Category Archives: Legion Magazine

💝 Your Valentine is in the bag 🎒

Leave a reply

An item from the Legion Magazine.

Click here to view this newsletter in your browser

Who knit ya?

Leave a reply

An item from the Legion Magazine.

A captured U-190 floats in St. John’s Harbour, Nfld., in June 1945.
[Edward W. Dinsmore/DND/LAC/PA-145584]

Who knit ya?

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Nestled away on the top two floors of a four-storey stone-and-brick building overlooking the St. John’s waterfront, just a few metres from the Newfoundland National War Memorial, is a piece of Second World War history unlike any other.

Fifty-nine precarious steps up the back of the former warehouse, the Seagoing Officers’ Club, established by Captain Rollo Mainguy—a B.C. native commanding Canadian navy destroyers in the British colony of Newfoundland—is the stuff of legend.

A retreat and a respite for Allied naval and merchant marine officers between sailings on the North Atlantic run, it became forever known as the Crow’s Nest after a Canadian army colonel, gasping from his upward trek, mopped his beaded brow and uttered the immortal words: “Crikey, this is a snug little crow’s nest.”

Displays at The Fort Garry Horse Museum and Archives. [Fort Garry Museum and Archives]

An armchair tour of The Fort Garry Horse Museum and Archives

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“We have a rich history,” said Gord Crossley, director of the Winnipeg-based Fort Garry Horse Museum and Archives, of its namesake regiment. “We like to say that we have more battle honours than any other armoured formation in Canada.”

The 43-year unit veteran knows such realities better than most. Since the earliest days of its inception in 1912—and arguably before—The Fort Garry Horse has distinguished itself at home and overseas, from its service in the Great War’s trenches—yes, trenches—to its sword-drawn cavalry charges to its mechanized role in D-Day and beyond. In everything it has accomplished during the ensuing years and decades—be it in Germany, Latvia or Petawawa, Ont.—Crossley’s former regiment has lived up to its motto, Facta non verba or Deeds not words.

Words, however, have their place. Having been involved with the museum for some 34 years, Crossey continues to tell the unit’s story, one battle honour at a time. Here, in an armchair tour of the site, he highlights it anew.

More from The Briefing

Member Benefit Partner

Learn More

❄️ It’s time to bundle up! 📦

Leave a reply

An item from the Legion Magazine.

Click here to view this newsletter in your browser

The Hunters become the hunted, Part 2: The 1838 U.S. invasion of Canada

Leave a reply

An item from the Legion Magazine.

Rebels attack British forces at Dickson’s Landing, Upper Canada, in 1837-38. [LAC/R13133-296]

The Hunters become the hunted,
Part 2: The 1838 U.S. invasion of Canada

STORY BY RUSSELL HILLIER

Continued from “Front lines,” Jan. 14, 2026.

During my visit, the sky had now cleared of rain clouds and the sun was out. I walked a trail leading to the water’s edge where some of the fugitives sought shelter in the trees and bushes. Nils von Schoultz, the Hunter’s captain during the raid, was captured somewhere along the shoreline on Nov. 16. He and other survivors must have been tempted to swim across the river to the American shorline. But to my knowledge, none tried.

In my own timeline, with the warmth of summer I judged a desperate escape across the river feasible for an able swimmer. But in mid-November, starving and wounded, it seemed less likely. It was the frigid river or the bayonet of an excited Dundas or Glengarry county militiaman.

Cameron Kowalski (left), director of operations for the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence for Canadian Veterans, with colleagues. [Courtesy Cameron Kowalski]

Cameron Kowalski on veteran chronic pain research

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Caring for either mental or physical health shouldn’t be a choice—not least among those who have served. The same goes for funding related projects, insists Cameron Kowalski, director of operations for the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence for Canadian Veterans.

A 34-year veteran of the RCMP prior to retiring in 2018, the Hamilton, Ont., native is an inner wellness advocate. “A lot of money goes toward mental health, and it should,” explained Kowalski, “but chronic pain is equally important. It’s a comorbidity of mental health.”

The figures speak for themselves. According to Veterans Affairs Canada, 63 per cent of former personnel living with chronic pain also encounter mental health challenges. Despite this, noted Kowalski, “you’ve got the Bell Let’s Talk day, but you don’t have something similar for chronic pain.”