By Scott Taylor
It all began with a newsletter circulated on Friday, Nov. 8 to the parents of those students who attend Sackville Heights Elementary School in Nova Scotia.
The newsletter outlined the school's plans for their Nov. 11 Remembrance Day ceremony the following Monday. Noting that any serving member of the Canadian Armed Forces was welcome to attend, the newsletter added this controversial clarification: "To maintain a welcoming environment for all, we kindly request that service members wear civilian clothing."
Within hours of that newsletter being delivered, Lower Sackville, NS was on the map of virtually every major Canadian news broadcast. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and all of those opposition party leaders running for his job in the current provincial election, used their pulpits to denounce the school's decision.
Columnists, pundits and social media commentators nationwide took up their virtual cudgels to slam the decision by Sackville Heights Elementary to ban military uniforms on Remembrance Day.
In defending her decision to request CAF members wear civilian attire to the ceremony, beleaguered school principal Rachael Webster explained she was concerned for some of her students who have come from countries experiencing conflict. She said that some individuals had expressed discomfort with images of war including military uniforms.
While Webster's explanation mirrors the current Canada wide 'trauma-informed' approach to teaching the youth of today, the backlash was too much to resist.
Less than 24 hours after the news storm erupted Webster issued an email in which she apologized and welcomed military family members to attend "in the attire that makes them the most comfortable." As for those students who might be traumatized at the sight of a Canadian military uniform, Sackville Heights Elementary was to make special arrangements to make them feel safe.
I fully understand that for many new Canadians who have sought refuge in Canada due to the violent unrest in their native land, a military uniform could be triggering. In many of those conflicts, militias wearing military uniforms have committed horrific atrocities against rival ethnic factions.
In Afghanistan, the military and police forces that Canadian soldiers helped to train openly perpetrated crimes against their own people. Their actions were, in turn, viewed by the locals as being associated and supported by the NATO force that equipped, trained and paid them. That said, we need to give these individuals enough credit to be able to discern the difference between Canada's disciplined, professional military and the ragtag armed criminals that ravage so many global hotspots around the world.
Exposing these children-of-conflict to a Canadian service member in a dress uniform at a Remembrance Day ceremony paying respect to the fallen, could be a vital first step to helping them understand the safety and peace that we enjoy here in Canada.
This year was also the fifth anniversary of the controversial Remembrance Day firing of iconic hockey broadcaster Don Cherry. The CBC had no option but to fire Cherry after he made racist remarks during a live broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada. The target of his rant was recent immigrants to Toronto and Mississauga for not wearing poppies during Remembrance Week. “You people that come here… whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy." said Cherry on air.
While many veterans flocked to support Cherry in the aftermath of his firing by CBC, I firmly believe they were right to fire him. Not only were his comments blatantly racist, the truth is that no one should be told to wear a poppy. It should be explained to recent immigrants the importance of wearing a poppy, followed by the fact that those who fought and died were doing so to ensure that we have the right to choose to wear a poppy. Not because we are ordered to do so. That is my Canada.
