Re: Memorial

by **Victor** Fri 23 Sep 2022, 1:28 pm

Newfoundlanders honoured in Gallipoli with dedication of final caribou monument

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Veterans Affairs Canada
Sep 23, 2022

War Memorial

by Echostar Sat 22 Oct 2022, 4:39 pm

Federal leaders mark 8-year anniversary of National War Memorial attack

Published Oct. 22, 2022

Memorial - Page 8 National-war-memorial-1-6120672-1666457564318

CTV News

by **Starman** Thu 27 Oct 2022, 7:36 pm

Portraits of Honour memorial at risk of losing its space in Cambridge

Published Oct. 27, 2022

Memorial - Page 8 Portraits-of-honour-painting-1-6128355-1666909510202

CTV News Kitchener

by **Accer** Wed 01 Mar 2023, 4:24 pm

Federal government spending more than $11M to preserve Canadian war memorials overseas

Natalie Lombard / Published March 1, 2023

Memorial - Page 8 Canadian-national-vimy-memorial-1-6294057-1677681124514

CTV News

by Mercury Wed 29 Mar 2023, 7:53 pm

Chatham-Kent council approves $200K for updates to veterans’ memorials after vandalism

Published March 29, 2023

Memorial - Page 8 Chatham-cenotaph-1-6334846-1680129025402

CTV Windsor News

by Fascinator Sat 15 Apr 2023, 7:36 pm

Memorial planned for HMCS Esquimalt, last Canadian warship to sink in WWII

Published April 14, 2023

Memorial - Page 8 Cfb-esquimalt-1-4175702-1636670605241

CTV News Vancouver Island

by **Diesel** Thu 13 Jul 2023, 4:43 pm

Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial coming to Vancouver Island

July 13, 2023

Sooke News Mirror

by Monsfool Thu 17 Aug 2023, 6:38 am

Veterans minister says she's 'appalled' by vandalism at Vimy memorial in France

CBC News · Posted: Aug 16, 2023

CBC News

by Kingway Thu 05 Oct 2023, 11:25 am

Afghanistan war memorial unveiled in Amherst N.S.

Names of 158 fallen Canadian soldiers are etched into the stone monument

Gareth Hampshire · CBC News · Posted: Oct 05, 2023

CBC News

by Charlie Wed 01 Nov 2023, 6:19 am

Calgary memorial features more than 3.5K crosses to remember southern Alberta's fallen soldiers

Kevin Fleming . Published Oct. 31, 2023

Thousands of white crosses are set up along Memorial Drive just west of the Centre Street Bridge, each bearing the name of a fallen soldier from southern Alberta.

Susan Schalin, the president and CEO of Field of Crosses, said more than 400 volunteers have worked to create the memorial.

"We have 3,500 crosses of fallen that we are recognizing from southern Alberta," she said. "Plus we have 120 crosses, signifying the 120,000 war dead all over Canada, so we have 3,620 crosses."

Schalin says she didn't know much about Remembrance Day prior to 2009 when the Field of Crosses was established by Murray McCann. But now, she says she becomes more and more passionate about it every year.

"What really touches me is when I meet members of the family who have fallen in the field," said Schalin. "And I meet serving members and it just makes me appreciate so much what they've done."

Work started in September for volunteers to clean and repair all the crosses. In mid-October, another team of volunteers, headed by Jordan Nolan, was measuring out and installing all the bases for the crosses by drilling holes into the ground in a grid pattern.

"I've got to give credit to the Third Cav, the Canadian Army veterans," Nolan said. "They started this and laid the baseline, now come, we use the same baseline and the same techniques they taught us we just continue on with the same ways of doing it. We have chains that are measured at the specific distances to keep straight lines."

Nolan is an Afghanistan veteran and current Calgary Police Service sergeant. He says it was hard to come to the Field of Crosses at first because he has friends he served with whose names are on them.

"I had to get past that and realize this wasn't about me, this is about remembering their sacrifice," he said. "And remembering the world that they wanted us to live in is what I now need to remember and enjoy, take time to honour that memory."

Nolan says it makes him proud to see all the people come to view the crosses on the days leading up to Remembrance Day.

"I love it when I see children and youth coming," Nolan said.

"I love it when parents bring their children here and they take time to read the bio cards and they learn about those soldiers that have given their lives and paid the ultimate sacrifice for us and for the freedoms that we enjoy, I love seeing the younger generations come and take part in this."

Mark Bertin is a retired police officer who spends his days volunteering for a number of initiatives. This year he's responsible for the charity's trailer and all the remote lights at the site. He says Remembrance Day holds a special place in his heart.

"My father-in-law was a World War Two vet, my dad was in the Cold War, 20 years in the Navy, my brother was 42 years in the Army, I was two years in the Air Force before the police," he said. "I strongly believe it is our duty to remember and this is the epitome of that, especially for the 3,500 here in southern Alberta that crosses represent."

Diane Barth has been volunteering for the last three years and helps out wherever she's needed, including the grant writing team. Barth says the Field of Crosses is free to the public, but it costs a lot to put the memorial together.

"Our operating costs are over $300,000," she said. "So we put out a lot of grant requests, a lot of grant applications to try to get some sponsorships and donations to help run our memorial."

Barth says her father served in the military for 35 years and was also a UN peacekeeper. She says the crosses are important to her.

"It's very heart-wrenching to see how many crosses there are," she said.

"You can read on paper that we have over 3,500 crosses, but until you come here and you actually walk and walk and walk and see all these crosses and then you stop and each cross has a story, (like one) about a 21-year-old that lost their life so we could have our freedom, there's so many young ones in this field and we have to remember lest we forget."

Beginning in November, first sunrise and sunset ceremonies will be hosted at the site with various themes.

Learn more about the Field of Crosses Schedule and how to make a donation here: fieldofcrosses.com

CTV News Calgary

by Charlie Wed 01 Nov 2023, 6:25 am

Veterans minister under fire for ignoring winning design of Afghan war memorial

Online survey was 'garbage,' Bloc MP tells veterans committee

Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Oct 31, 2023

Memorial - Page 8 Afghan-monument-design-stimson

An online survey which the Liberal government used as a basis for choosing the design of Canada's national memorial to the Afghan war was not scientific, but the veterans minister says that doesn't mean it should be discounted.

Ginette Pettipas Taylor, recently appointed to the veterans portfolio, and Pascal St-Onge, the heritage minister, spent an hour Tuesday evening defending the decision to award the project design to Team Stimson, even though another group was deemed by an independent jury to have won the competition.

The decision to change course, Pettipas Taylor said, was based on the overwhelming results of the online survey, which was not part of the initial process. St-Onge told the veterans committee that her department provided only support and advice.

Just over 12,000 Canadians responded, including over 3,000 who identified as having served in Afghanistan and another 3,000 who said they were associated with the mission. And they — by a wide margin — chose the design by Adrian Stimson, a member of the Siksika First Nation and a veteran, the minister said.

She described the results as overwhelming and significant.

"Just because it wasn't a scientific survey doesn't mean that it's not valid. We certainly still heard the opinions of 12,000 Canadians," Pettipas Taylor told the four-party committee.

"We owe these veterans a debt we can never fully repay. Therefore, choosing the design that best matches the monument that veterans and people who played a role in the Afghanistan mission want was the least we could do."

The veterans department encouraged veterans to take part by reaching out to them through their benefits account, both senior officials and the minister told the committee.

But Bloc Quebecois MP Luc Desilets described the questionnaire as a "garbage survey" at one point late in the meeting, and was frustrated — as were the Conservatives and the lone New Democrat on the committee — at failing to get a clear answer about why the sampling was introduced when an expert panel had already chosen the design by Team Daoust, led by public artist Luca Fortin.

The decision by the review panel was not announced by Veterans Affairs Canada when the process ended over two years ago. Inexplicably, the department — in 2021 — launched public consultations to gain feedback on the proposals.

When the decision to go with Team Stimson was announced in June, the government acknowledged to Team Daoust that it had been selected by the panel and offered compensation.

"Sadly, this does seem very confusing, and I've heard again and again that this was a political decision," said Rachel Blaney, the NDP's veterans critic.

After being informed of the government's decision, Team Daoust filed a formal complaint with the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.

It has been almost a decade since the former Conservative government announced it intended to build a memorial for those who served in Afghanistan and the current debate comes in the shadow of the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Veterans were not happy with the proposed location of the monument and when the Liberals came to power they moved it to a patch of land across from the Canadian War Museum in downtown Ottawa.

The committee was told construction has yet to begin but the plan is to unveil the memorial in 2027.

CBC News

by Cool~Way Thu 08 Feb 2024, 7:08 am

Veterans Affairs worried about blowback after it rejected Afghan memorial design, memo says

Department opted for design by Indigenous artist over proposal selected by independent committee

Daniel Leblanc · CBC News · Posted: Feb 08, 2024

Memorial - Page 8 Canadian-troops-afghanistan-2011

CBC News

by Kingway Thu 04 Apr 2024, 8:30 am

Winners of Afghan war memorial design competition claim they were 'cheated' by Ottawa, threaten legal action

Architect Renée Daoust claims her team lost $3.5 million contract to politics

Daniel Leblanc · CBC News · Posted: Apr 04, 2024

CBC News

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