Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fight

Story by Stephen J. Thorne

Many young volunteers had little idea what they were in for when they enlisted for early service in the First World War.

They anticipated a grand adventure, “a jolly good show” and done. The conventional wisdom was that it would all be over by Christmas 1914. Of course, it wasn’t, and as the months turned into years, the longing and suffering deepened.

The mud got deeper, the rats more populous, the cynicism sharper, the casualty lists longer. Soldiers’ lifelines were the letters and packages to and from home.

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DART team swings into action

Story by Sharon Adams

Early on the morning of Boxing Day in 2004, a fault in the earth’s crust ruptured under the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The massive earthquake caused a tsunami, with waves up to 30 metres high racing toward communities along the coastline. A quarter-million people in 14 countries were killed. Televised images of the deadly waves and devastated communities shocked the world.

Canada had people on the ground there within a week.

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December 30, 1941

Winston Churchill delivers an inspirational speech in Ottawa that helps galvanize wartime resolve.

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