jemesouviens

Piddingworth Greg Benton

'Piddingworth...where St. George's Cross is not yet banned.'
Mark Steyn

Je me souviens
(tous trop bien)

In the current Trudeaupian Version of Canada, or Trudope Canada, it is simply
a cardinal sin to criticise, and tell the truth about former Prime Minister and
socialist demi-god Pierre Trudeau. Although, unlike North Korea or Cuba,
a citizen won't be imprisoned for impugning the mythology of
'The Great & Glorious Father Of Our Country', in Canada,
with the rare exception, one is ostracised, tarred and feathered by the
media and certainly in Québec by those French Canadians who both
adore and despise Trudeau. (Only French Québecois are permitted
this privilege).

So it is that when former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney revealed his
views about Trudeau in a news interview for his forthcoming autobiography,
the knives have come out.

Mulroney, a Québecois of the Irish Kind, but who can parler like
a French Québecois, said that Trudeau lacked the moral fibre to lead
the country because of his refusal to serve in the war and for his
antiwar activism as a student. (Trudeau notoriously rode about
on his motorcycle wearing a German helmet during the war and
when once asked about his position on the war, Trudeau replied:
'So, there's a war on. Tough.'

'This is a man who questioned the Allies when the Jews were being
sacrificed and when the great extermination program was on, he was
marching around Outremont (Montréal) on the other side of the issue.'

Whilst acknowledging that Trudeau's anti-war views were in line
with what many Québecers believed at the time, he said a
million young Canadians chose to fight, knowing that the Nazis
wanted to exterminate the Jews.

"Pierre Trudeau was not among them. That's a decision he made.
He's entitled to make that kind of decision. But it doesn't qualify him
for any position of moral leadership in our society"

Of course, Brian Mulroney, as part of a younger generation than
that of Trudeau, didn't have the opportunity to go to war and
fight the Nazis et al. The implication one supposes is that he would have
if he could have. Still, the record of Mulroney's generation toward
service in the military is rather thin...as has that of each generation
since.

Not so for the late and highly respected Ray Hnatyshyn,
Mulroney's former Minister of Justice and former Governor-General
of Canada, whom I was once privileged to serve as Padre at a unique
military occasion. Of Ukrainian heritage, he told me how proud he
was both to serve and represent the Queen and, as a younger lad,
to serve in the Canadian Army Reserve in Saskatchewan. He remarked
that he wished every young Canadian could experience the tremendous
benefits of military service; that it would deepen their appreciation of
citizenship and their country. What a thoroughly delightful and
very good man.

Alas, military service among the majority of les habitants, the French
population of Canada has never been a particularly attractive choice
either in war or peacetime since Confederation in 1867. Certainly,
the notion of fighting for the 'English King' was thoroughly unpalatable.
As the senior Dominion in the British Empire and Commonwealth, Canada
has formally participated in the South African War, World Wars One
and Two, the Korean War, a variety of 'peacekeeping missions',
the first Gulf War and now, with NATO, the war in Afghanistan.

In each of the World Wars, the issue of 'conscription' of men into
the army was a political hot potato in Canada; largely because of
French Canadian resistance. In the First 'Great War', out of
a volunteer Canadian force of over 600,000, mostly UK-born soldiers,
there was an enlistment of about 10,000 from French Canada.
These brave French Canadians were attached to the 22nd Battalion
(22e) later to become known as the Royal 22e Regiment, often
referred to as the 'famed Van Doos'. Why the 22e are more 'famed'
than the Royal Canadian Regiment or Princess Patricia's Light Infantry
or Lord Strathcona's Horse Guards or The Queen's Own Rifles
remains unclear. Perhaps it is because of the cultural astonishment;
but there is no question that that French Canadian battalion and
regiment has acquitted itself in battle with considerable distinction.

There were many more French Canadians serving in World War Two
but the issue of 'conscription', once again, was a political hot potato
for then Liberal Prime Minister MacKenzie King who coined the
oft-quoted phrase: 'Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily
conscription'. Brilliant. Indeed, one could easily extract from
this policy the very nature of the Liberal party itself where principle
is commonly subordinate to the acquistion and maintenance of power.

Even today, much is made of how the majority of people in Québec
do not support Canada's combat role in Afghanistan and the media
has even referred to the Royal 22e as 'Quebec's soldiers'. The
suggestion is that when soldiers from Quebec are killed or wounded,
the current Conservative government will suffer and lose support.
Of course, the soldiers of the Royal 22e are not 'Quebec' soldiers at
all but Canadian soldiers, fighting for Canada but such is the climate of
New Canada that the 'French' are distinct from and more 'important'
than those from Alberta or Nova Scotia.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

It is not an especially pleasant thing to have to note the reluctance of
a quarter of the country's citizens unwilling to volunteer to do
their duty in a time of war but it is even more galling to have to
listen to those voices who defend their lack of a national will as virtuous.
That doesn't say much about those French Canadian soldiers who did
volunteer and serve including such eminent men as the late and
deeply revered, Maj-General Georges Vanier, former
Governor-General and of Corporal Joseph Kaeble 22nd Battalion,
Canadian Expeditionary Force who was awarded the Victoria Cross
at Neuville-Vitasse, France - June 8, 1918 and Lieutenant Jean Brillant
awarded a VC in battle near Amiens, France - August 8-9, 1918 , or
in the next generation, Major Paul Triquet of the Royal 22e Régiment
who was awarded the VC at Casa Berardi, Italy on December 14, 1943
whilst Pierre Trudeau was living it up at home and bad-mouthing his country.

I doubt very much that many, if any, of those commentators, including
Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, who are defending Trudeau from Mulroney's
criticism, could name or identify these distinguished Canadian soldiers
or know why they are truly Canadian heroes. The motto of Québec
is 'Je me souviens', 'I remember'. Unfortunately, with so much of
Canada's pre-Trudeaupian history virtually erased from the national
memory bank, it should be 'I forget'.

The mythology around Trudeau, inflated by the flatulence of a bloated
and deeply-entrenched 'official' bureaucracy and political expediency,
has become utterly perverse.

When Trudeau finally did get a grip on power, his disdain for the
identity of the country into which he was born and raised with privilege
and that fought for, not only Canada's freedom, but that of 'Mother France'
was obvious. It found it's greatest triumph in the transformation of
the country through the establishment of 'official' bi-lingualism,
multi-culturalism, and, his crowning 'achievement' rendered by the
Constitution Act, 1982 with it's Charter of Rights and Freedoms
that virtually abolished Parliamentary Supremacy and the precedent of
the Common Law to the justices of the Supreme Court. Mark Steyn has
described the whole business as the 'Frenchification of Canada'. Yet,
even with all of that, Québec remains a threat and estranged whilst
the glory of the Dominion has been relegated to the dust bin.

When Trudeau invoked the 'War Measures Act' during the 'October Crisis'
in 1970, after Québec 'nationalists', i.e., terrorists, kidnapped British
diplomat James Cross and Québec provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte,
who was murdered, many commented on how 'tough' Pierre Trudeau
was as a leader. 'Just watch me' he replied to a journalist when asked about
what action he would take with the terrorists. Trudeau called in the army...
the same army in which he would not serve against the terror of Nazi
Germany.

Whenever I have been told by Trudeaupians or unkowning students
that Trudeau 'put Canada on the map', I refer them to the soldiers
of Flanders Fields, of Vimy Ridge, of Normandy and Italy. Their
achievements, for King and Country, brought more honour and
distinction to this country than Trudeau ever could have.

For all his so-called 'greatness' on the world stage, when Trudeau
died, there were only two foreign leaders present at his state funeral:
Fidel Castro and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter; soulmates all.
Charismatic, intelligent, engaging and a brilliant tactician, Pierre
Trudeau managed to re-create Canada in his own image.

Mulroney has his own reasons for criticising Trudeau, but
for those of us who do remember him and what he did to this
country, we remember all too well.

Je me souviens tous trop bien.

Pierre Trudeau At Work