Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: James Monroe Franklin was born in Mississippi in 1899 and immigrated to Hamilton, Ontario with his family when he was still a toddler. By 1915, he was just 16 years old, too young to enlist. But like so many boys of that generation, he lied about his age. To join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Franklin was sent to France with the 4th Battalion and fought in the bloody Battle of the Somme. In October 1916, during the assault on Regina Trench, he was killed in action. He was only.
His name is carved on the Vimy memorial of France, a reminder that Canada's army was built not only by those born here, but by young immigrants who saw Canada as their new home and willingly gave their lives for it.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Thank you words we don't use enough in society anymore. Gratitude, it's a feeling and empathy that we don't exhibit enough anymore. But on November 11th at 11am, it's a very simple time of the year for, for one or two minutes to say thank you and exhibit gratitude to those who served and those continue to serve our country on Remembrance Day. Joined by Mike Wixon. As we think about a solemn day that every year there is talk, Mike, about how we should remember, what we should do. There was controversy over whether or not you should wear poppy in quartz in Nova Scotia.
I know I wear a poppy from my father who served over 30 years. And to say thank you for those who served and continue to serve because I'm eternally grateful, I show gratitude.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Well, you know, I don't want to go all the way back to grapes telling us why we should be wearing a poppy. He had his opinions about that, but the history of it in my life is significant. It was a year, you know, a part of the year that we actually remembered. You know, I talked to my cousins, we all attended the services together at the Woodbridge Memorial in Ontario here.
A place where every time I passed on my bicycle there afterward, I'm reminded of that day. The reason that it's there, the reason there's cannons at the front and being in awe of these veterans in their uniforms, proud to still walk from the church to the memorial and place a wreath. It had a significance to me, I'm hoping is still in existence in this year, Mike.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: It's a extra gratitude in my mind and throughout our conversation. You're going to see vignettes of young men who immigrated to Canada in a few short years after they landed on our soil, making a better life. They were one of the first to put their hand up to join their local regiment or the navy or the Air Force and go back overseas to fight and often lose their lives for their new country because they believed in it.
[00:02:49] Speaker C: And in fact, many of them, if you think about it, just boys, as often happened, without the ability to do a quick check on somebody's identity, many of these young men could not wait to join the Canadian forces, even though they weren't of legal age.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: And back then, in the 1914-1918 era and in World War II, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, you could take your pen and forge your birth certificate, right? And it's a digital age now, but back then you could say, grow a mustache, forge your birth certificate and say, I'm 18, I'm 19. When in reality, a lot of the young people who went overseas were underage and just growing up while they were.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: In combat and many of them losing their lives.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: John George Patterson was born in London, England in 1875 and came to Canada with his family, settling in Calgary. A pipefitter by trade, he was already.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: 40 years old when the First World War broke out.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: His son had enlisted first and John followed, determined to protect him and serve his new country. In April 1917, during the battle of Vimy Ridge in France, Private Patterson saw a German machine gun nest cutting down Canadian troops alone. He charged forward under heavy fire, throwing grenades and bayonetting the crew. His courage cleared the way for his platoon and helped secure a key position for his actions. He, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest honor this country gets for bravery. Just two months later, Patterson was killed in action near Lens. His legacy remains one of extraordinary immigrant courage and sacrifice.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: You know, there's one story that you and I looked at yesterday that I found quite touching that almost an entire town of immigrants to Canada went and most of them died.
So they were here for a grand total of I think, three years. By the time that they put the their hand up and said, please, we'd like to be part of the Canadian forces to represent this country.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: And it's sometimes because it's so far away and the veterans seem so old and we're constantly evolving as a country, it's also time to say thank you and remember the sacrifices. Over 67,000 Canadians died in World War I, over 45,000 in World War II.
Over 500 died in Korea. Over 130 Canadian men and women have died on peacekeeping missions, keeping the peace, and just more than that in Afghanistan. So Canadians who continue to serve and have served in, whether It's World War I, World War II or in peacekeeping or during the Cold War. It's just a matter of saying thank you.
Because we are a country now of over 40 million. There's just over a hundred thousand men and women in this country who wear the uniform. And it's our way to say thank you for doing what you do.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: The other thing is it underscores liberties we're handing away.
They fought for our freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of commerce, freedom of belief. All of these things that we need to make sure that we preserve.
How important it was they gave their lives, how important it was they left their homes and families behind to give them hope of a better future. One that we, to be honest with you, Jim, feels often to me like we squander, like we're not grateful for the sacrifice that was made.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: And all we ask is a minute, two minutes of your time at 11am on November 11 that you pause, you stop your busy life just to say thank you and you can go on with the rest of your life and.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Do whatever you want.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: And for me, it's not about celebrating a battle or glorifying combat. It's anything but. Because the men and women who lost their lives or came back after the fact, no one prays for peace more than they do. No one hopes that there's never war again more than the people that were part of it.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: Today we were in the middle of a staff meeting here at the network and there was a pause, and it felt respectful. It felt right. It felt like the patriotic thing to do, to remember and to show that respect. I think it's really important that in schools we don't marginalize what that means. I think it's time to get back to. It's really important that we remember this, that we remember these people that still protect us to this day.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Max Lorenz remembered hiding his German fluency in training. He didn't want comrades to mistake him for the enemy. Shipped overseas, he found himself in Germany with the Canadian occupation force in 1945.
One night, after he instinctively spoke to a hurt civilian in German, his lieutenant realized Lorenz's language skills were an asset, not a liability. He was reassigned to interpret and help with security patrols and station interviews, bridging cultures in the ruins of the country he had fled. He even received his Canadian citizenship papers while serving in Germany.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Think about the world we live in now, the images of the Middle east, of Ukraine, of Sudan, of around the world.
Do we experience that here in Canada? I'm not aware of that. We live such a privileged life and we go about our business without worry about drone strikes and cruise missiles and napalm.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: We don't worry about that.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: And so many people have come to this country to escape that, to live a peaceful life. And it's just a matter of saying, I'm grateful. I have gratitude. Thank you.
[00:08:19] Speaker C: The other thing that we need to remember is that our armed forces served us here at home so many times through so many emergencies over so many decades. And, you know, we've been in situations where we were in floods or we had no power or we wildfires, we needed wildfires handled.
We need to remember that that's important. And at this time, I think it's also kind of important to encourage people to enlist, to encourage people to become part of the recruitment process where you can get an education, where you can get a discipline in your life.
In fact, come out of the Canadian forces with potentially an amazing career for yourself, while having done something to serve the country and serve the world.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: A friend of mine has served in the Canadian Navy reserves for 30 years. He's been in HMCS Toronto, HMCS York, which is based on the lakeshore in Toronto in Queens Quay. And so he's part of the Navy Reserves. He has a civilian job and has raised his family in just north of Toronto. But every once a week he goes down to the armory and one weekend and then a couple times, like four or five weeks in the summer, he'll go on one of the Navy ships at a Halifax or Esquimalt in Victoria, bc. And so he has his civilian life, but then he serves the country in the reserves. And. And for a lot of people, it's a great way to be part of the military, but live the best of both worlds, as it were.
[00:09:49] Speaker C: These people are leaders in business.
Have you noticed that?
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:54] Speaker C: Reservists are leaders in their fields, whether it's science or commerce or whatever it is. They have a discipline that, you know, certainly makes a difference in almost any career.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: And it's just, you know, really, Mike, 364 days of the year, people in Canada don't often think about our military. But one day, November 11, for one minute, at 11am we pause and say thank you. And we think. And it's a simple term. You see someone in uniform or at one of these ceremonies, you say thank you. There can be no more powerful expression of gratitude and love as a Canadian to someone in uniform who have served or continues to serve than to say thank you.
[00:10:35] Speaker C: Do you know where you get most of that gratitude? It seems in places like France and the Netherlands where Canada made a real difference, where, you know, they stopped an occupation and they, you know, connected the community where bridges had been blown out. You know, I've heard stories about how the Canadians went in there and fed from their own rations, starving people.
So certainly around the world, our military has been expressed many times the gratitude of France and Netherlands and parts of Europe where we made a big difference.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: We are going to show a photo that I took. We were on a family vacation in 2018, and it's the Commonwealth Military Cemetery in Rome. And there is an acre of Rome that is set aside for the members of both Bernard Law Montgomery and Harold Alexander in the 8th Army. Canadians, British Australians, Commonwealth soldiers who fought liberating Sicily and Italy. And we were going through it and there was a young gentleman from the Hastings Prince Edward Regiment of Eastern Ontario, and he's there and he died in July of 44 after the liberation of Rome. He was 20 years old. He was 20 years old. And there's a lot of 19 year olds and 20 year olds and their names are in those headstones. And it's in Rome and it's a Monte Cassino, Italy, and it's in Sicily and it's in France, whether it's the Vimy Memorial or along the Normandy Memorial or in Holland. And to this day in Holland, young Dutch kids, school kids, are assigned the headstone of a Canadian who died liberating their country. And they put fresh flowers on there every Remembrance Day.
[00:12:16] Speaker C: Oh, that's incredible.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's an incredible. And that's their way saying thank you for what they have. So all we ask as Canadians, just one minute of one day, of 365 days. 11am on November 11th.
Just take a moment to be quiet and say thank you.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: You know, it's interesting, Jim, it's quite an honor for me to do this show with you. An army brat of Air Force Freddy, Air Force Freddie.
God rest Air Force Freddie. And it's important to me to remember that my friends had interaction with this experience of being in the military. And I'll ask you before we go.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: What was that like when you were a kid, when you were stationed someplace and Remembrance Day came about?
[00:13:01] Speaker B: It's what I knew growing up. It was. It was a busy day and a big day, an important day in the Canadian Forces Military installation. My dad was a high school dropout in Halifax and a group of his friends realized they didn't have much education and they had very little job prospects in the late 1950s. And they got all their moms to sign the paperwork because they were just under the age you had to be to join up.
And my dad joined up and with a little education, became an aircraft engine mechanic and worked on C130 Hercules and 707s and. And became a master mechanic and turbo, especially turboprop engines. And so Remembrance Day was an important day. And I remember in his uniform, he'd have his poppy, and they would have ceremonies in the base. And a lot of the roads on the bases where we grew up on were named after famous soldiers, famous battle sites. I see a d. E. P. Road, you know, Juno. Juno Beach Boulevard, things like that. That's what I grew up in.
And a lot of my friends from different bases who I still friends with this to this day. You know, we.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: I mean, that's one of my things.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Where I think Facebook is a good thing because they share photos of their fathers and uncles and grandfathers, the black and white photos of them in uniform and serving. And that brings me a lot of joy.
[00:14:22] Speaker C: It is with great gratitude in my heart, and I know in yours that we reach out to veterans today and people serving in our military have served in our military and are retired. Thank you very much for representing us so well and protecting us in the ways you do and looking out for us.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: We.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Mere words are not enough. But all I have to give is my words and my say thank you and I will keep saying it. I will wear my poppy with pride. It's not a political statement. It's not about anything. But this is my personal way of saying thank you to those who served. And I'll always wear it with pride every November.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: Thank you, man.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Thank you.
