By: Brett Wang
From going around the school most people regard Remembrance Day as simply a day where you stab yourself with a poppy and patriotically sing the national anthem. However, behind this general conception of what Remembrance Day is, lies a nuanced discourse between this seemingly uncontroversial holiday. As we recently celebrated Remembrance Day, let’s look at the various consvaries about this holiday.
White Poppies:
Red Poppies for more than a century have been used as a symbol to both remember and honor the past war veterans, talking after Canadian John McCree’s poem In Flanders Field. On the other hand, white poppies have been used by particular groups of people as a rejection of traditional red poppies. Opting to use white poppies to symbolize the destruction to the environment war has caused. In addition, these groups have rejected the notion that war causes social change, strongly emphasizing a person to look at the politics that cause war. To many people, white poppies have been seen as disrespectful to war veterans and as a symbol that new generation Canadians are not patriotic enough. This infamously culminated in popular sport icon Don Cherry’s comment “at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that… These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada.” This quote got him removed from the broadcast permanently.
Royal Canadian Legion:
The Royal Canadian Legion is commonly seen as the main organization at play during remembrance day with them even being invited to Ottawa as special guests. Having been founded in 1926 to represent and advocate for war veteran needs or services, the legion should be strongly accepted by veterans. However, as time went on many war veterans have accused the Legion of having very few war veterans, with the majority of the organization being called history buffs who are obsessed with the past. As a result, war veterans often do not want the legion representing them. Sometimes even remarking that they take away resources from actual veterans who need support. Canadian war veteran Robert Smol says ”today’s Legion is widely seen as a government lapdog preferring to pander and pose with politicians.This is why most of today’s veterans, myself included, see no reason social or otherwise to join the Royal Canadian Legion.” To sum up his argument, he condemns the legion as stuck in the past with old traditions of Remembrance Day, rather than acknowledging the new generation war veterans from wars such as the Afghanistan War.
No matter what opinion you hold, acknowledging the complexity and the various social issues that remembrance day holds is integral to navigating today’s pressing problems.