Ukrainian Emergency Service

Russia employs terrorist tactics in Ukraine

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

It’s an old terrorist tactic, and it’s now being used with increasing regularity by Russian military forces in Ukraine: Bomb a civilian site, wait for emergency services to arrive, then bomb it again.

It happened Aug. 8 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, 50 kilometres from the front line. Authorities said at least nine people were killed, including a rescuer, and 82 wounded, 38 emergency workers and two children among them.

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Canada’s First Female Soldiers

STORY BY PAIGE JASMINE GILMAR

“The women wanted to be taken seriously,” wrote Barbara Dundas and Dr. Serge Durflinger of the Canadian War Museum.

In some ancient civilizations women have been taken seriously in battle. There is Athena, a Greek goddess of war, who in Homer’s Iliad used her civility, intelligence and prudence to be even more effective than the male god of war, Ares. Her superior qualities are even marked upon her, dawning an aegis, or breastplate, which symbolizes the skills that lead her to victory.

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• Forcing the hand of peace

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Stephen J. Thorne

Growing up in the Cold War and the turbulent ’60s

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

During a five-month stint in Afghanistan in 2004, my third trip covering the war and its fallout for The Canadian Press wire service, I talked to a UNICEF worker about what it was like for Afghan kids growing up in a war zone.

Afghanistan was in its fourth decade of almost non-stop fighting. How do they cope, I asked. Surprisingly well, he replied. They adapt, as kids do and, for the most part, survive. It’s all they’d ever known. Children’s greatest fears—and parents’ most acute concerns—he told me, were automobiles and ungrated sewers.

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• The myth of the ‘Long Peace’
• The bombers and the nightingales
• The Queen of the skies: Iconic Lancaster flies again

Communist troops of the North Korean People’s Army attack the South on June 25, 1950. They are in Seoul in less than a week. A United Nations coalition resolves to stop them. Canada joins what is by any definition a war. For three years, Canadians fight iconic battles on land, sea and in the air; 516 die and when the killing is over, the more than 26,000 survivors spend years fighting for recognition. They call it a “police action” and the “forgotten war,” but for those Canadians who fought in Korea between 1950 and 1953, neither time nor circumstance can erase the memories of what they saw, smelled and experienced in the hills and valleys around the 38th parallel and beyond.

View the story

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Atomic Canada

STORY BY PAIGE JASMINE GILMAR

“These atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them,” wrote H.G. Wells in his 1914 sci-fi classic, The World Set Free.

Wells, who holds a track record for predicting technological innovations, was credited by Sir Winston Churchill for dreaming up the use of combat airplanes and tanks before the First World War. Still, The World Set Free added an entirely new colour to scientific inspiration, with Wells theorizing that unbelievable power could be born from splitting the atom.

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At Pocketpills, we bring the pharmacy to you. Through our easy-to-use app and website, you can fill prescriptions, order vitamins, and consult with pharmacists—all from the comfort of home. As a member of The Legion, you’ll receive exclusive benefits when you sign up! Click the link below to see offers in your area, or call 1-855-950-7225 and mention that you are a Legion member.

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Stephen J. Thorne

The myth of the ‘Long Peace’

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Some historians describe the period between the end of the Second World War and now as the “Long Peace,” or Pax Americana, based on the fact there have been no major wars involving the great powers. Proxy wars, yes; “major” wars, no.

They qualify this by describing it as a time of “relative” peace, implying that the Cold War—four decades of living with the prospect of nuclear annihilation hanging over our heads—was a good thing and that regional conflicts are inconsequential.

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THE NEWFOUNDLAND RANGER FORCE LEGACY PROJECT

Rangers at Midnight

STORY BY PAIGE JASMINE GILMAR

“They got to ride through blizzards when there’s trouble in the forest … If a man in a velvet suit is seen, they got to run him out of town.”

These tongue-and-cheek lyrics are from Crack the Sky’s rock anthem, “Rangers At Midnight.”

The song, a celebration of Canada’s paramilitary organization, suggests how enduring the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s image was within North American culture. But no police force perhaps better represents the do-it-all spirit of Crack the Sky’s song than the Newfoundland Rangers.

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Join Dominion President Bruce Julian and Darlene Julian, BST Vacations, and Royal Canadian Legion members from across Canada on an Ultimate Southern Caribbean Cruise on the innovative Celebrity Silhouette. This 10-night cruise will be sailing to St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Tobago, Grenada, & Antigua, includes 4 glorious days at sea, and 1 night pre-cruise in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Discover amazing enhancements at every turn. You’ll relax in transformed staterooms that are so gorgeous, you may never want to leave your room!

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