St. Mike’s students urged to contemplate sacrifice at Remembrance Day ceremony

Students at St. Michael Catholic secondary school received both a history lesson and a call to action at their Remembrance Day ceremony on Friday.

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Speaking during the morning event was Alex Fitzgerald-Black, the executive director of the Juno Beach Center in Normandy, France – the site where 14,000 Canadian soldiers stormed the beach as part of the pivotal D-Day operation on June 19, 1944.

While Remembrance Day is about honoring the sacrifice of those who have served, including this country’s roughly 450,000 veterans, Canadians should also remember others impacted by war, such as survivors, civilian casualties, refugees and even animals, Fitzgerald-Black said. Remembrance Day, he added, has two crucial ingredients – emotion and understanding.

“For some, Remembrance Day is very difficult. For others, forgetting would result in even deeper psychological wounds. The notion of, did our sacrifices not matter?” he said.

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It is critical to understand both the people and the past we are remembering, Fitzgerald-Black told the assembled students. Quoting Terry Copp, a military historian and recent Order of Canada recipient, Fitzgerald-Black called it an “informed memory.”

“So learn the stories of those who we remember, understand his or her role in the wider conflict they took part in. Reflect on why Canada was part of that conflict. What was the impact of this conflict on our society, of other societies around the world? . . . The day is important because we must never forget the cost of these wars, no matter the nature of the conflict,” he told the students.

Fitzgerald-Black also encouraged students to take part in the grieving process. This includes not just keeping the memory of Second World War Veterans alive, but those of more modern conflicts as well, he told the Beacon Herald in a post-ceremony interview.

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“Especially during the war in Afghanistan and during other conflicts, or even just in the course of their duties as part of the Canadian Armed Forces. So those stories are fewer and further between, but they still exist, and certainly we still lose people every year. We lose victims of post-traumatic stress disorder, especially from the war in Afghanistan, fairly frequently, unfortunately, in this country,” he said.

Remembrance Day ceremonies in schools are also key to ensuring the torch of memory is passed from generation to generation, Fitzgerald-Black said

“We’re down to probably about 10,000 Second World War veterans left in Canada out of 1.1 million who served. . . so it’s not very many living people to tell their stories,” he added.

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Teacher Mark Boersen highlighted the sheer number of Canadians who have served throughout the country’s history – an estimate that exceeds 2.3 million and the approximately 120,000 who have died in the line of duty. Boersen also acknowledged the most recent Canadian Armed Forces members who died in service – Capt. Marc Larouche of Amos, Que., and Capt. David Domagala of nearby Woodstock, members of the 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron who were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Ottawa River last year during a nighttime training flight.

“Both these men died, leaving their family members behind to grieve,” he said.

Boersen encouraged students to help make their school, community and country more peaceful.

“Are there good thoughts and actions that can truly honor those who we remember here today and make us worthy of their great sacrifice? If you want to remember, work for peace,” he said.

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