Cenotaph

by **Navigator** Wed 25 Jul 2018, 6:58 pm

The Dieppe Cenotaph

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/2944

by Hunter Fri 02 Nov 2018, 5:01 pm

Ceremony for Clearwater’s new cenotaph

JAIME POLMATEER / Nov. 2, 2018

Clearwater Times

by **Alpha** Sun 04 Nov 2018, 6:08 pm

Afghanistan veterans honoured in Regina and Moose Jaw

November 4, 2018

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/afghanistan-veterans-honoured-in-regina-and-moose-jaw

by Garrison Mon 05 Nov 2018, 5:01 pm

Officer prepares for sentry duty at Ottawa cenotaph

By Lookout on Nov 05, 2018

http://www.lookoutnewspaper.com/officer-prepares-sentry-duty-ottawa-cenotaph/

by **Powergunner** Mon 05 Nov 2018, 9:02 pm

Crosses in Kelowna park honour fallen soldiers

November 5, 2018

https://globalnews.ca/news/4633098/crosses-in-kelowna-park-honour-fallen-soldiers/

by Thunder Thu 07 Feb 2019, 7:43 pm

Council to hear request to add names to cenotaph

Dave Vachon - Published on: February 7, 2019

Neil Burrell and Robyn May stand next to Belleville's First World War monument Thursday, February 7, 2019 in Memorial Park in Belleville, Ont. They're hoping to have the names of three Belleville-born war dead added to the memorial.

A grassroots effort to pay tribute to three of Belleville’s First World War dead will soon be at city hall to ask for council’s support.
Belleville Capt. Neil Burrell and Trenton Cpl. (Ret.) Robyn May will attend the March 11 council meeting to ask permission to add three names to the First World War monument in Memorial Park.
The names of siblings David and Agnes Forneri and of Ellis Reid appear in Canada’s Books of Remembrance and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, both maintained by Veterans Affairs Canada.
But as a result of apparent oversights, Burrell said, the trio’s names aren’t displayed in the Station Street park.
“They’re veterans. They made the supreme sacrifice … We want to honour them in their hometown,” said Burrell.
He’s the former adjutant of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, is a volunteer in its museum and served in Afghanistan. No longer in Canada’s primary reserve, Burrell is now in the cadet instructor cadre and works with Campbellford’s 2777 Northumberland unit of the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps.
He noted neither Reid nor the Forneris are known to have any ties to the regiment or the units which preceded it.
His fellow researcher, Robyn May, retired in 2002 as a corporal and aviation technician. She spent two years researching nursing sisters and in 2016 self-published a book, Sacrifice of Angels, about them. May said seeing a nursing sister’s name added to the cenotaph is “an emotional issue” for her.
She and Burrell said all they need from council is permission to make the changes.
“The Hasty P museum has committed to paying the cost, so it’s not going to cost the city anything,” Burrell said.
“Honouring our war dead is an important thing for veterans,” he said.
“It’s a responsibility,” May added.
Volunteers of the museum joined last November with members of Hastings County Historical Society and the Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County in presenting a small museum display honouring locals who served in the war. Last Nov. 11 marked the 100th anniversary of the war’s end.
Among those to visit was Belleville’s John Geen. He spoke of two Belleville-born siblings who’d died in the conflict but whose names didn’t appear on the city-owned cenotaph.
Geen’s great-uncle was Rev. Canon Richard Sykes Forneri, a past rector of Belleville’s Christ Church on Coleman Street. The reverend lost two children who’d served during the war: Agnes, a military nursing sister, and David, a soldier.
Contrary to federal records, Agnes Forneri died at age 38, May said.
“She lied on her attestation papers to make herself younger,” she said.
While tending to the wounded, Forneri developed stomach ulcers, said May.
“She thought she just had food poisoning. She let it go for more than two weeks.
“She was passing out at her duty station.”
Burrell said Forneri’s death was attributed to the conditions in which she served.
“A lot of people don’t even know women even served in the First World War,” May said, adding her own service motivated her to research the nursing sisters.
If the project succeeds, she and Burrell said, Agnes Forneri will be the only woman whose name appears on the city’s First World War monument.
May said she hopes addition of a woman’s name will spark interest in women who served and also in further research.
According to May’s searches, other local women also served in the war but survived.
Agnes’ brother, Lt. David Forneri, had been killed in France.
Twice wounded, he was out of action when he enrolled in officer training – apparently to give himself time to heal, Burrell said.
But by March 1, 1917, he was back on the battlefield – and once again wounded.
“He’s last seen being carried back by stretcher carriers, but the artillery’s coming down.”
His body is not known to have been recovered.
As May and Burrell set to work in honouring the Forneri siblings, another local resident, Rev. Dr. Allan Miller, relayed information about Flight Sub-Lieut. Ellis Reid, a fighter ace and winner of the Distinguished Service Cross who flew with Britain’s No. 10 Naval Squadron.
Reid, who is also without a known grave, was missing in action and presumed killed, possibly by anti-aircraft fire, over France.
He’s credited with 19 victories and is described in wartime accounts as a highly-skilled and brave aviator.
Burrell said the Forneri and Reid families had left Belleville prior to the war and the original memorial was erected after the war. Their omission from it is believed to be accidental, he said.
The cenotaph proposal calls for one name to added to the bottom of three columns of names on the existing stone. They won’t appear in alphabetical order.
May and Burrell said they seek only to add the names, since no ranks or honours of the other dead appear on the stone.
“They’re equal in death,” said Burrell.
Burrell said the job will cost several hundred dollars and added that’s only about one-thirtieth of the cost of replacing the monument, which could cost at least $26,000. While museum officials have committed to fund the additions, donations are welcome.
Burrell said a full replacement could be eligible for partial funding from Veterans Affairs Canada, but he and May agree such funding is needed more by communities with no memorials or damaged ones.
Their plan, should the additions be approved by council, is to stage a public unveiling ceremony.
They ask veterans – wearing blazers and medals – lend support by attending the March 11 council meeting at 4 p.m., fourth floor, city hall, 169 Front St.
The project has since received help from Skip Simpson, a former commanding officer of the Hasty Ps now working for Bay of Quinte Liberal MP Neil Ellis; Coun. Garnet Thompson; Royal Canadian Legion Branch 99; staff of the mayor’s office; the Belleville Veterans Council; and Trevor Howard of Campbell Monument.
Burrell and May said their research continues.

lhendry@postmedia.com

https://www.intelligencer.ca/news/local-news/council-to-hear-request-to-add-names-to-cenotaph

by **Stayner** Thu 28 Mar 2019, 8:07 am

Afghan war vet lobbies to move conflict dates to front of cenotaph

Shaina Luck · CBC News · Posted: Mar 28, 2019

Halifax regional council decided last year the dates should stay on the back of monument

The existing Halifax cenotaph is shown on the left. An artistic rendering of how the cenotaph would look if Afghanistan dates were added to the front is shown on the right. (Images: City of Halifax)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/afghanistan-veteran-lobbies-to-move-conflict-dates-to-front-of-cenotaph-1.5074268

by **Replica** Sun 31 Mar 2019, 8:51 pm

Afghanistan veterans rally to have dates added to Halifax cenotaph

CTV Atlantic
Published Sunday, March 31, 2019

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/afghanistan-veterans-rally-to-have-dates-added-to-halifax-cenotaph-1.4359617

by **Apollo** Tue 30 Apr 2019, 8:03 pm

Afghan veterans staying on back of Halifax cenotaph: ‘It says it’s not important

April 30, 2019

Cenotaph B97909578Z.1_20190430190646_000GS7O3JD8.1-1_large

The memorial cenotaph at the Halifax Grand Parade. - Francis Campbell

“It says it’s (Afghan service) not important and we lost 158 guys over there,”

- Scott Timpa, Afghanistan war vet

The years of the Afghanistan conflict will not be added to the front of the war memorial cenotaph in the Grand Parade square in front of Halifax city hall.

Regional councillors voted 8-7 to rescind a March 2018 recommendation that Afghanistan dates not be added to the front of the cenotaph “in order to protect the heritage value of the memorial.”

However, a motion of rescission requires a two-thirds vote in favour of reversing the previous decision. The 8-7 vote was not enough.

“I’m not really surprised,” said Scott Timpa, an Afghanistan war veteran who drove in from Sackville, N.B., to join several of his colleagues in the front rows of the public gallery in council chambers Tuesday.

“It says it’s (Afghan service) not important and we lost 158 guys over there,” Timpa said. “Those are guys who I served with. Some of these guys were my friends and I had to be there to open the body bags for some of them when I was a military police officer. This does not sit right with any veterans. For some of these councillors to say that it is going to take away from World War I or World War II, what they are saying is that our service was less important. We don’t matter.”

Had the rescission vote passed, it would have opened the door to add the years of the Afghanistan conflict – 2001-2014 – to the front of the cenotaph, a nine-metre memorial unveiled in 1929. The cenotaph front is adorned with the words, In Honour of Those Who Served and In Memory of Those Who Fell. Below those words and above the head of the Britannia Motherhood figure are the years 1914-1918, 1939-1945 and 1950-1953.

In making the motion that could have led to the addition of the Afghanistan war years on the front of the memorial, Coun. David Hendsbee (Preston-Chezzetcook-Eastern Shore) said the Afghanistan war should be treated the same as other conflicts, including the Second World War and the Korean conflict, the years of which were added to the front of cenotaph long after it had been unveiled.

“After the Second World War, of course there were (names added). Looking back, that was an error.”

- Coun. Shawn Cleary (Halifax West-Armdale)

“I believe that it is right that we should keep the consistency by providing the dates of the Afghanistan conflict,” Hendsbee said.

Hendsbee said 40,000 Canadian troops fought in Afghanistan and 158, including 14 from Nova Scotia, died.

Coun. Shawn Cleary (Halifax West-Armdale) said there is no easy way forward on the cenotaph question.

“Anything we do is either going to denigrate the heritage of a World War I monument or offend those who may or may not have served in Afghanistan,” Cleary said.

Cleary said after the First World War, the war to end all wars, it was never contemplated that more dates would have to be added to the cenotaph.

“After the Second World War, of course there were. Looking back, that was an error.”

Cleary said that in terms of scale and scope, “there is no doubt that the First Wold War and the Second World War were much larger.”

“But Afghanistan was a 14-year-long war, 40,000 people went on rotation, 158 died between 2001 and 2014. We have 155 that have committed suicide as a result of their active service in Afghanistan. That’s over 300 people who died directly as a result of the conflict.”

Cleary said the Afghanistan war is recorded on the back of the cenotaph and that there have been other forms of memorialization.

“The sacrifice of one individual regardless of the scope of the conflict, regardless of the duration of the conflict, comes down to an individual who has served this country."

- Coun. Steve Craig (Lower Sackville)

“A cenotaph is a monument, it’s an empty tomb. All of the bodies were brought back, to the best of my recollection, from Afghanistan. So we don’t need an empty tomb, per se. This is a complex issue.

“Just simply putting more dates on the front, I don’t think that is the right answer.”

Coun. Matt Whitman (Hammonds Plains-St. Margarets) said it is the only answer.

“To me it’s not about the memorial, it’s about veterans,” Whitman said. “To say that we would be denigrating the heritage value, to say that we’ve done enough by naming a ferry or two and a highway of heroes, we can’t do enough. There is lots of room on that memorial, on the front, where these dates belong.”

Coun. Steve Craig (Lower Sackville) said putting the Afghanistan years on the front of the cenotaph is the right thing to do.

“The service that my father did in the Second World War and the Korean conflict is of no more or less value than anybody who served in Afghanistan or in the First World War or any other conflict on behalf of Canada,” Craig said.

“The sacrifice of one individual regardless of the scope of the conflict, regardless of the duration of the conflict, comes down to an individual who has served this country. That is the value that that structure in Grand Parade, the people’s square in the municipality, can justly hold, rightly hold and should hold.”

Coun. Waye Mason (Halifax South-Downtown) said the words on front of the cenotaph represent all who have served and fallen in any conflict.

“Being for or against the proposed change doesn’t make you any more or less patriotic,” said Mason, whose father served in the navy for years. “It doesn’t mean that you are any more or less pro-military, it doesn’t mean that you are any more or less supportive of those who served.”

Mason said the military, the legion and veterans were consulted extensively before it was decided four years ago that the word Afghanistan would be added to the back of the cenotaph.

“I have the utmost respect for our military and for those who served but I believe that we have consulted widely and that we have done the right thing,” Mason said.

Timpa, walking with a cane near the cenotaph after council’s vote, said he suffered several physical injuries and mental health issues related to his 13-year military service. He said he has been battling with Veterans Affairs for years to get the veterans benefits he is due.

“I’ve exhausted all avenues to complain about my treatment and nobody is listening,” Timpa said. “I appeal to the Canadian public.

“If the public doesn’t see those (Afghanistan) dates, they don’t get the recognition, then they are not going to force the government to do what’s right to make sure that injured veterans get their benefits when they come home.”

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/local/afghan-veterans-staying-on-back-of-halifax-cenotaph-it-says-its-not-important-307254/

by RevForce Wed 01 May 2019, 6:24 pm

Halifax council won't add Afghanistan war dates to front of city's main monument

Michael Tutton
May 1, 2019

HALIFAX — An Afghanistan veteran says he’s “gutted” that Halifax council has turned down a request to engrave the dates of his war on a prominent side of the cenotaph in the city’s central square.

The cenotaph in the Grand Parade currently recognizes Canada’s war in Afghanistan on the back of the monument.

However, retired chief warrant officer Bob Thompson launched a movement last year to have the dates of the conflict engraved on the front of the memorial, facing the large parade square where people stand during Remembrance Day services.

The side facing City Hall currently includes the dates of the beginning and end of the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War.

Thompson said he was deeply disappointed he didn’t achieve the two-thirds majority needed to rescind an earlier council decision against adding the Afghanistan dates. The vote was 8-7 in favour.

“I’m gutted. I’m sitting home here trying to figure out how to keep momentum on this going,” he said in a telephone interview.

The veteran said he first noticed the Afghanistan war dates weren’t as prominent during a ceremony in 2017 and has been lobbying for a change since then.

During a posting in Ottawa, he’d noticed the National War Memorial had added the name of the mission in Afghanistan — with the dates 2001-2014 — on a side of the memorial clearly visible to the crowds and parading soldiers during Remembrance Day ceremonies.

He started collecting signatures for a petition in favour of giving Halifax residents similar, highly visible exposure.

“We did the hard slugging over there for 13 years,” said Thompson, noting the 138 killed in action and 20 further deaths related to the conflict.

“We earned the place below the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War.”

There were also 635 Canadians either wounded in action or otherwise harmed as a result of participating in the Afghanistan mission.

Coun. Sam Austin, who voted against the motion, said there’s limited space left on the front of the monument to add new names of additional wars.

He said there may have been space for one more set of dates, but that would then raise the question of what to do about future conflicts.

“I might have voted for something that was to ask us to look at options,” he said in an interview.

“We might have been able to cram it in there … but it kicks the can down the road, because if history is any judge, at some point we will be involved in another conflict and then we’re most definitely out of space.”

However, he said he doubts the issue will fade.

“At some point we’re going to have to have some kind of protocol on how we will handle it.”

Meanwhile, Thompson says he may resume his campaign of standing at the base of the cenotaph and collecting signatures in support of changes to the monument.

He has also been online with fellow members of the Royal Canadian Legion seeking photos of cenotaphs that include the Afghanistan conflict in a prominent view.

Coun. David Hendsbee, who brought the motion forward, said the efforts to give Afghanistan veterans greater prominence on memorials will likely continue in Halifax and other communities.

“Two of the those who died were from my own area, and I felt to honour them, I should at least make the request,” Hendsbee said. “I wish the vote could have gone differently.”

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/halifax-council-wont-add-afghan-war-dates-to-front-of-citys-main-monument

by RevForce Wed 01 May 2019, 6:40 pm

May 1, 2019

by **SniperGod** Sun 07 Jul 2019, 9:33 pm

The Cenotaph Project - July 7, 2019

by **Warrior** Mon 29 Jul 2019, 9:02 am

World War 1 sacrifices remembered

Belleville, ON, Canada / Quinte News
John Spitters
July 29, 2019

July 28, 2019, Re-dedication Ceremony at Belleville Cenotaph, adding three names of individuals lost in WW1 Added names are at the bottom of 2 columns at left. (Photo: Marilyn Warren/City of Belleville)

https://www.quintenews.com/2019/07/29/212627/

by **Forcell** Tue 06 Aug 2019, 10:11 am

SCOTT TAYLOR: Kandahar sacrifice cannot be justified

Published: Aug 6, 2019

Cenotaph B97939168Z.1_20190806074434_000GNCP03QV.1-1_large

Members of the Canadian Forces take part in a memorial vigil in Halifax on Oct. 15, 2014. The Kandahar Airfield Centotaph was travelling across Canada before it will be permanently installed in Ottawa. - Christian Laforce

On Aug. 17, the Department of National Defence will host a dedication ceremony for what has come to be known as the Kandahar cenotaph.

The original structure had been a personal peer tribute erected by Canadian soldiers still serving at the Kandahar Airfield to commemorate their comrades who were killed in Afghanistan.

By the time Canada concluded its combat mission in 2011, and packed up the cenotaph, it included plaques representing 161 fallen Canadian soldiers and civilians.

Once it was repatriated to Canada there was much discussion as to where the cenotaph should find a permanent residence, as it is a moving symbol of Canada’s sacrifice in the Afghan mission.

With various government agencies doing what they do best — blocking all proposals regardless of their merit — DND finally decided to handle the problem within its own sphere of control. Thus, it was decided that the Kandahar cenotaph would be placed within the Nortel Campus of National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa.

For anyone familiar with the geography of our nation’s capital it is readily apparent that far from being in a central location, the Nortel Campus is well off the beaten path. Furthermore, as a functioning military headquarters facility it is a secure premise with no public access.

So, while the new permanent location is far from ideal, DND went one step beyond when they held the original dedication ceremony on May 13, without inviting or even notifying the families of the fallen. Word of the event first surfaced through social media posts three days after the VIP ceremony. Naturally, this sparked an emotional backlash from many of the grieving families.

This being an election year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to make things right. As a result of Trudeau’s public pledge, we now have the upcoming ceremony, which will allow for travel costs and accommodation for up to six guests for each of the 161 individual soldiers and civilians who are represented on the cenotaph.

There are to be an estimated 1,200 invited guests in attendance Aug. 17, with a projected catering bill alone in the range of $50,000.

I have no doubt that this time around the Kandahar cenotaph will be well and properly dedicated with all the pomp and ceremony worthy of such an occasion.

However, it will also inevitably be a bitter and sad experience for all of those assembled mourners who will be grieving the loss of a loved one.

It needs to be remembered that the dead were not the only sacrifice made by Canada’s sons and daughters in Afghanistan. There were more than 2,000 soldiers wounded or physically injured during that decade long conflict and there are countless thousands more who continue to suffer from the invisible wounds caused by post traumatic stress disorder.

Like the families of the fallen, the families of the wounded continue to struggle with the realities of the Afghanistan conflict’s aftermath on a daily basis.

When Canada concluded its combat mission in 2011 and then completed the military training assistance to Afghanistan in 2014, the die-hard hawks in the media who had blindly cheerleaded the war effort, said it was “too soon to calculate whether the sacrifice was worth it.”

They held on to the faintest of hopes that somehow the seeds of democracy, which we had helped to sow, would suddenly sprout into a peaceful utopia of prosperity and we could all rejoice.

Now it is clear that will never transpire. The U.S. has been negotiating directly with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. In exchange for the promise that the Taliban will not harbour any future terrorist threats in Afghanistan, the U.S. will begin drastically reducing the level of American troops.

Trump recently quipped that he could still win the war in Afghanistan, but would not do so because he “doesn’t want to kill 10 million people.” Threatening to wipe Afghanistan off the face of the Earth is simply macho buffoonery by the Donald in the face of the humiliating reality that the Afghan insurgents have after eighteen years of resistance beaten the world’s greatest superpower.

Yes, Aug. 17 will be a sad commemoration of lives lost in a war we could never win. And for the record, no, that sacrifice cannot be justified.

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/local-perspectives/scott-taylor-kandahar-sacrifice-cannot-be-justified-339545/

by Viper Fri 09 Aug 2019, 9:24 am

Cenotaph ceremony Friday to honour peacekeepers

Richard Watts / Times Colonist
AUGUST 8, 2019

https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/cenotaph-ceremony-friday-to-honour-peacekeepers-1.23909089

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