An item from the Legion Magazine.

Members of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group are deposited on a hillside in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, by an American helicopter in May 2002. [Stephen J. Thorne]

‘Decades-long’ resistance would destroy U.S. if it invaded Canada, says insurgency expert

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Tariffs. Annexation. Invasion? Anything and everything, it seems, is on the table when it comes to U.S. President Donald Trump and Canada’s future.

Trump has said he aims to bring economic pressure down on America’s long-time friend, ally and trading partner, and force the country to cede itself to the United States.

“Canada only works as a state,” he said during the initial weeks of a 47th presidency laced with lies, disinformation and mixed messages. “We don’t need anything they have.”

Apparently, they do. Water, hydrocarbons and rare earth minerals are among the Canadian resources Trump has said Americans covet.

Canadian soldiers of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. [u/verostein/Reddit]

Historian Michael Petrou on Canada and the Spanish Civil War

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

On April 1, 1939—almost exactly 86 years ago—Spanish general-turned-dictator Francisco Franco, bolstered by his nationalist forces and those of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, prevailed against the democratically elected Republican government.

The Spanish Civil War, which had broken out July 17-18, 1936, had drawn to a bitter end. What followed was four decades of authoritarian rule, which ended in 1975 with Franco’s death marking the restoration of democratic values.

During the war years, however, approximately 1,600 Canadians, alongside other foreign combatants of the International Brigades, fought for the Republican cause. Their stories and struggles have been highlighted in journalist and historian Michael Petrou’s Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War.