ICYMI – Blum: Remembrance Day is a time to honour, not divide, Sherazi: Many students see Remembrance Day through their own experience of war

2024/11/28 Leave a comment

Interesting exchange of perspectives among two persons who often work together:

…Bringing contentious political symbols into a Remembrance Day ceremony is antithetical to these principles. It risks fueling division rather than fostering understanding and detracts from the lessons of sacrifice and freedom that Remembrance Day seeks to impart.

At its core, Remembrance Day is about Canadian values — freedom, respect, and unity. Those who fought for these ideals made unimaginable sacrifices, and it is our duty to honour their memory by upholding those values in our schools and communities.

To do so, we must ensure that Remembrance Day remains a day of solemn reflection and unity. It is not a platform for political statements or a time to import contemporary conflicts into our shared spaces. It is a time to remember those who gave their lives for the peace and freedoms we enjoy today and to ensure that their sacrifices are not forgotten.

By keeping politics out of the classroom and focusing on shared values, we can foster an environment where all students feel respected, included and united in their commitment to the ideals that Remembrance Day represents.

Rabbi Menachem M. Blum is the spiritual leader of the Ottawa Torah Centre. His community outreach work includes interfaith dialogue and workshops that he

Source: Blum: Remembrance Day is a time to honour, not divide

…In the last 20 years, some students have experienced war directly.  I have had the privilege to work in schools with students who have done gone through war; the horrors are unimaginable.  I think that Hobbs’s intentions were not misplaced.

If we cannot find ways to help students understand a broader message of honouring the dead — everyone’s dead — if we can’t help teach students about the freedoms we enjoy because some have sacrificed their lives to provide those freedoms, what common ground is there?

For educators, it is worth remembering that students are seeing modern warfare unfold in front of their eyes in real time on social media. In the most recent conflict in the Middle East, they have watched more than 16,000 children lose their lives. Many are buried under rubble. Others have suffered lifelong injuries, and won’t have access to medical treatment. Will students ponder the fact that 12,000 Palestinians also volunteered to serve in the British army and participated in battle in North Africa and Europe during the Second World War, and what those lives meant in the grand scheme of things?

U.S. historian Henry Glassie is quoted saying, “History is not the past but a map

Source: Sherazi: Many students see Remembrance Day through their own experience of war

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Outrage over Sir Robert Borden High School playing of peace for Gaza song at Remembrance Day ceremony

2024/11/14 Leave a comment

Legitimate concern:

…Kaplan-Mirth said the musical decision also ran counter to the OCDSB policy to steer clear of taking political stances on any and all issues.

“There is no excuse for this, playing one song at a Remembrance Day ceremony and it’s a song about Gaza? How many times and how many ways can you hurt the Jewish community? Somebody made a choice and there’s no place where this is an appropriate choice for Remembrance Day,” she said. “What if there was a Russian peace song or a Chinese peace song or an Israel peace song? None of that would be OK.”The Jewish Federation of Ottawa said it was also “deeply concerned” about the ceremony.

Source: Outrage over Sir Robert Borden High School playing of peace for Gaza song at Remembrance Day ceremony

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Rembrance Day, 2020

2020/11/11 Leave a comment

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Celebrating Sikh soldiers on Remembrance Day

2015/11/11 Leave a comment

Poppy

Timing is perfect with Canada’s first Sikh Defence Minister:

When Pardeep Singh Nagra was a kid in Mississauga, he didn’t see Sikh soldiers in his history textbooks.

Now, the 45-year-old is standing in a room where you can read about the first Sikh soldier to win a Victoria Cross (Captain Ishar Singh, 1921), look at propaganda posters extolling the virtues of the mighty Sikh whiskers, and admire row upon row of toy soldiers in turbans.

Nagra is the director of the Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada, and he was still up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning, putting the finishing touches on the museum’s “Outwhiskered” exhibit for Remembrance Day. The exhibit covers the 1800s to present, with a major focus on the two world wars, highlighting a history that is often forgotten.

“Let me tell you, I’m going to be all over the place, so don’t mind me,” Nagra says before launching into a whirlwind tour of several centuries of history.

“There is an Indian man in Flanders, but we’ve never been raised or nurtured here, even in our education systems, with this type of stuff,” he says, pausing by a photo of an Indian soldier in Ypres.

Pardeep Singh Nagra, the museum’s Executive Director, poses in front of a 1944 edition of the Picture Post, a British photojournalism magazine.

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR/ TORONTO STAR

Pardeep Singh Nagra, the museum’s Executive Director, poses in front of a 1944 edition of the Picture Post, a British photojournalism magazine.

In Canada, 10 Sikh soldiers enlisted for the First World War. None enlisted in the Second World War, fed up with a country that hadn’t given them the right to vote, he said. (That would come in 1947.)

More than 65,000 Sikh soldiers fought in the First World War as part of the British Army and over 300,000 Sikhs fought with the Allies in the Second World War. Their reputation as fierce military men was a staple of Allied propaganda and even Kellogg’s cereal box inserts.

“They wear beards and a long moustache. And all of them wrap their heads in turbans. The Sikhs ride and shoot well. A great many are in the Imperial forces,” reads the back of one Sikh trading card, possibly from the 1940s or 1950s.

At the entrance to the museum, images of Canada’s newest Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan line the walls, drawn recently by students at Khalsa Community School in Brampton. One student has given Sajjan the acrostic poem treatment — H for “Helpful to Sikh community,” A for “Amazing progression in politics and military,” and on from there.

Source: Celebrating Sikh soldiers on Remembrance Day | Toronto Star

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Ezra Levant wrongly accuses Ontario school board of allowing exemptions for Muslim students on Remembrance Day

2014/11/13 Leave a comment

Never let facts get in the way of sensationalism – or marketing:

The school board memo, which was primarily about the significance of Remembrance Day, included a series of six links directing teachers to online resources.

It was accompanied by 10 photographs, including pictures of Sikh soldiers and veterans, an Ojibwa Canadian veteran of the Korean War, a Mennonite veteran and a Jewish soldier in a prayer shawl carrying a Torah.

“Remembrance Day is a wonderful ‘teachable moment’ – and the Canadian War Museum has lots to offer with resources that are reflective of our Canadian nation – and our equally diverse local population,” read the memo, with a link to a page on the National War Museum site.

Other links included a memorial about the first Canadian Muslim woman to wear a hijab in uniform. There are also links to Google Image search results featuring aboriginal Canadian soldiers, African Canadian soldiers, and Asian Canadian soldiers.

“There were some links included on the memo that were provided for principals and schools doing Remembrance Day ceremonies that helped reinforce the diversity of our armed forces, because that’s sometimes a forgotten element,” said Mr. Scantlebury, who noted that the Greater Essex County is one of the most diverse in Canada.

Mr. Scantlebury said on Tuesday that he was not aware of any student that had requested any special accommodation. He added that he had been receiving calls on the matter for much of the day.

“We feel it’s very unfortunate that this has taken away, somewhat, from what is a very solemn occasion in our schools,” he said.

Mr. Levant’s column ends with a call to sign a petition protesting the school board at LoveItOrLeave.ca. There, Levant’s supporters can purchase T-shirts sporting a Canadian flag design and the statement “If you don’t love it, leave.”

They can also buy tickets to a three-night “Free Speech” tour featuring Levant and Sun Media’s Brian Lilley. VIP seats for the stop in Red Deer, Alta., are priced at $109.85.

Ezra Levant wrongly accuses Ontario school board of allowing exemptions for Muslim students on Remembrance Day – The Globe and Mail.

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Remembrance Day 2013

2013/11/11 2 Comments

Poppy

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