The meaning of remembrance lasts more than just a single day

Another Remembrance Day is here.

Another opportunity awaits us to attend a cenotaph ceremony, to pause silently for a minute or two wherever we are at 11 a.m. or to thank a veteran if we can find one, Or, if nothing else, we can pin a poppy on our coats.

We all know the routine. And most of us will agree it’s the least we can do for those who died fighting Canada’s wars, as well as for their comrades-in-arms who returned home, whether damaged in body or mind or, mercifully, unscarred. What we owe them is incalculable. It can never be repaid.

But there is a danger, even for the most faithful Remembrance Day observers, of marking the occasion by reflex or rote. So accustomed are we to this annual ritual that we sometimes sleepwalk our way through it. “The Last Post” becomes just a bugle tune instead of a dirge that should tear through our hearts. The inscriptions on our stone monuments become mere strings of letters, not the names of devastating battles or the extraordinary people who perished in them.

Perhaps, with the passage of time, this is inevitable. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first time people in the British Commonwealth, which, of course, includes Canada, commemorated the end of the First World War. All the surviving combatants of that bloodbath have passed away. Most of Canada’s Second World War veterans are gone, too. Those who remain are mainly in their 90s and in frail health.

It is still essential that we remember them. Just as important, we should remember the Canadians who served in the Korean War, in Afghanistan, in helping defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and, of course, in peacekeeping efforts around the globe for more than 60 years.

Of course, we should resist romanticizing war, as if it was played out by photogenic actors on a Hollywood back lot. Nor should Remembrance Day be the excuse to beat a jingoistic drum that deafens our ears to the battlefield’s truly horrid cacophony.

But there are truths we ignore at our own peril. More than 100,000 Canadians have died fighting for this country in the past 105 years. In the Second World War, Canadians were instrumental in defeating a force that can only be described as pure evil: Nazism. More recently in Afghanistan and Iraq we tried, with limited success, to restore order to nations and peoples ravaged by years of violence.

The blood and sweat shed by Canadians have made the world a better place. Acknowledging what our servicepeople have done for Canada must not start and end on Remembrance Day. Nov. 11 should be a reminder of what belongs in our minds 365 days of the year.

There are 700,000 veterans in Canada today. Some are homeless. Many have disabilities. And many insist that recent federal governments, whether Conservatives or Liberal, have broken solemn promises to provide better supports for those who wore this country’s uniform. We should remember them.

So should we remember that Canada still has a vital role to play globally, whether through diplomacy, peacekeeping or, as a last resort, armed conflict. In an era when America is receding from the world stage, democracies such as Canada need to help lead the global conversation. If we don’t, others will fill the void, as Russia’s Vladimir Putin is doing so successfully.

On Nov. 11, Canada’s past should inform our present and guide our future. Remembrance Day is our bridge across time and the ages. Lest we forget.