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Canadians want to honour the sacrifice of their Veterans...
News Release
Monday, November 6, 6:00 AM
THE DOMINION INSTITUTE CALLS FOR STATE FUNERAL FOR
LAST WORLD WAR I VETERAN
Toronto, Ontario – The Dominion Institute is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to offer the
family of the last Great War veteran resident in Canada a full State Funeral. As of today, the
Institute is collecting signatures on an online petition (accessible at www.dominion.ca) which it will
present to the federal government in the weeks following Remembrance Day, 2006.
Currently, only three veterans of First World War remain – Lloyd Clemett (106 years of age), John
Babcock (106 years of age) and Dwight Wilson (105 years of age). These three men constitute
Canada’s only living link to the sacrifices and triumphs of the more than half million Canadians who
served under arms between 1914 and 1918 and the more than 60,000 who died in the Great War.
“A national gesture needs to be made to mark this watershed moment,” said Rudyard Griffiths,
Executive Director of The Dominion Institute. “If there ever was a time for our nation to be bold and
generous in the commemoration of our history, traditions, and values, surely the passing of our last
Great War veteran is that moment.”
Surveys undertaken by the Dominion Institute reveal that Canadians’ knowledge of the First World
War is fading rapidly with barely a third of our fellow citizens can name the battle of Vimy Ridge as
a key Canadian victory in the First World War. Polls also show that Canadians feel that more effort
should be made to keep the memories and sacrifices of our Great War veterans alive.
The Dominion Institute is making its call for a State Funeral on behalf of the veterans who
volunteer with its Memory Project. The Memory Project Speakers’ Bureau consists of 1,500
veteran volunteers who have visited with over 300,000 young people since 2001. The Institute
conducted an informal survey of this group last month and found that fully 76% supported
providing a State Funeral to the family of the Last Great War veteran resident in Canada.
For more information on the Memory Project visit www.thememoryproject.com.
For more information on this release contact:
Rudyard Griffiths
Executive Director
Phone: 416-368-9627
Email: [email protected]
(turn over for background information)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The following is the edited text of a comment essay by the Dominion Institute published in the
Globe and Mail on Monday November, 6.
Only three veterans of First World War remain. They are Lloyd Clemett (106 years of age), John
Babcock (also 106 years of age) and Dwight Wilson (105 years of age).
Polls undertaken by the Dominion Institute reveal, barely a third of our fellow citizens can name the
battle of Vimy Ridge as a key Canadian victory in the First World War, even when the answer is
hinted at in the question. One in four respondents thought Douglas Macarthur, not Sir Arthur
Currie, was a great Canadian general in World War One; a result that reveals a stunning lack of
awareness of both chronology and nationality. Equally disconcerting, less than half of 18 to 24 year
olds surveyed were familiar with Capitan John McRae's immortal (or maybe not) war poem, In
Flanders Fields.
Why do we seem doomed to forget a war that is as important to understanding Canada's journey
from colony to nation state as, say, the American Revolution is to the history of the United States?
From the Great War onwards, it has been the veterans, more than anyone else, who have ensured
the country understood the link between our military heritage and hard-won nationhood. Through
their once million-strong national associations, such as the Royal Canadian Legion, annual Vimy
dinners, overseas pilgrimages, and unremitting volunteer work, veterans have kept the traditions of
Remembrance alive in communities large and small.
Now, not only are the Great War veterans disappearing, but their sons and daughters who served
in the Second World War are, on average, 86 years of age. Of these 200,000 veterans alive today,
more than five hundred pass on each week; an attrition rate greater than during the War itself.
The difficult truth is that the entire history of Canada's participation in the wars of the 20th century,
especially the Great War, is rapidly slipping out of the realm of lived experience and into the fuzzy
world of second- and third-hand memories, to be passed along, or not, to the next generation.
A national gesture needs to be made to mark this watershed moment.
The Dominion Institute is calling on Primer Minister Stephen Harper to offer the family of the last
Great War veteran resident in Canada a full State Funeral. For a nation in urgent need of renewing
the commitment it made at the end of the Great War to "never forget", a State Funeral would allow
Canadians to come together to honour those who died, and accept, on their behalf, the responsibly
to keep their memories alive.
Detractors will say that State Funerals are only for Governors General and Prime Ministers, or that
they are designed to commemorate the life of an individual and not an event such as the Great
War.
We say for once let's cast off the usual Canadian timidity and understatement when it comes to
celebrating our past. If there ever was a time for our nation to be bold and generous in the
commemoration of our history, traditions, and values, surely the passing of our last Great War
veteran is that moment.
-30-
News Release
Monday, November 6, 6:00 AM
THE DOMINION INSTITUTE CALLS FOR STATE FUNERAL FOR
LAST WORLD WAR I VETERAN
Toronto, Ontario – The Dominion Institute is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to offer the
family of the last Great War veteran resident in Canada a full State Funeral. As of today, the
Institute is collecting signatures on an online petition (accessible at www.dominion.ca) which it will
present to the federal government in the weeks following Remembrance Day, 2006.
Currently, only three veterans of First World War remain – Lloyd Clemett (106 years of age), John
Babcock (106 years of age) and Dwight Wilson (105 years of age). These three men constitute
Canada’s only living link to the sacrifices and triumphs of the more than half million Canadians who
served under arms between 1914 and 1918 and the more than 60,000 who died in the Great War.
“A national gesture needs to be made to mark this watershed moment,” said Rudyard Griffiths,
Executive Director of The Dominion Institute. “If there ever was a time for our nation to be bold and
generous in the commemoration of our history, traditions, and values, surely the passing of our last
Great War veteran is that moment.”
Surveys undertaken by the Dominion Institute reveal that Canadians’ knowledge of the First World
War is fading rapidly with barely a third of our fellow citizens can name the battle of Vimy Ridge as
a key Canadian victory in the First World War. Polls also show that Canadians feel that more effort
should be made to keep the memories and sacrifices of our Great War veterans alive.
The Dominion Institute is making its call for a State Funeral on behalf of the veterans who
volunteer with its Memory Project. The Memory Project Speakers’ Bureau consists of 1,500
veteran volunteers who have visited with over 300,000 young people since 2001. The Institute
conducted an informal survey of this group last month and found that fully 76% supported
providing a State Funeral to the family of the Last Great War veteran resident in Canada.
For more information on the Memory Project visit www.thememoryproject.com.
For more information on this release contact:
Rudyard Griffiths
Executive Director
Phone: 416-368-9627
Email: [email protected]
(turn over for background information)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The following is the edited text of a comment essay by the Dominion Institute published in the
Globe and Mail on Monday November, 6.
Only three veterans of First World War remain. They are Lloyd Clemett (106 years of age), John
Babcock (also 106 years of age) and Dwight Wilson (105 years of age).
Polls undertaken by the Dominion Institute reveal, barely a third of our fellow citizens can name the
battle of Vimy Ridge as a key Canadian victory in the First World War, even when the answer is
hinted at in the question. One in four respondents thought Douglas Macarthur, not Sir Arthur
Currie, was a great Canadian general in World War One; a result that reveals a stunning lack of
awareness of both chronology and nationality. Equally disconcerting, less than half of 18 to 24 year
olds surveyed were familiar with Capitan John McRae's immortal (or maybe not) war poem, In
Flanders Fields.
Why do we seem doomed to forget a war that is as important to understanding Canada's journey
from colony to nation state as, say, the American Revolution is to the history of the United States?
From the Great War onwards, it has been the veterans, more than anyone else, who have ensured
the country understood the link between our military heritage and hard-won nationhood. Through
their once million-strong national associations, such as the Royal Canadian Legion, annual Vimy
dinners, overseas pilgrimages, and unremitting volunteer work, veterans have kept the traditions of
Remembrance alive in communities large and small.
Now, not only are the Great War veterans disappearing, but their sons and daughters who served
in the Second World War are, on average, 86 years of age. Of these 200,000 veterans alive today,
more than five hundred pass on each week; an attrition rate greater than during the War itself.
The difficult truth is that the entire history of Canada's participation in the wars of the 20th century,
especially the Great War, is rapidly slipping out of the realm of lived experience and into the fuzzy
world of second- and third-hand memories, to be passed along, or not, to the next generation.
A national gesture needs to be made to mark this watershed moment.
The Dominion Institute is calling on Primer Minister Stephen Harper to offer the family of the last
Great War veteran resident in Canada a full State Funeral. For a nation in urgent need of renewing
the commitment it made at the end of the Great War to "never forget", a State Funeral would allow
Canadians to come together to honour those who died, and accept, on their behalf, the responsibly
to keep their memories alive.
Detractors will say that State Funerals are only for Governors General and Prime Ministers, or that
they are designed to commemorate the life of an individual and not an event such as the Great
War.
We say for once let's cast off the usual Canadian timidity and understatement when it comes to
celebrating our past. If there ever was a time for our nation to be bold and generous in the
commemoration of our history, traditions, and values, surely the passing of our last Great War
veteran is that moment.
-30-
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