The remarkable story of the friendship between the May family of Sudbury and Brüggen family of Cologne, Germany celebrates peace and the coming together in friendship of the children of bitter wartime enemies. It is a perspective and a story that the world direly needs today.
Canada has largely enjoyed peace over the nearly 80 years since the end of the Second World War. Sadly, our nation’s armed services have not always been able to enjoy that same peace of Canadian citizens at home, being called upon to lay their lives on the line trying to maintain global stability and peace in far-flung locations, including Korea, Vietnam, Cyprus, Bosnia, Rwanda, Mali and a host of other conflict zones.
Far too often, many of those conflicts have spilled over onto our own streets, unleashing havoc and tragedy, nearly always upon the innocent. Today is no different, as supporters of terrorists in the Middle East use the occasion to assault Muslims and Jews, their homes and businesses in our cities and towns.
Refugees of the world’s conflicts flock to our shores seeking shelter from the bombs and bullets being rained down upon them by combatants seeking supremacy in the name of revenge, retaliation, security, resources or whatever other ever-so-vital excuse comes to hand.
Canada has long been a nation of differences. For generations political scientists have dined out on the concept of our nation’s many “cleavages,” differences that in other parts of the globe would lead inexorably to violence and man’s inhumanity to man. That those issues have nearly always been dealt with through dialogue, compromise and relative compassion is the envy of the world. Let’s do our uttermost to keep it that way.
Protests in Canada tend to be inconveniences, rather than terror-inducing confrontations. We may rail against those who bring that inconvenience, and while yes, there are exceptions, we rarely resort to violence in reaction.
This has often been attributed to our nation’s developmental history. Unlike our neighbour to the south, our immigration has largely been driven by those fleeing conflict, rather than seeking economic glory. The harsher climate in which Canada is enveloped for a major part of the year has forced us to be more of our brother’s keepers. Throughout our history, we have needed each other’s good will far more than we coveted their assets.
We have usually strived to honour each person’s dignity—even to the point of our own discomfort. Multiculturalism has not been an easy path, but largely we have managed to maintain the core values of civility that has characterised our self-image as Canadians and that which we hold up to the world. Today, despite what some might try to claim, Canada remains unbroken.
There are those in our midst who would lead us down the paths of madness. That is something we must do our utmost to resist—peacefully and with understanding, not condemnation nor ridicule.
Currently, protests are taking place across the nation focussed on the Israeli-Hamas conflict. That is a conflict in which there are no saints—and a very great number of victims on both sides. But attacks against individual Muslims or Jews, their homes and their businesses cannot be countenanced. Canada should hold no place for such racism, such extremism, or such barbarity.
Our veterans have laid their lives on the line through countless conflicts in order to bring and maintain peace, order and good government—we should not let their sacrifices become vain here at home.
Lest we forget.
