An article that makes you wonder... Just for info to add to the article. If you want to follow the story of the Juno Beach, Vimy Ridge, Menin Gate Veterans ceremonies go to the fall of 2005 and early 2006 archives of Trevor Gladue's Metis Matters Newspaper. Trevor and his wife were - Ed Borchert's helpers on this tour - not that they were veterans, youth or bureaucrats .... must have been a hanger on.
David is with the Duck Bay Dancers at the Vimy Ridge vacation. This event not unlike the others had far more Metis Politicians and others....
You will see Felice Gladue standing in the back row and husband Trevor is in the front row of this picture which can be found at: http://www.metisnation.ca/press/photo.html Why should bureaucrats, officials and other hangers-on outnumber veterans 2 to 1 on pilgrimages to battlefields?
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/05/07/5492521-sun.html
By PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
Periodically, Veterans Affair Canada (VAC), conducts pilgrimages to various wartime battlefields and cemeteries where Canadians made a name for themselves.
Often, veterans who are the centrepiece of these expeditions, seem secondary to bureaucrats and officials who accompany and outnumber them, sometimes two to one.
I was invited to mark the 50th anniversary of the Korean war, and at the time it struck me as a bit odd that senior bureaucrats flew business class, while the outnumbered vets (some of them literally on their last legs) were relegated to economy class. While some of the old soldiers grumbled, most felt this was just the way things are; nothing much had changed since wartime days when they roughed it.
This July, VAC is conducting what may be the last pilgrimage by veterans to the 55th anniversary of the ending of the Korean War -- a war that ended in stalemate but which was a triumph for South Korea in peace.
ONE VET EACH
In past "pilgrimages," regiments that fought in Korea contributed three veterans each. This year they've been allocated one veteran each, which seems unnecessarily chintzy, especially when this may be the last chance for many to take part.
Complicating the arrangements is that four veterans from each of three Aboriginal and Metis organizations are attending (12 in all) -- some of whom never served in Korea. This seems disproportional, especially when 40 or so vets will be herded by close to 100 staff from VAC, including an honour guard, students and various others who'll get a free trip.
Apparently what is planned is a four-day "Calling Home Ceremony" for the souls or spirits of Aboriginals who were killed. It will be similar to ceremonies at a 2005 pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge where retired Princess Pats Maj. Ed Borchert (who once ran the gift shop at the regimental museum in Calgary and claims to be a Metis) conducted ceremonies.
At Vimy, Borchert said it was very emotional: "We felt loss, grief, elation, tears, anger, laughter and joy. The spirits came to us and cried to go home."
(The cycle of calling home the spirits of dead warriors apparently takes four years of feasts, songs and dances.)
Borchert, who retired in 1995 after 30 years service, defines the Calling Home Ceremony as a "vision of warriors brought to veterans on the wings of a Great Eagle from the Creator ... a cry from our ancestors for the spirits of our fallen warriors to be returned to their ancestral homelands."
Claude Petit, president of the National Aboriginal Veterans Association (NAVA) -- the umbrella group representing all Aboriginal and Metis vets -- isn't impressed. He even questions whether Borchert is Metis, and says in the past he has been depicted as Ukrainian and even Spanish.
"Pipe ceremonies and such are not a Metis thing," says Petit, who is Metis himself, was wounded in Korea and holds the Order of Canada for work in Saskatchewan among native and Metis people.
"Fine if First Nation vets want to do these ceremonies," says Petit. "But Maj. Borchert isn't a veteran of Korea, even though he likes to wear a buckskin jacket and the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation awarded to 2 Battalion PPCLI. I've told him this. I call him Grey Owl II, and have complained to Veterans Affairs."
Petit says most Metis are Catholics and don't intrude on First Nation ceremonies. NAVA is sending four Korean vets on the Pilgrimage, as is a Metis organization and a First Nation group. Not all are Korean vets.
PRINCESS PATS
Along with his brother, Petit joined the Princess Pats under age and stayed in the army after the Korean war. Claude was heavyweight boxing champ of the Canadian army and is an outspoken advocate for Aboriginal causes -- rarely reluctant to say what he thinks.
His reference to Borchert as "Grey Owl II" brings to mind the original Grey Owl, who was born Archie Belaney in Hasting, England, but joined the Montreal Black Watch in World War I pretending to be an Ojibwa Indian. He was a sniper, was wounded, and on discharge became a trapper in Temagame, Ont. A naturalist, he wrote critically acclaimed books and toured Britain and America as an Indian. He died in 1938 at age 50. The North Bay Nugget exposed him as a non-aboriginal. His life was later made into a movie, staring Pierce Brosnan.
Vince Courtenay, a Korean vet and publisher of Koreavet news.com, also questions a Metis staging pipe ceremonies and urges VAC to reconsider and send three vets from each of the regiments that fought in Korea.
On behalf of the VanDoos and RCR, Regimental Maj. E.A. Liebert of the PPCLI has requested VAC to "review plans and try to maximize participation of Korean veterans in Armistice ceremonies." He notes these three regiments supplied almost half the 26,000 Canadian soldiers who served in Korea, and sustained 75% of the casualties.
Petit was involved in getting NAVA vets to the Vimy Ridge pilgrimage where Borchert conducted the "Calling Home Ceremony."
Petit says: "My grandfather is buried at Vimy Ridge and I want his spirit to stay where it is, among those who died there."
Many veterans of aboriginal blood who served in World War I, World War II and Korea feel that in the army they were treated fairly as equals for the first time in their lives. After these wars, for many, it was a return to the reserve and the prejudices of the times.
Today, efforts are made to encourage aboriginal recruitment, as they make excellent soldiers.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/05/07/5492521-sun.html
By PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
Periodically, Veterans Affair Canada (VAC), conducts pilgrimages to various wartime battlefields and cemeteries where Canadians made a name for themselves.
Often, veterans who are the centrepiece of these expeditions, seem secondary to bureaucrats and officials who accompany and outnumber them, sometimes two to one.
I was invited to mark the 50th anniversary of the Korean war, and at the time it struck me as a bit odd that senior bureaucrats flew business class, while the outnumbered vets (some of them literally on their last legs) were relegated to economy class. While some of the old soldiers grumbled, most felt this was just the way things are; nothing much had changed since wartime days when they roughed it.
This July, VAC is conducting what may be the last pilgrimage by veterans to the 55th anniversary of the ending of the Korean War -- a war that ended in stalemate but which was a triumph for South Korea in peace.
ONE VET EACH
In past "pilgrimages," regiments that fought in Korea contributed three veterans each. This year they've been allocated one veteran each, which seems unnecessarily chintzy, especially when this may be the last chance for many to take part.
Complicating the arrangements is that four veterans from each of three Aboriginal and Metis organizations are attending (12 in all) -- some of whom never served in Korea. This seems disproportional, especially when 40 or so vets will be herded by close to 100 staff from VAC, including an honour guard, students and various others who'll get a free trip.
Apparently what is planned is a four-day "Calling Home Ceremony" for the souls or spirits of Aboriginals who were killed. It will be similar to ceremonies at a 2005 pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge where retired Princess Pats Maj. Ed Borchert (who once ran the gift shop at the regimental museum in Calgary and claims to be a Metis) conducted ceremonies.
At Vimy, Borchert said it was very emotional: "We felt loss, grief, elation, tears, anger, laughter and joy. The spirits came to us and cried to go home."
(The cycle of calling home the spirits of dead warriors apparently takes four years of feasts, songs and dances.)
Borchert, who retired in 1995 after 30 years service, defines the Calling Home Ceremony as a "vision of warriors brought to veterans on the wings of a Great Eagle from the Creator ... a cry from our ancestors for the spirits of our fallen warriors to be returned to their ancestral homelands."
Claude Petit, president of the National Aboriginal Veterans Association (NAVA) -- the umbrella group representing all Aboriginal and Metis vets -- isn't impressed. He even questions whether Borchert is Metis, and says in the past he has been depicted as Ukrainian and even Spanish.
"Pipe ceremonies and such are not a Metis thing," says Petit, who is Metis himself, was wounded in Korea and holds the Order of Canada for work in Saskatchewan among native and Metis people.
"Fine if First Nation vets want to do these ceremonies," says Petit. "But Maj. Borchert isn't a veteran of Korea, even though he likes to wear a buckskin jacket and the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation awarded to 2 Battalion PPCLI. I've told him this. I call him Grey Owl II, and have complained to Veterans Affairs."
Petit says most Metis are Catholics and don't intrude on First Nation ceremonies. NAVA is sending four Korean vets on the Pilgrimage, as is a Metis organization and a First Nation group. Not all are Korean vets.
PRINCESS PATS
Along with his brother, Petit joined the Princess Pats under age and stayed in the army after the Korean war. Claude was heavyweight boxing champ of the Canadian army and is an outspoken advocate for Aboriginal causes -- rarely reluctant to say what he thinks.
His reference to Borchert as "Grey Owl II" brings to mind the original Grey Owl, who was born Archie Belaney in Hasting, England, but joined the Montreal Black Watch in World War I pretending to be an Ojibwa Indian. He was a sniper, was wounded, and on discharge became a trapper in Temagame, Ont. A naturalist, he wrote critically acclaimed books and toured Britain and America as an Indian. He died in 1938 at age 50. The North Bay Nugget exposed him as a non-aboriginal. His life was later made into a movie, staring Pierce Brosnan.
Vince Courtenay, a Korean vet and publisher of Koreavet news.com, also questions a Metis staging pipe ceremonies and urges VAC to reconsider and send three vets from each of the regiments that fought in Korea.
On behalf of the VanDoos and RCR, Regimental Maj. E.A. Liebert of the PPCLI has requested VAC to "review plans and try to maximize participation of Korean veterans in Armistice ceremonies." He notes these three regiments supplied almost half the 26,000 Canadian soldiers who served in Korea, and sustained 75% of the casualties.
Petit was involved in getting NAVA vets to the Vimy Ridge pilgrimage where Borchert conducted the "Calling Home Ceremony."
Petit says: "My grandfather is buried at Vimy Ridge and I want his spirit to stay where it is, among those who died there."
Many veterans of aboriginal blood who served in World War I, World War II and Korea feel that in the army they were treated fairly as equals for the first time in their lives. After these wars, for many, it was a return to the reserve and the prejudices of the times.
Today, efforts are made to encourage aboriginal recruitment, as they make excellent soldiers.
7 comments:
In the case of David Chartrand, he always travels with an entouage. Those who knew him in grade school said he was like that even then. He has his grade 8 or 9 so we don't how much about his behaviour in high school if he got that far. Insecurity, paranoia?
Would be interesting to hear what Frank Godon has to say about the Toronto Sun article - he has worked with Metis Veterans in the past.
So as not to get myself into trouble I will stay quite on the Boucher story.
But as for Veterans being able to visit past battle fields I would like to see it so that ALL veterans get to go, not just the choosen few. And Yes make sure they get to go first class and not the buracrates.
I accompanied my father and Charlie Foesneu (sp?) to the opening of the Juno Beach center in 2003 (my father fought with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles on June 6 (D-Day) and was take prisoner a few days after) It was only Me, My father, Charlie, Clem and his then girlfriend Cathy Hodgson-Smith. Not a very big group and highlight was shaking the PM's hand (big deal)
I will say the after having been the secretary for the Metis National Veterans Association, its nothing but a joke, and a waste of money. Everyone was handpicked for the board and Executive, Including yours truely.
Its all a show - on the backs of the veterans who really deserve the trips and recognitions - but are lost to all the hype.
I'm not sure I like this statement....
" Today, efforts are made to encourage aboriginal recruitment, as they make excellent soldiers. "
Is the reporter racist ?
Don't read more into the statement than is there. During WWII Natives were honored for their ability to "sneak" into enemy territory without being noticed because back home they had to rely on their skills of hunting and trapping to stay alive. Also it is well documented that Native Americans train better as soliders for some reason. And most of the best marksman are Natives.
It isn't racist to request for the best. Give me a platoon of Natives any day and I can guarantee results.
Why you so quick to play the racist card? Go back and re-read the statement. Could you possibly be the one who's racist.
The reporter is trying to bring attention to the fact not enough veterans are attending these events and too many bureaucrats. That's racist?
Frank you now have your platoon of Natives.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to attack MMF Headquarters under cover of darkness. Pay particular attention to the third floor corner office. The operation will be code named Cluster F*ck. This is a search and destroy operation. Repeat, search and destroy.
Please monitor this site and stand by for further instructions.
Good Luck Commander Frank!
I'm a peacetime vet, 2/Lt, RCA, and dispute the comment that "most Metis are Catholic and don't do pipe ceremonies". I am a proud Metis with family relations to the Riels, but have never been a Roman Catholic and follow the traditional spiritual path, including the pipe ceremony. Generalizations are generally bad and best left to Generals!
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