Why do Canadians struggle to talk about war?
CBC
We have a problem with talking about war in this country.
That might be a strange sentiment to convey on Remembrance Day, but it is informed by so much history — recent and distant, on and off the battlefield.
That's not to say that we should in any way grow accustomed to talking about war, or eagerly embrace such conversations.
But there's a line in the recently published three-volume history of Canada's war in Afghanistan that neatly captures this reluctance at the heart of our institutions and society.
"As a mature nation, we must take responsibility for our history," wrote Sean Maloney, whose detailed, blunt, clear-eyed account of the Canadian Army in Afghanistan during the country's longest war ruffled enough establishment feathers that it faced a decade of obstacles on the way to publication.
One volume of Canada's official history of the First World War wasn't completed until 1938 (20 years after the war) and wasn't put into a final form until 1962 (44 years following the armistice). Compared to that, Maloney's Afghan war history was delivered at light speed. The two volumes that made up Canada's official Second World War history and its one-volume Korean War history also struggled to find their way to the printer.
Even with a limited print run (1,600 copies, English and French in total), Canada's Afghan war history is largely shielded from public view, with only hazy aspirations of making it more widely available. There are no deals with Amazon or other mass distributors in the works.
Contrast that with the Department of Veterans Affairs-sponsored Canada Remembers Times, a publication aimed at schoolchildren aged 12 to 18 (the ideal demographic for Remembrance Day, or at least the audience you want to get) and used in schools throughout the country.
While the publication runs plenty of articles on wars long past and the important contributions made by women and 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians to peace and security, the latest edition is mostly a tribute to United Nations peacekeeping. There's even a piece on the often-forgotten 1950s peacekeeping mission to Vietnam.
"You might have heard about the Vietnam War from Hollywood movies and TV shows," the article reads. "Did you know that the Canadian government also sent our military to Vietnam? But they didn't go there to fight."
Nowhere in the online version of Canada Remembers Times is there a mention of the war in Afghanistan, a war with which some students would have a personal connection, through parents who might have served.
Even when we talk about peacekeeping in this country, the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Medak Pocket, in the former Yugoslavia, a peacekeeping operation that saw Canadian troops fight to prevent ethnic cleansing, tends to be overlooked.
As a peacekeeping mission, Medak was far too close to actual combat — which explains why it's often referred to as Canada's "forgotten battle." The Department of National Defence had an uphill fight to get official approval for the commemoration event in Ottawa last September, according to several sources.
Part of the reason, several historians have said, is that a bloody battle in Croatia doesn't fit in with the feel-good narrative of peacekeeping.