It was October 2011 and Candy Greff was standing outside a restaurant in Morinville, Alta.,saying goodbye to her son Byron Greff. Little did she know that it would be the last time she would see him alive.
A 28-year-old master corporal with the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry based out of Edmonton, Byron was heading back to Afghanistan following a brief visit home to see the birth of his daughter, Brielle.
“It was difficult to say goodbye to him,” Candy remembers. “But then at the same time: ‘Goodbye, love you. See you at Christmas.’”
Days later, Byron and 20 other people were killed when a suicide bomber ran his explosive-laden car into an armoured bus carrying troops through Kabul. He was the last of 158 Canadian soldiers killed in the war in Afghanistan.
Eleven years later, Candy has been named this year’s Silver Cross Mother by the Royal Canadian Legion. She will lay a wreath at the National War Memorial on Remembrance Day on behalf of all mothers who have lost children in service to Canada.
Speaking about her son from her home in Lacombe, Alta., Candy recalled Byron as “a little mischievous,” but someone who gave his whole heart to whatever he was doing. That included playing hockey and golfing with his wife, Lindsay.
Byron didn’t grow up with military friends or family, so it was a bit of a surprise when he told his parents in Grade 9 that he wanted to join cadets in Red Deer. Three years later, he announced he wanted to join the Canadian Army.
“I don’t know where he got the idea from, that this would be something interesting to do,” Candy said, adding: “It scared me half to death. … We weren’t very closely associated with anyone in the military at that time, and it was frightening.”
Candy and her husband Greg nonetheless supported their son’s decision.
“He was a very determined young man, and this is what he wanted. And this is what he was doing. And we said: ‘We’re proud of you. Go for it.’”
Byron was 17 years old when he left for basic training shortly after high school graduation. He had just turned 18 when terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, launching more than a decade of war in Afghanistan.
The first Canadian troops deployed to Afghanistan in early 2002 as part of a U.S.-led mission to destroy al-Qaida. Candy remembers the moment that she and her husband realized their son might be joining them.
“One of the commanding officers at his graduation ceremony came up to Greg and I and said: ‘Are you the parents of a Byron Greff?’” she recalls. “He said: ‘You do know there is a chance that he may have to go to Afghanistan?’”
Byron would eventually deploy to Afghanistan twice. The first time was in 2007, at which point Canadian soldiers were involved in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents in the southern province of Kandahar.
Candy remembers the nervousness of those months as news reports came back of other Canadian soldiers having been killed and wounded. But Byron managed to make it home to his family, including Lindsay and their young son Kellar.
Four years later, Byron was deployed on his second tour to Afghanistan. This time, Canadian soldiers weren’t fighting the Taliban. Instead, Byron and others were training Afghan soldiers in what was supposed to be a relatively safe mission.
While Byron was the last Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan before Canada’s military mission there officially ended in 2014, Candy says that distinction doesn’t carry any special meaning or importance to her.
“Because each and every one killed there (is) equally as important as the first or the last, or any of them in between,” she said. “All of the conflicts that the Armed Forces have been in, and anyone who has lost their lives, they’re all very important.”
Nearly a decade after Byron was killed, Afghanistan was taken over by the Taliban. While she said she is sad for Afghans there who had hoped for freedom, Candy believes her son and his colleagues nonetheless did some good for the country.
“He worked hard,” she said. “He did what he needed to do there and made a difference, I believe in my heart.”
Candy said she will be thinking of her son as well as all those other Canadians who have laid down their lives in service to their country when she lays a wreath on Remembrance Day.
And while she continues to feel the pain and sadness of his loss in her heart, “I need to hold my head up high. That’s what Byron would want of all of us.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2022.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
