There’s an aspect of Remembrance Day, Nov. 11, that we often overlook and sometimes take for granted.
Although we pay tribute to the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers in both past and present wars, we often forget how lucky we are to live in a country free of war.
Oh sure, Canada certainly seen its share of battle in the age before colonization and the centuries afterward, but there hasn’t been a battle of any sizeable scale fought within our nation’s borders in well over a century.
Though we might despair at school shootings and crime, Canadians have never had to endure nightly bombings or fear setting off a mine as they drive down the road. None of us today lie awake at night worrying about invasion.
And while the survivors may have brought home the horrors of war through the trauma they endured, the sacrifices of our armed forces have all been made in far-flung countries.
Recent events have undermined that security, if only a little. In Montreal, a solider was killed after he was struck by a young man supposedly loyal to ISIS. Then, in Ottawa, a solider on duty at the National War Memorial was shot and killed by a lone gunman who then targeted Parliament.
By all accounts, neither men were more than lone killers, despite any allegiance they may have had to Islamic radicals. These were not acts of war; just the acts of a pair of deeply-disturbed individuals.
Still, they shook our sense of security, our confidence that no matter how awful the wars halfway around the world may be, “they could never come here.”
And for that reason, Canadians attending Remembrance Day ceremonies this Tuesday will no doubt be paying tribute to those Canadian soldiers killed in Ottawa and Quebec as part of the usual observance. Be thankful you never have to worry about IEDs or air raids or death squads intent on genocide. Be thankful the ground you walk on has never been the site of a battle within living memory.
Much of our world can’t make the same claim. And as the world seems to grow darker, perhaps someday, neither will we.
