Prime Minister Arthur Meighen at the memorial event at Vimy Ridge honouring Canadian war dead on July 3, 1921. [Public domain]

Arthur Meighen: Remembering Canada’s unmatched wartime orator

STORY BY RICHARD FOOT

Canada Day feels like a fitting moment to remember Arthur Meighen, one of Canada’s finest statesmen, whose insight and eloquence helped guide the country through the darkest days of the First World War.

As Eugene Forsey, the renowned former senator and constitutional scholar once wrote: “[Meighen] was incomparably the greatest parliamentarian and orator of my time, probably the greatest Canada had ever had, and from the first time, I listened enthralled … The speeches were masterpieces.”

Meighen delivered one of those masterpieces on July 3, 1921—105 years ago on Friday—atop the scarred landscape of Vimy Ridge. Having become prime minister the previous year, Meighen was attending a ceremony to dedicate a Cross of Sacrifice erected on the site, years before the creation of the full monument that stands today.

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Retired Canadian lieutenant-general Eric (Rick) Findley

Canadian Eric Findley on overseeing Norad’s 9/11 response

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

“I have to admit,” said retired Canadian lieutenant-general Eric (Rick) Findley, a former director of operations at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, “that when I first got to Norad, it was relatively quiet. 9/11 changed everything.”

A major-general in September 2001, the helicopter pilot-turned-overseer of continental air defence found himself at the centre of an unprecedented tragedy, one that left the U.S. reeling from a terrorist attack that claimed 2,977 lives.

“It didn’t matter what flag you had on your shoulder,” Findley continued. “It really didn’t matter.” Far more pressing to the Maple Leaf-uniformed senior officer was defending against the surprise threat and rapidly shifting events.

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Walter Seymour Allward’s “Ivstitia” (Justice) statue stands in front of the Supreme Court of Canada building in Ottawa. [Marc Bruxelle/istock]

Vimy’s inspiration: How the creator of Canada’s great overseas memorial developed his daring artistry at home

STORY BY RICHARD FOOT

Later this summer, one of Canada’s architectural treasures, the Supreme Court of Canada building on Ottawa’s Wellington Street, will shut down for much-needed restoration work.

Amid the 10-year, $1-billion project to restore the structure, care will also be taken to preserve its character, including two bronze statues guarding the main entrance—“Veritas” (Truth) and “Ivstitia” (Justice)—designed by Walter Seymour Allward, the artistic genius who also created the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

The statues are a reminder that one doesn’t have to cross an ocean to experience the splendour of Allward’s work—there are examples of it throughout Ontario. They also show that the radical vision Allward expressed at Vimy was developed steadily over his career in Canada, an evolution evident in many of his public artworks still standing on home soil today.

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Tanks and infantry advance through the ruins of Ortona. [LAC]

Anthropologist Ian Cosh on his new book on Ortona veterans

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

It was 1998 when anthropologist Ian Cosh embarked on the trip of a lifetime. The researcher had learned that a reunion of Canadian Second World War veterans, old soldiers of Italian battlefields, would soon meet former enemies at the revered site of Ortona.

It was there in December 1943 that an immense struggle had transformed a once-sleepy, largely unknown town into a sea of rubble, a devastating urban battle long etched into the minds of many aging attendees. Fifty-five years later, the veterans were returning to a scene of lingering wounds.

Cosh would be there to witness it. No stranger to Italy himself, having spent several formative years discovering the country, Cosh quietly observed. He saw the reconciliatory nature of the proceedings, sensed the inner reflections of those who had long ago traversed Ortona’s streets. But he also wondered if there could be something else beneath the surface.

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