. He would ruin things that people greatly value.”

Ken Hardie, MP for Fleetwood—Port Kells

———

Comments from before the caucus meeting:

“There’s a — what would you call it? Some palace drama going on right now. And that takes us away from the number 1 job, which is focusing on Canadians and focusing on the important policies but also on showing the really clear contrast between our government, our party and Pierre Poilievre.”

Randy Boissonnault, Employment Minister, MP for Edmonton Centre

———

“We’re going to go in there and we’re going to have an excellent discussion and we are going to emerge united.”

Treasury Board President and Transport Minister Anita Anand, MP for Oakville

———

“I think caucus is nervous because of the polling that has been constantly going down in favour of Liberals, and there’s a lot of people who do want to run again. I’m not running again, although I already told the prime minister that. But there are people there that want to run again and they’re nervous because of what polls are saying.”

“He has to start listening.”

Ken McDonald, MP for Avalon

———

“We’re going to have a good caucus meeting. MPs should be free to air their perspectives, I’m sure they will, and we’ll come out of it united.”

Peter Fragiskatos, MP for London North Centre

———

“I have to read the room. There’s all sorts of wheels within wheels turning right now. I’m just going to go in there, I’m going to make my mind a blank and just soak it all in.”

“I’m not going to say anything about (the prime minister) until I have my say in there.”

Ken Hardie, MP for Fleetwood—Port Kells

———

“I wish there was a mechanism for it, yes,” he said, responding to whether he wanted a secret ballot vote in caucus to determine Trudeau’s leadership.

Sean Casey, MP for Charlottetown

———

“The prime minister will always be on my posters and he is welcome in Winnipeg North any time.”

Kevin Lamoureux, MP for Winnipeg North

———

“Absolutely I support the prime minister.”

Yvonne Jones, MP for Labrador

———

“When you look divided, you look weak.”

Judy Sgro, MP for Humber River—Black Creek

———

“I think Pierre Poilievre is absolutely beatable, he’s ripe for the picking with the right vision, the right leadership and the right direction for our party. The Liberal party is an institution in this country. It’s bigger than one person, one leader, and it’s incumbent on us as elected officials to make sure we put the best foot forward.”

Wayne Long, MP for Saint John—Rothesay

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.



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With Liberal election win, First Nations in N.B. look forward to improved relations

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6 hours ago

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October 23, 2024

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FREDERICTON – Chief Allan Polchies says he is excited about New Brunswick’s new Liberal provincial government.

Polchies, of St. Mary’s First Nation, says he looks forward to meaningful dialogue with premier-designate Susan Holt after years of tense relations with the outgoing Progressive Conservatives under Blaine Higgs.

He is one of six Wolastoqey Nation chiefs who have filed a land claim for a significant part of the province, arguing treaty rights have not been respected by corporations and governments, both of which have exploited the land for hundreds of years.

The December 2021 court challenge has been a sore point between Indigenous Peoples and the Higgs’s government.

Eight Mi’kmaw communities are also asserting Aboriginal title to land in the province, and they say they hope to work with Holt and her team on “advancing issues that are important to our communities.”

Holt’s campaign didn’t give details on the Liberal government’s position on the Indigenous claims, but she has said she wants to rebuild trust between the province and First Nations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Abdelrazik tells of despair when Ottawa denied him passport to return home from Sudan

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October 23, 2024

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OTTAWA – Abousfian Abdelrazik told a court today about the roller-coaster of emotions he experienced during the tense days of early 2009 when he awaited the green light to return to Canada from Sudan.

The Sudanese-born Abdelrazik settled in Montreal as a refugee and became a Canadian citizen in 1995.

During a 2003 visit to his native country to see his ailing mother, he was arrested, imprisoned and questioned about suspected terrorist connections.

Abdelrazik says he was tortured during two periods of detention by the Sudanese intelligence agency.

He is suing the federal government, claiming officials arranged for his arbitrary imprisonment, encouraged his detention by Sudanese authorities and actively obstructed his repatriation to Canada for several years.

In March 2009, he made arrangements to fly home to Canada and asked Ottawa to issue him an emergency passport, but his hopes were dashed — at least temporarily — when the request was turned down.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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