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An item from the Legion Magazine.

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Battles of the Somme: Tragedy to triumph

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If looks could kill: Arthur Currie, Pete Hegseth and the meaning of military toughness

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

General Arthur Currie decorates a Canadian officer with the Distinguished Service Order in September 1917. [DND/LAC/3362394]

If looks could kill: Arthur Currie, Pete Hegseth and the meaning of military toughness

STORY BY RICHARD FOOT

General Arthur Currie was no matinee idol. Portly and jowly, he had neither the face nor the form of the dashing, broad-shouldered Hollywood stereotype.

None of that mattered, of course. Currie’s physical appearance had no bearing whatsoever on his success in leading the Canadian Corps—four divisions of hardened shock troops, 100,000 strong—during the final years of the First World War.

That success, under Currie, included the Corps’ string of 1918 victories in the celebrated Hundred Days battles at Amiens, Arras and Mons.

“The Canadian general, who stood almost 6 feet 3 inches tall and bulged in his uniform at over 250 pounds, had an agile mind and was continually studying the challenges of trench warfare,” historian Tim Cook wrote. “He gathered together an effective staff and encouraged learning from victories and failures in battle.”

World War Three: A prominent historian offers a warning—and a way out—of approaching calamity

When Canada’s Margaret MacMillan speaks, it’s wise to listen. That’s especially true when MacMillan—a pre-eminent conflict historian—warns that the present is looking unnervingly like the

Remembering 9/11: Three stories of loss—and love

Twenty-five years ago this week, the world was turned upside down by the horror of 9/11. Here are three stories from that day, in which

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Sergeant Clarence Kenneth Crockett leads a section of The Calgary Highlanders across Belgium’s Albert Canal in a small but critical moment of the Scheldt Campaign

A diver holds the ensign of the Royal Canadian Navy by the wreck of HMCS Canada during a 2025 expedition. [Courtesy Joseph Frey]

Author Karen Farrington on Allied PoWs escaping through Italy in WW II

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Ernest Hemingway had a hand in leading scuba diver Joseph Frey to the wreck of HMCS Canada—though the famed novelist could hardly have known it.

In 1928, the American author sought sanctuary in the Florida Keys, likely unaware that just two years earlier—on July 2, 1926—a former flagship of the Royal Canadian Navy had sunk off the coast.

Nor was Frey, a self-described “Hemingway aficionado,” privy to such facts when he followed in the footsteps of his literary hero decades later—at least not at first.

“I always went down to Hemingway Home in Key West for a tour,” explained the military veteran of 21 years, “and one time, I noticed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—NOAA—had an office in Key Largo.”

Author Karen Farrington on Allied PoWs escaping through Italy in WW II

When Canadian captives Raymond Sherk and Don McLarty saw an opportunity to escape Camp 78, a prisoner-of-war facility in the central Italian region of Abruzzo,

Author Matthew Walthert on the life of hockey star and Great War soldier Scotty Davidson

For 90 years, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial has stood above the Douai Plain of northern France, its soaring towers a testament to 11,285 unfinished

MP Fred Davies on efforts to formally recognize Fenian Raid fatalities

Member of Parliament Fred Davies, who has represented the Niagara South riding in Ontario since 2025, is among the first to admit that the Ridgeway

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

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World War Three: A prominent historian offers a warning—and a way out—of approaching calamity

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An item from the Legion Magazine.

The Han Kuang Exercise is an annual military exercise in Taiwan in preparation for a possible attack from China. [Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan)/Wikimedia]

World War Three: A prominent historian offers a warning—and a way out—of approaching calamity

STORY BY RICHARD FOOT

When Canada’s Margaret MacMillan speaks, it’s wise to listen.

That’s especially true when MacMillan—a pre-eminent conflict historian—warns that the present is looking unnervingly like the past in the lead-up to both world wars.

“When a storm is coming, there will always be signs,” MacMillan wrote earlier this month in the New York Times. “A world war is not inevitable, but the threat of a catastrophic conflict between big and well-armed powers is closer than it was for decades.”

She also recently told CBC Radio’s The Current: “It’s always foolish to panic too soon and say, you know, like Chicken Little, ‘the sky is falling.’ But I think we do need to really worry.”

Remembering 9/11: Three stories of loss—and love

Twenty-five years ago this week, the world was turned upside down by the horror of 9/11. Here are three stories from that day, in which

Legacy of courage: Canadians meet the moment in times of crisis

Suddenly, the world is talking about Canadian courage. Last week, the day after Ottawa brazenly walked away from U.S. trade talks, a popular podcast declared

The main gate at Italian PoW Camp 78, from which Canadian captives Raymond Sherk and Don McLarty escaped in September 1943. [H.R. Dixon/Archives New Zealand/PAColl-1615-05]

Author Karen Farrington on Allied PoWs escaping through Italy in WW II

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

When Canadian captives Raymond Sherk and Don McLarty saw an opportunity to escape Camp 78, a prisoner-of-war facility in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, they wasted little time. Despite the country having signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943, the guards would soon be replaced by German troops already en route. The window to act was, in other words, closing—and fast.

“All men who escaped from there and camps like it had a similar experience,” said author Karen Farrington. “That was to go up the nearest mountain. It was the only way you could go.”

Sherk and McLarty did exactly that. For three weeks, the airmen sheltered in a cave roughly 13 kilometres from their former camp, hiding at high elevation as “their personal conditions went downhill.” Only in late October or early November 1943, largely thanks to the help of locals, did the dishevelled duo reach Allied lines.

Author Matthew Walthert on the life of hockey star and Great War soldier Scotty Davidson

For 90 years, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial has stood above the Douai Plain of northern France, its soaring towers a testament to 11,285 unfinished