DOCSLIB.ORG

The Korean War Veteran Why We Should Remember Our Good Friend

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Korean War Veteran Why We Should Remember Our Good Friend The Korean War Veteran Internet Journal May 17, 2013 Why we should remember our good friend, Lieutenant Peter Worthington Peter Worthington 1927-2013 A prince can mak a belted knight, A marquise, duke, an' a' that; But an honest man's aboon his might, Gude faith, he maunna fa' that! For a' that, an' a' that, Their dignities an' a' that, The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth, Are higher rank than a' that. - Robert Burns A funeral service for Lieutenant Peter Worthington will be held in Toronto on Wednesday, May 22 at the Deer Park Christ Church at 1570 Yonge St. A reception will follow for attending veterans and friends at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery Visitors Centre. All Veterans who are in the vicinity and who are able, are encouraged to attend and to honour this worthy man. Veterans who attend should wear full or miniature medals, out of respect for Lieutenant Worthington and to honour his family. Please advise the Korean War Veteran or intentions to attend, with names of participants and service affiliations - [email protected] There are many reasons why we should remember our fallen comrade, Peter Worthington. Canadian news media have been abuzz with legions of stories about his fame as a newspaperman, his uniqueness as an individual, even touching on his military service and on his voluntary civilian missions to Afghanistan. Every one of those stories is a gem – written by one of Canada’s very best reporters or writers, or “journalists,” which is a term both Worthington and I found a little curious and did not use as a credential. Those in the news business are diverse as the general population. Talents and motives are manifold, and skills and energies are of different categories and levels. There are no qualifying exams or professional boards to certify them, but within the hardest working bunch there is tacit recognition of those who are qualified, those who are fairly good at their pursuits, those who are very good, and the very, very few who are great – like Worthington. There are very special reasons why veterans should remember Peter, and participate in his funeral service next Wednesday in Toronto. In fact there are hundreds of such reasons. Long a supporter of veterans and their needs After I convinced Peter – my claim to fame – to return to Korea for the first time in 2000, he would say later that until then he had put any Korean War memories to rest; that he hadn’t particularly thought much about the war and his service in Korea for some years. But that wasn’t quite a sound reflection, though I understood what he was saying. He was not being deceptive in any way; that was not his nature. It was probably that he thought all of the things he had done in connection with the war, or its veterans, were just commonplace stuff that he thought little about; nothing memorable or worthy of comment. Helping Herbert Wood with 'Jacket Coates' For one thing, early on in the years after the war he had met and befriended the former commanding officer of our Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Wood. Herbert had not completed his full tour in Korea, being medically evacuated at a time when Peter was detached from his assignment as the Princess Patricias intelligence officer – before that he had been a front line platoon commander – to serve as an aerial observer with the United States Air Force. As a civilian, Peter helped Wood complete two novels about Korean War Soldiers. One of them was called “The Private War of Jacket Coates.” Wood did such a good job, aided by Peter who did proofing and editing, that later on some would-be “expert” historian would actually cite “Jacket Coates” in the bibliography of the Korean War history that he had written. He would allege him to be a source on record in the Princess Patricia’s 2nd Battalion War diary – which was absolutely untrue and says something about some of our historians and their work. Jacket Coates, the character, and the entire book were pure fiction, coming from the mind of Herbert Wood. The closest he got to his soldiers at the front in Korea or in training in Canada was when they stood before him on serious charges and he listened bemused to their excuses or the confessions for their often colourful misconduct. Sometimes in Canada, before the Battalion went to Korea, Peter had been standing behind Wood when he listened to those charges; Peter was, for a short spell, Wood’s Battalion Adjutant. Peter would later suggest it was not a job that he was suited for. Wood was quite proud of his literary contrivance – using “jacket” and “coat” to form his fictional hero’s name. He would never guess that some day Jacket Coates would be cited as an actual person in a military history that even was cited still later on by curators and historians associated with the Canadian War Museum. So beware of tales about the Korean War that come from those who were not there and who have never stepped foot in the country. Too bad Herbert Wood had not enlisted Peter’s aid to help him write his “Official History of the Canadian Army in Korea: Strange Battleground.” It could certainly use a touch of clarity and better selection of subject, although it is a useful reference, even with big holes in it and what seems a staff officer’s distance from the men who made that history. In Korea, Wood had been shocked when he first toured the front and saw the rat hole bunkers his men would have to live in, and was aghast that at one position there were still enemy bodies hanging in the barbed wire barriers. He said aloud that it he had any option he would never post his soldiers in such places. He also wanted, very badly, to mount a two-company attack on the enemy and show them the kind of war he and his veteran senior officers had known in Europe. Frankly, many Canadian soldiers would have preferred that to the trench and outpost warfare where a few fell as casualties every day or so. The thing is, the enemy was numerous and had amassed a huge arsenal of artillery and shells from the Soviet Union and such an attack would likely have been disastrous at that stage of the war. Besides, it would have gained no ground. Friends with Royal Canadian Regiment General Also, after Peter had been fired from the Toronto Sun that he had founded, but quickly rehired as the editor of its newly formed sister paper, the Ottawa Sun, he befriended another Korean War Veteran. Peter was an enormously strong champion of his own Regiment and in personal face to face situations he picked on those who had served in others; but never in print. In Ottawa he met Major General Danny Loomis, who was commissioned in the rival The Royal Canadian Regiment. A new lieutenant who had just graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in June, 1952, Loomis had been shipped straight to Korea. He joined the 1st Battalion of his Regiment on the bloody slopes of Hill 355 in the front lines, at a time when the enemy was blasting upwards of several hundred shells each day onto the position. Danny was an instant hit and extremely popular with his men. Badly wounded early on leading a fighting patrol, he stayed back near the enemy until every wounded man was rescued and every killed soldier was recovered. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in the field for that action. Ordered to be medically evacuated he kicked up much noise and outrageously refused. His Battalion was taking extreme casualties on Hill 355. Danny worked out an arrangement with his commanding officer whereby he served in the trenches by night and went behind the front for physiotherapy by day. He was at the front when the enemy attacked with devastating force, including 5,000 shells fired onto the Hill 355 forward positions, on October 23, 1952. Danny had a horrid bad limp. Together he and Peter rehashed, reviewed the war, and the needs of veterans in Canada. This, of course, all became grist for Peter’s work and was put to good use. Danny also filled Peter in on some of the shortcomings he saw working in Canada’s evolving army and this, too, provided Peter with useful insights that were of great use to him. Writing the Preface for the Veterans Memorial Book Later on, in response to a request made in 1997 by another Korean War veteran, Major General Herbert Pitts, who had served with Peter in the same company in Korea, he authored the Preface to the Korea War Veterans Association of Canada Memorial Book. It contains the names of all 516 Canadians who are listed on the Korean War Honour Roll. As most veterans know, but reporters and commentators and speech makers imply in understandable error, not all of them fell in Korea. Peter’s preface in the Memorial Book is short, incisive, and probably the best explanation of Canada’s involvement in the Korean War ever written. He hammers down that the Korean War was the first in many United Nations military operations; that Canada played a key role that was much appreciated by the United States, which bore the brunt, and that Canada has since been involved in all of the UN military and peacekeeping missions. For the past few years in Korea, those who serve on the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee, of which I am a member, have been trying to define the war so succinctly.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Necessity of Including Hamas in Any Future Peace Process and the Viability of Doing So: an Argument for Reassessment and Engagement
    THE NECESSITY OF INCLUDING HAMAS IN ANY FUTURE PEACE PROCESS AND THE VIABILITY OF DOING SO: AN ARGUMENT FOR REASSESSMENT AND ENGAGEMENT by Peter Worthington Bachelor of Arts, University of British Columbia, 2007 MAJOR PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES In the School of International Studies © Peter Worthington 2011 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2011 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for Fair Dealing. Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. APPROVAL Name: Peter Worthington Degree: Master of Arts in International Studies Title of Thesis: The necessity of including Hamas in any future peace process and the viability of doing so: an argument for reassessment and engagement. Examining Committee: Chair: Dr John Harriss Professor of International Studies ______________________________________ Dr Tamir Moustafa Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Stephen Jarislowsky Chair School for International Studies ______________________________________ Dr. John Harriss Supervisor Professor of International Studies ______________________________________ Date Approved: April 26, 2011 ii Declaration of Partial Copyright Licence The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users.
    [Show full text]
  • May 13, 2013 Veteran Journalist Peter Worthington, Dead at 86
    The Korean War Veteran Internet Journal May 13, 2013 Editor’s Note: This article was published in the Montreal Gazette. The writer of this column served with Peter Worthington as a correspondent in Afghanistan – when Peter was 77! Veteran journalist Peter Worthington, dead at 86 By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News May 13, 2013 Toronto Sun co-founder, columnist and veteran journalist Peter Worthington has died. He was 86. Photograph by: THE CANADIAN PRESS/The Toronto Sun/Jack Boland , Postmedia News BANGKOK — My friend and colleague, Peter Worthington, died early Monday morning in Toronto. Peter was one of the greats of journalism and the most intrepid and doughty Canadian I ever met. Mostly through my father, who had known Peter forever and had been a Day Oner with him at the Toronto Sun, I was broadly familiar with his war record as a platoon commander with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in Korea and how he had joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a 17 year old near the end of the Second World War. From the snippets that I had read I admired his bravery in reporting from Russia during the Cold War and from many other hotspots during his 15 years as a foreign correspondent. But we had really only been nodding acquaintances before we ended up being thrown together in a tent about a decade ago in Afghanistan. The week that we spent roaming around Kabul was one of the most interesting of my life. Peter was 77 years old when he dropped out of the Afghan sky in a C-130 Hercules transport in 2004, becoming by far the oldest Canadian journalist to embed with the troops in South Asia.
    [Show full text]
  • The Winter Season December 1, 1990-February 28, 1991
    STANDARDABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE REGIONALREPORTS Abbreviations used in placenames: THE In mostregions, place names given in •talictype are counties. WINTER Other abbreviations: Cr Creek SEASON Ft. Fort Hwy Highway I Island or Isle December1, 1990-February28, 1991 Is. Islands or Isles Jct. Junction km kilometer(s) AtlanticProvinces Region 244 TexasRegion 290 L Lake Ian A. McLaren GregW. Lasleyand Chuck Sexton mi mile(s) QuebecRegion 247 Mt. Mountain or Mount YvesAubry, Michel Gosselin, Idaho/ Mts. Mountains and Richard Yank Western Montana Region 294 N.F. National Forest ThomasH. Rogers 249 N.M. National Monument New England Blair Nikula MountainWest Region 296 N.P. National Park HughE. Kingety N.W.R. NationalWildlife Refuge Hudson-DelawareRegion 253 P P. Provincial Park WilliamJ. Boyle,Jr., SouthwestRegion 299 Pen. Peninsula Robert O. Paxton, and Arizona:David Stejskal Pt. Point (not Port) David A. Culter andGary H. Rosenberg New Mexico: R. River MiddleAtlantic Coast Region 258 Sartor O. Williams III Ref. Refuge HenryT. Armistead andJohn P. Hubbard Res. Reservoir(not Reservation) S P. State Park Sonthern Atlantic AlaskaRegion 394 262 W.M.A. WildlifeManagement Area CoastRegion T.G. Tobish,Jr. and (Fall 1990 Report) M.E. Isleib HarryE. LeGrand,Jr. Abbreviations used in the British Columbia/ names of birds: Florida Region 265 Yukon Region 306 Am. American JohnC. Ogden Chris Siddle Corn. Common 309 E. Eastern OntarioRegion 268 Oregon/WashingtonRegion Ron D. Weir (Fall 1990 Report) Eur. Europeanor Eurasian Bill Tweit and David Fix Mt. Mountain AppalachianRegion 272 N. Northern GeorgeA. Hall Oregon/WashingtonRegion 312 S. Southern Bill Tweit andJim Johnson W. Western Western Great Lakes Region 274 DavidJ.
    [Show full text]
  • One Christmas Eve in Korea
    The Korean War Veteran Internet Journal - December 24, 2011 One Christmas Eve in Korea Private Edward James Power, North Sydney, Nova Scotia Whose idea it was we’ll never know, nor would it much matter. It may have been the local commander of the Chinese Peoples Volunteers whose troops were facing and virtually encircling the Hook position. Probably not, because it was not the kind of thing a fighting soldier would squander his men on doing. More likely some propaganda people behind the lines made the plan. Anyhow, the very tired men in Lieutenant Peter Worthington’s platoon in D Company of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, were aghast just before daybreak to see silhouettes of what they thought were very large enemy soldiers, standing within pistol range of their fighting trench. As eyes quickly adjusted with the gathering light, it was apparent they were gazing at Christmas trees, set there by stealthy soldiers. Good the enemy troops had not been sneaking in to attack, for they had come so close undetected. In the brighter predawn the Patricias began to see leaflets, cards, letters hanging on the trees. With dawn’s first true light they could see sparkles and glints. The enemy had hung little gifts on the trees, so they went over the top, though for certain enemy troops were watching with weapons poised. Worthington’s men grabbed up little glass animal figurines, greeting cards, scurried back to the fighting trench. It was remarkable bonanza and spirits soared. But later, in even better light, they saw a couple of enemy soldiers and opened relentless fire on them, so the gesture had not interrupted their war.
    [Show full text]
  • May 13, 2013 Our Great Comrade Has Fallen PETER WORTHINGTON
    The Korean War Veteran Internet Journal May 13, 2013 This sad story is extracted verbatim – without permission, in the best traditions of Peter Worthington himself – from the Toronto Sun that Peter founded 42 years ago in November, 1971. Our great comrade has fallen PETER WORTHINGTON 1927-2013 TORONTO - Peter Worthington, the legendary founding editor of the Toronto Sun, has died. He was 86. One of Canada's most prolific and well-known journalists, Worthington witnessed history unfold during a career that spanned many of the wars, conflicts and seminal news events that shaped the 20th Century. Along with J. Douglas Creighton and Don Hunt, he founded "The Little Paper That Grew" with 60-plus former staffers from the defunct Toronto Telegram. Worthington was admitted to Toronto General Hospital last Thursday and diagnosed with a serious staph infection that compromised his heart, kidneys, and other organs. He passed away around midnight Sunday in hospital, spending the last days of his life peacefully, surrounded by his wife Yvonne and family members including his grandchildren. When told by doctors his condition was grave, Worthington didn't flinch. "Typically (for him) he made a little joke to the doctor," his daughter Danielle Crittenden said in an email, "suggesting she might need comforting more than he did." As Peter put it, 'There's nothing left I want to do; there are only things I want to know.'" Worthington was born Feb. 16, 1927, the son of Major-General Frederic Franklin (Fighting Frank) Worthington. who led his own a colourful and adventurous life that saw him orphaned at 10, take to the sea as a cabin boy on cargo ships and go onto a distinguished military career that included a key role in founding the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
    [Show full text]
  • NCVA Annual General Meeting
    Bulletin THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF VETERAN ASSOCIATIONS IN CANADA Vol. 03 • Fall 2010 In this issue... Merchant Navy Bar • 7 At your service… • 10 NCVA Annual General Meeting • 1 VAC Announcements a Good First Step • 8 Canadian Army Newsreels Released • 11 New Veterans Ombudsman • 4 Kirsty Duncan – Liberal Party Veterans Affairs Critic • 9 Monuments Committee Update • 12 Hong Kong Veteran Initiatives • 5 Veterans with Lou Gehrig’s to Get Benefits • 10 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion • 12 NCVA Annual General Meeting Toronto was the site of the 2010 NCVA Annual General Meeting on October 20. The meeting was very well attended. NCVA Secretary General Brian Forbes welcomed those attending and commenced the meeting by generally outlining recent developments concerning speculation as to the downsizing of Veterans Affairs Canada and the overall performance of the department in responding to the needs of Canadian veterans. He indicated that a “window of opportunity” has been created as a consequence of the intense scrutiny that has been applied to VAC, and that NCVA was taking advantage of this opportunity to aggressively pursue a number of ongoing concerns which have formed part and parcel of the Association’s Legislative Agenda for the past few years. The Secretary General added that, although much of the media attention has been focused on the plight of modern-day veterans and the application of the New Veterans Charter, there still remain a number of specific concerns that impact on the traditional veterans’ community which require prioritized attention. Recent meetings with the Minister of Veterans Affairs and senior VAC officials have produced positive movement on a number of issues delineated in NCVA’s Legislative Program, and the Secretary General underlined that the collective strength of our organization was not without significance in this continual pursuit of legislative reform.
    [Show full text]
  • October 2012 Esprit De Corps  1 BOEING
    October 2012 Issue $3.95 Cdn / $4.50 US Display until November 5, 2012 Publications Mail # 40069149 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept. 204-1066 Somerset St. W. Ottawa ON K1Y 4T3 october 2012 esprit de corps 1 BOEING NEW AD 2 volume 19 issue 9 e ON TARGET? Volume 19 Issue 9 General Tom Lawson has two tough Publisher Manager acts to follow when he takes over Scott Taylor Julie Simoneau Scott Taylor publisher as chief of defence staff Sales Director Circulation Blake Hurdis Tiffany Taus Columnist Atlantic Rep After weeks of speculation and delays, the the furious speculation, it instead seemed to Michael Nickerson Gord Crowe Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) finally generate the same feeding frenzy result as Contributing Editors Les Peate, Norman Shannon announced on August 27 that General ladling chum into a school of hungry sharks. Production Assistants Tom Lawson would replace General Walter While Defence Minister Peter MacKay Megan Brush, Renée Depocas NatynczykA as Canada’s chief of defence noted Lawson’s experience abroad as one Journalist staff. There is a reason that late August of the reasons he had been selected, this Marlee Wasser is known as the dog days of summer and was immediately dissected by the analysts Special Events for the National Press Gallery, even such who pointed out that while Lawson did Thérèse Darêche, Lale Eskicioglu Michèle Simoneau, Emily Walsh a seemingly routine appointment as that serve in Germany as a fighter pilot early of a new top soldier became a bone worth in his career, his most recent position was Contributors in this issue Paul Culliton, Newell Durnbrooke, chewing on.
    [Show full text]
  • View Or Download
    TRIBUTE TO LIBERTY Commemorating the Victims of Communism News Volume 5, Issue 2 Spring 2013 Tribute to Liberty Finds Support in British Columbia Dear Friends, I am proud to announce the official opening of a Tribute to Liberty branch in the beautiful province of British Columbia. On May 3, 2013, I had the pleasure of meeting with a notable group of Canadians in Vancouver. We were joined by our good friend Minister Jason Kenney, who as always, spoke with great passion and extensive knowledge about the evils Tribute to Liberty is a Canadian of Communism. The Honourable Senator Yonah Martin has agreed to assume the important organization whose mission is role of Honorary Chair for Tribute to Liberty in B.C. The Senator was instrumental in to establish a memorial to the organizingWinter 2the009 event in Vancouver. Senator Martin leads our efforts with her personal victims of Communism in the conviction and unwavering commitment. Senator Martin’s presence will enhance our National Capital Region. understanding of Korean suffering under Communism. This is the year of Korea in Canada. Our support of the Korean families in their struggle for reunification should be well Board of Directors: reflected in the proposed Memorial to Victims of Communism. North Korea still suffers Ludwik Klimkowski , Chair under Communism today. Alide Forstmanis, Treasurer Teresa Berezowski I am overwhelmed with pride and joy as this group is already working on raising Christine Chi Dang $1,000,000 for the Memorial to Victims of Communism in Ottawa. We need to get all our Robert Tmej Ivan Grbešić communities from across Canada involved.
    [Show full text]
  • “Je T'aime, Papa”: Theatricality and Sincerity in Justin Trudeau's 2000
    “Je t’aime, Papa”: Theatricality and the Fifth Canon of Rhetoric in Justin Trudeau’s Eulogy for his Father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Tracy Whalen University of Winnipeg Rhetorical theory has long engaged with—and has been quick to distinguish itself from—theatricality, particularly in discussions of the fifth canon (pronuntiatio, hypokrisis, or delivery).1 Aristotle connects the art of delivery and the “actor’s art” in the Rhetoric, but maintains the distinction between speaker/rhetor and actor; the rhetor is advised to make clarity, not flattery, the guiding principle of good speaking. Aristotle laments the state of oratory under democracy, where speakers, he felt, pandered to the crowd through theatrical flourish: “The honours of dramatic contests fall, as a rule, to the actors; and, just as, on the stage, the actors are at present of more importance than the poets, so it is, owing to the vices of society, in the contests of civil life” (1403b). Pseudo Cicero’s Ad C. Herennium continues the anti-theatrical bias (not to mention class bias) in its discussion of physical movement: “Accordingly the facial expression should show modesty and animation, and the gestures should not be conspicuous for either elegance or grossness, lest we give the impression that we are either actors or day labourers” (III. XV.26). Jody Enders traces from Greco-Roman times a persistent tradition of equating theatricality not only with bad rhetoric, but also with the “emasculation of eloquence” (255). She points to the castrating language of Quintilian and Tacitus, who decry a once- rigorous rhetoric that, in the form of histrionic delivery and theatrical declamation, had 1 George Kennedy writes, “The prevailing meaning of hypokrisis in Greek is acting and the regular word for an actor is hypokrites” (218, note 1).
    [Show full text]
  • R13880) Page 1 Finding Aid No
    Date: 2012-01-23 Peter Worthington fonds (R13880) Page 1 Finding Aid no. MSS2507 / Instrument de recherche no. MSS2507 Report: Y:\App\Impromptu\Mikan\Reports\Description_Reports\finding_aids_&_subcontainers.imr MIKAN Container File/Item Cr. file/item Hierarchy Title, etc Date of/de Extent or Media / Dim. / Access # Contenant Dos./PièceDos./item cr. Hiérarchie Titre, etc création Support ou Média / Dim. / Accès 4120162 Series Toronto Telegram [textual record, graphic 1943-1972 material, cartographic material] 4221713 1 1 File Telegram - general 1965-1971 Textual records / 90 4221714 1 2 File Telegram - general 1965-1971 Textual records / 90 4221715 1 3 File Telegram - professional correspondence 1958-1960 Textual records / 90 4221716 1 4 File Telegram - typescripts of articles 1956-1958 Textual records / 90 4221717 1 5 File Writing samples ca.1959 Textual records / 90 4221718 1 6 File Writing samples and note 1955-1963 Textual records / 90 4221719 1 7 File Telegram - promotional material and lead stories 1968-1970 Textual records / 90 4221720 1 8 File Professional and personal correspondence 1967 Textual records / 90 9 Textual records / 90 4221721 1 10 File Professional and personal correspondence 1968-1971 Textual records / 90 4221722 1 11 File Foreign correspondent - press passes 1959-1962 Textual records / 90 4221723 1 12 File Foreign correspondents/journalists - Toronto 1967-1970 Textual records / 90 Telegram, Pravda (USSR) 4221724 1 13 File Foreign correspondent reporting - speaking [ca.1968] Textual records / 90 notes 4221725 1 14
    [Show full text]
  • Freedom‟S Voices: Czech and Slovak Immigration to Canada During the Cold War
    Freedom‟s Voices: Czech and Slovak Immigration to Canada during the Cold War by Jan Raska A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2013 © Jan Raska 2013 Author‟s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final versions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract During the Cold War, approximately 36,000 persons claimed Czechoslovakia as their country of citizenship upon entering Canada. A defining characteristic of this postwar migration of predominantly ethnic Czechs and Slovaks was the prevalence of anti-communist and democratic values. This dissertation follows Czech and Slovak refugees through the German invasion of the Czech lands and Slovakia‟s independence in 1939, the Second World War, the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of 1968. Diplomats, industrialists, workers, democratic politicians, professionals, and students fled to the West in search of freedom, security, and economic opportunity. Many of these individuals sought to return home after Czechoslovakia was liberated from communism. This dissertation examines the interwar, wartime, and postwar immigration experiences of Czech and Slovak refugees through the lens of Canadian Czechoslovak institutions. In Canada, Czechs and Slovaks who professed a belief in a Czechoslovak identity formed their own organizations. In the Cold War era, the two most prominent Canadian Czechoslovak institutions were the Czechoslovak National Alliance and the Masaryk Hall.
    [Show full text]
  • The Portrayal of Sharia in Ontario
    1 APPEAL VOLUME 10 2005 THE PORTRAYAL OF SHARIA IN ONTARIO James Thornback Introduction 2005 CanLIIDocs 94 There has been much attention given by the media to the potential use of Sharia-based arbitration to resolve family disputes in Ontario. Although this possibility has been given both positive and negative attention, a common theme pervades the discourse: Islam as “the Other.” In this paper, I provide sufficient background information for the reader to understand how Sharia-based arbitration might be used in Ontario. Then, I review several representative newspaper articles with three questions in mind. First, do the articles accurately represent Sharia? Second, do the articles accurately represent the state of the law in Ontario as it applies to arbitration in the family context? Third, what do the articles recommend as a solution to the perceived problem? By doing so, I show that the idea of Islam as a monolithic entity distinct from the West still underlies the approach of many journalists. This idea allows, or forces, these journalists to attack or defend Sharia rather than focusing on problems in domestic law. Only those writers who avoid conceiving of Islam as the Other manage to present well-reasoned criticism of the law of Ontario. 2 APPEAL VOLUME 10 2005 The Other In his seminal work, Orientalism,1 Edward Said discussed the Western conception of the Orient2 as the Other. Islam, in particular, is seen as a uniform ideology that conflates politics, religion, culture, and history into a single entity. The West identifies itself, at least in part, in contrast to this idea of Islam or the Orient.
    [Show full text]