Standing on guard, despite indignities
Guards march at the National War Memorial on a picture-perfect August afternoon. On a day that saw one man accused of lewd acts at the landmark and another sentenced for dressing up as a soldier, Kelly Egan calls for a return to respect — and also for a m
We do take our symbols seriously in this town, perhaps hysterically so.
They matter, obviously. It is why some cloth is a uniform, some pin a medal, and some pile of mounted bronze a monument. We do the imbuing, weave through the respect, decide when offence must be taken.
You will remember the bloodboiling anger after a number of young men were photographed urinating on the National War Memorial in 2006, capping an intoxicating celebration of Canada Day. Oh how we stand on guard for pee.
After front-page coverage, the mob needed pitchforks just to bale the outrage: how dare these ungrateful piss-tanks?
“A national disgrace,” declared a Citizen editorial writer. “It makes one wonder just how decadent and soft this country has become — a country where in some circles patriotism is a dirty word and historical memory is short.”
After this weekend’s nonsense — and the sentencing of the fake soldier Tuesday — it might be useful to remember the aftermath. The adult in the 2006 incident was charged with criminal mischief but, without trial, the charge was dropped seven months later. The young man, too drunk to be capable of malicious intent or even remembering the event, had apologized to Canadian veterans, did community service at a veterans’ home in the Montreal area and donated $200 to charity.
In effect, he was making wee-wee against a grey slab, not an attack on Canada’s military history and war dead. No excuse, but it certainly colours the crime. The dropping of the charge was the right thing to do.
It would be unwise to connect the dots too closely, but it might be worth pondering that the shock of the urination scandal in 2006 contributed to the posting of uniformed sentries at the war memorial in 2007, one of whom was gunned down last October in an act of cold-blooded murder, leading to the posting of armed Ottawa police officers in April to guard the unarmed sentries.
One hopes nothing happens to the police officers, as we’ll be faced with the prospect of guarding the sentry guards. Thus do we treat decorum at the cenotaph with abundant seriousness, if incomplete logic.
On Sunday evening, a 22-yearold man was reportedly seen climbing the monument and, according to police, “fornicating” with the statue, which contains multiple military figures from the First World War. It was 11:30 p.m., which we might have guessed.
He, too, has been charged with mischief. Whatever the motive, it’s all pretty idiotic. But there again, one hopes there will not be an over-reaction. What next? 24-hour sentries, with 24-hour police guards? One imagines, as we speak, someone is designing a high, wrought-iron fence to keep visitors a respectable distance away from the monument and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Seriously, where does it end? How much cop/court/Crown/ judge/jail time are we going to waste on what is essentially an act of gross disrespect?
The conduct of Franck Gervais, 33, the so-called fake soldier, is more troubling. This was not a moment of drunken stupidity or a youthful Jackass audition. It took considerable deliberation for a civilian to order a uniform and medals online, have the gall to wear them (incorrectly) to Remembrance Day ceremonies, be so brazen with the charade as to go on television, and be
In effect, he was making wee-wee against a grey slab, not an attack on Canada’s military history and war dead.
calculating enough to concoct war stories, to be swapped with real veterans.
He should consider himself fortunate that he received a suspended sentence, with a year’s probation, on Tuesday. The humiliation, however, will be much harder to erase.
It might be a smug reaction, but it’s worth noting that both the urinator and the fornicator were from outside Ottawa. Could it be that outsiders just aren’t as alive to the deep level of respect that these sites command? Perhaps they’ve never seen, up close, the tears on Nov. 11, the lines of hunched veterans, heard the haunting trumpet, followed the steps of the Silver Cross mother?
On the other hand, when I last passed the Royal Canadian Navy Monument on Richmond Landing (on the bank of the Ottawa River below the Supreme Court), there was black graffiti on the white marble and a “Work in Progress” sign duct-taped on the side. Now that, sorry, is offensive.
This is a plea, I suppose, for a measured reaction to these insults to our pride and a warning about the danger of revenge. It started, did it not, many a war?