Re: Cemetery

by Logan Tue 09 Nov 2021, 9:27 pm

Pointe-Claire cemetery, unique in Canada, is final salute to veterans from even War of 1812

Published Tuesday, November 9, 2021

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/pointe-claire-cemetery-unique-in-canada-is-final-salute-to-veterans-from-even-war-of-1812-1.5659260

by Lux4795 Tue 30 Nov 2021, 4:20 pm

Nearly 3,000 wreaths destined for National Military Cemetery stolen

Megan Gillis
Publishing date:Nov 30, 2021

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/nearly-3000-wreaths-destined-for-national-military-cemetery-stolen

by **Diesel** Thu 03 Feb 2022, 4:20 pm

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Canada’s only surviving quadruple amputee of the First World War

Feb 03. 2022

War Amps Child Amputee (CHAMP) Program laid a rose at the grave of Ethelbert “Curley” Christian

by Rocko Sat 29 Oct 2022, 5:24 pm

750 veterans' graves to be honoured in Cowichan Valley ahead of Remembrance Day

Published Oct. 29, 2022

Cemetery - Page 2 Lest-we-forget-where-they-lie-project-1-6130494-1667006973401

CTV News Vancouver Island

by **Replica** Sat 12 Nov 2022, 6:11 pm

Candlelight vigil held at Cobalt Veterans Cemetery

Published Nov. 12, 2022

Cemetery - Page 2 Second-annual-candlelight-vigil-cobalt-veterans-1-6150670-1668289133070

CTV NEWS NORTHERN ONTARIO

by **Alpha** Mon 30 Jan 2023, 4:35 pm

Safeguarding the memory of Canadian veterans

Edmontonian created foundation so her own children, and all children, understand the sacrifice the country's veterans have made.

Ashley Geddes

Jan 30. 2023

Maureen Bianchini Purvis grew up in north Edmonton, where the military was a memorable part of her life. Both her parents were active in veteran's groups, while army trucks used to travel past her family's home from the nearby base.

At age 12, Maureen lost her mother to cancer, so she made a promise to not forget her mother each Remembrance Day, annually visiting Beechmount Cemetery to lay a poppy at the grave to honour her mother's service.

The visits eventually included her husband Randall Purvis and their two daughters. One year, her youngest daughter questioned why all the other veterans' headstones at Beechmount's Field of Honour didn't also get poppies.

That query led Maureen, with support from family and friends, to create No Stone Left Alone (NSLA) in 2011, a non-profit memorial foundation devoted to safeguarding the memory of Canadian veterans. The goal also included educating youngsters about the sacrifices made by the military and honouring all soldiers in November with the symbol of remembrance, the poppy.

"We set out to leave No Stone Left Alone and isn't that the right thing to do?" she said in an interview last fall, after being named one of seven inductees to the Alberta Order of Excellence -- the province's highest honour -- for her contributions through the foundation.

Bianchini Purvis acknowledges the goal of placing a poppy on every veteran's grave is a lofty target. But thousands have already been honoured through the NSLA's efforts, which have expanded across Canada and gained a foothold in Europe, with ceremonies in France and Poland this year. The foundation has also had requests to hold memorial services in England and South Africa.

"I have witnessed the power of our volunteers and their community support and that gives me great hope that it will happen in the future, especially with our students who will now further the mission," Bianchini Purvis said.

She says the foundation's growth has benefitted from a touch of 'magic' since the beginning.

Through her networking, Bianchini Purvis was put in touch with a lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces who brought 80 soldiers, including Afghanistan veterans, to the foundation's very first poppy ceremony at Beechmount Cemetery. Later, by chance, she met former Alberta minister of education David Hancock at Fort Edmonton Park, and said she had "an idea" for educating students about the importance of military service. That encounter led to two schools sending students to take part in the new ceremony, plus subsequent front-page coverage by Edmonton's two major daily newspapers.

"If he (Hancock) would have responded another way, who knows what the next steps would have been?" Bianchini Purvis said. "NSLA has always had magic like that."

Educating young people about the importance of Remembrance Day and military sacrifice is rewarding for Bianchini Purvis and her family.

"I want them to feel in their hearts that these were real people, just like them," she said. "I want them to think about the things they can freely do that many children in the world cannot.

"Mostly I want them to learn about (veterans), and those who are serving today, and support them in any small way they can. Remembering is a good start."

Bianchini Purvis says she likes to ask students to write to her, a "reflection letter" about their thoughts about military service once they've had a chance to think about it.

"These words are gold; I truly wish all Canadians could read them all with us. We shed many tears."

Bianchini Purvis says to be recognized with the Alberta Order of Excellence "is beyond a privilege."

She added: "Born and raised here, and with the birth of the charity here, this is very personal."

The other inductees can be viewed at AOE Members | Alberta.ca

Alberta Prime Times

by **Colter** Mon 17 Apr 2023, 11:26 am

Military cemeteries need more funding to keep them from falling into disrepair

By Lee Berthiaume . The Canadian Press
Posted April 17, 2023

An internal report by Veterans Affairs Canada is raising red flags over the country’s military graves and cemeteries, warning that more permanent funding is needed to keep them from falling into disrepair.

The report is the result of an internal audit following up on a similar review six years ago. At that time, nearly 45,000 out of the estimated 207,000 graves of Canada’s veterans were in a state of disrepair because of a lack of resources.

The Trudeau government subsequently committed nearly $25 million over five years in temporary funding starting in 2018, which the new report says has largely addressed the problem by facilitating thousands of repairs.

Yet auditors found that without a permanent increase to the department’s funding, that success will be short-lived.

“While five-year funding for the backlog project has allowed the grave marker maintenance team to reduce the backlog of repairs significantly, maintaining an adequate inspection cycle post-project will be challenging,” the audit report reads.

“The evaluation finds that the current $1.25 million allocated to the cemetery and grave marker maintenance program is insufficient to prevent a future maintenance backlog.”

The audit report goes on to note that the annual $1.25 million budget has remained largely unchanged since 2009, even though the number of graves tracked and maintained by the department has increased by more than 40 per cent over the past decade.

Veterans Affairs spokesman Marc Lescoutre confirmed in an email to The Canadian Press that the department has not increased baseline funding for the maintenance program, though he said it has taken $900,000 from other areas to ensure sufficient funds.

“The department is exploring opportunities to seek ongoing funding to address the increasing cost of maintaining the grave marker inventory and to develop and implement an appropriate grave inspection/maintenance cycle,” he added.

The Liberals have been repeatedly criticized for refusing to make permanent investments in Veterans Affairs operations over the past few years, as it has relied instead on temporary funds and staff to address long-standing problems.

That included hiring of hundreds of temporary staff to process a backlog of disability claims from ill and injured veterans, and dozens of temporary case managers to help permanent staff with their overwhelming workloads.

The temporary measures have been criticized by veterans, service providers and others such as auditor general Karen Hogan, who has blasted the continued use of what she calls ad hoc funding.

During their review of grave marking maintenance, auditors interviewed staff from Veterans Affairs as well as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which cares for the graves of 110,000 Canadian soldiers killed and buried overseas in the First and Second World Wars.

Their conclusion: “Returning to the financial status quo after the backlog project will result in a situation where grave markers cannot be inspected and maintained within the current 12-year cycle.

“Further, the 12-year inspection cycle itself was adopted in response to funding levels, not as a best practice. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission currently inspects the graves it is responsible for on a six-year basis.”

In addition to Canadian war graves, the commission also cares for those of British, Australian, New Zealand and Indian soldiers killed during the two great wars.

Auditors found problems in the operation of the two cemeteries that Veterans Affairs owns and operates: Fort Massey Cemetery in Halifax and God’s Acre Cemetery in Esquimalt, B.C., which was recently expanded to accept more graves.

“The upgraded facilities were supposed to allow for on-site staffing to facilitate increasing burials at the cemetery,” the audit report says of God’s Acre. “However, health and safety concerns with the structure have restricted on-site activities.”

Concerns were also raised about a lack of formal policies around who can actually be interred at God’s Acre, how plots are obtained, reserved and priced, while “no business processes are in place for the handling of funeral payments.”

God’s Acre and Fort Massey also did not have up-to-date operational plans or plans for protecting the cultural and historical integrity of either site.

Global News

by Mountaineer Thu 04 May 2023, 11:36 am

Unknown soldier no longer: Previously unmarked First World War grave in Belgium holds Winnipeg hero

Rachel Bergen · CBC News · Posted: May 03, 2023

Cemetery - Page 2 Cpl-frederick-percival-bousfield

CBC News

by Spectrum Tue 18 Jul 2023, 8:24 pm

Canadian soldier of the First World War identified

July 18, 2023 – Ottawa – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces

News release

by **Accer** Fri 11 Aug 2023, 1:23 pm

Over 110,000 repairs made to Veteran grave markers across the country

11 August 2023

News release

by Jackal Tue 26 Sep 2023, 11:31 am

Vimy, Canadian First World War cemeteries designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites

'Canadians back home know that these sites are important, but I hope this reminds people that these sites represent just part of a very calamitous story'

Blair Crawford
Published Sep 25, 2023

The soaring twin pillars of Canada’s Vimy Memorial in France along with the immaculately tended cemeteries where tens of thousands of Canadian and Newfoundland First World War dead are buried have been added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

The designation recognizes the Vimy Memorial as among 138 First World War funeral and memorial “sites of memory” deemed “of outstanding value to humanity” and deserving of special protection in times of war.

The designation, while largely symbolic, is an important recognition, said Tim Cook, chief historian at the Canadian War Museum.

“I find those cemeteries very powerful places, sites of memory and sites of mourning,” said Cook, author of Vimy: The Battle and the Legend, and other books about Canada in the First World War.

“You feel the weight of history there. I’ve never met a Canadian who hasn’t been physically moved by the experience,” Cook said. “The cemeteries have always held a significant and a haunting place in the Canadian imagination.”

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, announced the designation last week at its meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The new designation includes cemeteries and memorials in Belgium and France of British, Canadian and Commonwealth soldiers, along with French, American, German and other nations that fought on the Western Front in “the war to end all wars.”

More than 66,000 soldiers from Canada and Newfoundland were killed during the 1914-18 conflict and they are all buried or commemorated in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries near the battlefields where they died.

Nearly 4,000 died in the 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge, the first battle where Canadians fought together as one cohesive army. The names of 11,285 Canadians killed in France who have no known graves are inscribed in the white limestone of the Vimy Memorial.

Just 30 km to the south, at Beaumont Hamel, another Canadian memorial honours the 710 soldiers of the 800-strong Newfoundland Regiment who were killed on July 1, 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Canada has interpretive centres at both Vimy Ridge and Beaumont Hamel. They are among just a handful such centres that try to explain the battles to visitors.

“Canadians back home know that these sites are important, but I hope this reminds people that these sites represent just part of a very calamitous story,” said Joshua Dauphinee, a Canadian working in Luxembourg with NATO and a former head guide at the Vimy Memorial. “Canada, by having the guide programs, plays an important part in telling that story. It’s a very large responsibility.”

UNESCO said the First World War graves are culturally significant because it was the first war in which soldiers were buried and recognized individually, instead of being buried in mass graves.

The massive cemeteries “re-humanise societies traumatised by the disappearance of a large part of their population, due to the unprecedented scale of the forces of mass destruction and death,” UNESCO said.

“In these places, recalling history has an exceptional value. Today, the burial and memorial sites of the First World War have become places of contemplation and celebration of the memory of the dead, the symbolism of which glorifies peace and reconciliation.”

One of the sites recognized is the Douaumont Ossuary that commemorates the 230,000 German and French soldiers killed during the Battle of Verdun.

UNESCO’s World Heritage designation recognizes places that are of “outstanding universal value to humanity” and deserving of protection “for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.”

The list of more than 1,000 sites includes the Egyptian pyramids, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Taj Mahal in India and the Grand Canyon in the U.S.

Canada has 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Rideau Canal, Nahanni National Park, the historic district of Old Quebec and Anticosti Island.

Cold Lake Sun

by Spartan Thu 28 Sep 2023, 4:41 pm

Graves of Indigenous soldiers honoured in the Netherlands

By Sarah Jones Global News
Posted September 27, 2023

An initiative involving Canadian, Indigenous and Dutch individuals is helping identify and mark the graves of Indigenous soldiers buried in the Netherlands.

The Indigenous Legacy Project recently saw Veterans Affairs send over a delegation of family and community members of the buried soldiers to the Netherlands, where they helped the Liberation of the Netherlands Branch 005 honour the soldiers’ sacrifices.

Initially, 17 graves were researched at Holten Canadian War Cemetery, but Veterans Affairs Canada was only able to identify the community members of 13 soldiers to participate in the delegation.

A full list of the Indigenous soldiers identified in the Netherlands can be found on the Government of Canada website.

Glenn Miller, the Alberta president for the Last Post Fund, was also part of the delegation, as the Aboriginal Veterans Autochones (AVA) suggested his attendance as an ally.

Miller, a Lethbridge resident, said the ceremony was incredibly moving and meaningful.

“It’s a sacred ceremony. We had a sharing circle in the morning, and it started to rain, and as the family members were talking about their own individual members, one of the family members referred to those as tears of joy that the delegation was there and that was very powerful,” said Miller.

“The elders, it was very emotional for them to be able to connect with so many families across Canada.”

The Last Post Fund recently started an Indigenous Veterans Initiative to identify unmarked graves with the assistance of local Indigenous researchers.

Glenn shares that trips like this help raise awareness of the work they’ve already done, which includes marking and identifying more than 300 graves across Canada.

“This work primarily through the Last Post Fund, started off as our own organization’s Truth and Reconciliation efforts, where qualified veterans can get a marker with an Indigenous name on it,” said Miller.

“Some of our stones way back when, when we installed, we now go back to the families to track them down if there was a traditional name that we can engrave into the stone.”

The trip to the Netherlands is anticipated to be the first of many, as the group looks towards future endeavors across the pond, honouring and recognizing Indigenous soldiers.

Glenn adds that families who have Indigenous family members buried in the Netherlands, or anywhere in Europe, can come forward as they’re unable to tell who’s Indigenous just by looking at a name plate.

“I worked locally with a Metis fellow, and we were talking about this project as I was going over in the Spring, and he has a relative in Groesbeek Cemetery. So, I put some sweet grass that he provided on his grave,” shared Glenn. “That’s just one example that we would not have otherwise known that’s an Indigenous veteran buried in the Netherlands.”

Global News

by Armoured Wed 04 Oct 2023, 4:56 pm

Veterans' headstones vandalized in Fredericton cemetery

Bill Dicks . Published Oct. 4, 2023

Cemetery - Page 2 Forest-hill-cemetery-1-6588461-1696433313599

CTV News Atlantic

by **Oliver** Wed 25 Oct 2023, 4:43 pm

'It was very heart-warming': Moncton students lay flags at veteran’s graves

Derek Haggett . Published Oct. 25, 2023

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CTV News Atlantic

by Scout Mon 30 Oct 2023, 8:33 am

‘It’s the right thing to do’: Veterans’ advocate calling to reinstate city program for free burial plots

Alexandra Holyk . Published Oct. 29, 2023

CTV News

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