News

It is a spring day typical of coastal cities like Halifax: the sunny sky invites people outside to play—and a brisk, chilly wind quickly chases them back inside. But that doesn’t stop a few stalwarts from donning sweaters and jackets and slapping on hats to enjoy Camp Hill Veterans’ Memorial Garden.

The breeze rustling new leaves on the trees, the splash of water in the stone and metal poppy fountain, the smell of sun-warmed earth and the sight of cheery tulips just make you feel glad to be alive, a fact not lost on the residents of Camp Hill Veterans Memorial […]

A free one-year membership is being offered to retiring members of the Canadian Forces as an initiative to introduce The Royal Canadian Legion to potential new ordinary members.

The first introductory package was presented June 5 to Commander Cathy Bruce-Hayter at the Naval Officers Mess in Ottawa by Dominion Vice-President Erl Kish and Dominion Command Director of Administration Brad White. Bruce-Hayter retired after 32 years in the navy.

The Dominion Command Membership Committee and Defence Committee negotiated with the chief of military personnel to finalize a kit to be given to members upon retirement. The program was developed to preserve the Legion’s […]

Support In Fighting Pension Clawback Appreciated

Please accept our sincere appreciation for the excellent article Legion Calls For Elimination Of Pension Clawbacks in the July/August issue of Legion Magazine. The article was clearly presented and well received by veterans.

The strong support of the Legion demonstrated by Dom­in­ion Pres­ident Jack Frost was also well received by our supporters.

John Labelle, Military/RCMP Veterans Against Annuity Benefit Reduction at Age 65, Lower Sackville, N.S.

Sacrifice On The Melfa River

Thank you for the article Clash Among Generals by Terry Copp in the July/August issue. The article confirmed my long-held suspicion that the sacrifice made by two members […]

Ninety years can be an insuperable gulf of time: time for doers of great deeds to pass on, their feats forgotten even by descendants. Time for thrilling exploits to become dusty memories in albums and diaries. And, finally, time for facts to be condensed into dry tracts in textbooks, stripped of the visceral individual experiences, the fear and pain and longing and suffering and willingness even to die in the line of duty. John Alexander McLean, a teenager from Cape Breton, was killed in action at Lens in 1917. His body was not recovered from the battlefield. It is likely […]

In 2009, the Last Post Fund will commemorate 100 years of operations. The fund began operations in 1909 when its founder, Arthur Hair, noticed that a veteran would be buried in a pauper’s grave. The veteran had died penniless with no known relative. Since then, the Last Post Fund has lived up to its mandate that “no veteran would be denied a dignified funeral for lack of funds.”

In 1921, the Government of Canada decided to fund its own veterans funeral and burial program. Today, the Last Post Fund administers this program on behalf of Veterans Affairs Canada as well as […]

The 42nd dominion convention held in Ottawa June 21-25 turned out to be a historic occasion when The Royal Canadian Legion took stock of how it was governing itself. The RCL Commission on Governance, Representation and Command Structure had studied the Legion’s history and compared how the various commands, including Dominion Command, were governing themselves.

The largest problem was the size and cost of the Dominion Executive Council. While the Legion membership had dropped by almost a third from its peak of 602,489 members in 1984, DEC had remained virtually the same with 40 members. There were nine members of the […]

When Jerry Hull of LaSalle, Que., and Bernie Miller of Orangeville, Ont., faced each other in the first round of the singles event in the 2008 Dominion Command Darts Championships in Winnipeg, it was hard to tell these would be the players to notice.

Miller won that match two games to one but soon after that it was obvious these two were the players to watch as they went on to play their eight other opponents in the round robin play.

“I was aware of him and he was watching me all through the games,” said Miller, a member of Col. Fitzgerald […]

The 2008 Dominion Command Cribbage Championships was one of those events where all the elements—the weather, the people, the ambience—combine to make a perfect experience.

Card players gathered at Grand Bend, Ont., Branch for the three-day championships April 25-27 often wished out loud that the event had been longer, just to stretch out the fun. But there was some serious card-playing and fierce competition before teams from the East Coast, the West Coast and the Prairies took home first-place honours.

The careful planning of the Local Arrangements Committee, headed by Grand Bend Branch President Ron Crown, left organizers relaxed and confident to […]

As a result of an initiative by Veterans Affairs Canada, a Legion provincial command service officer was invited to partake in an information session sponsored by VAC and the local Operational Stress Injury (OSI) office. The main thrust of this information session was to reach out to individuals suffering from operational stress, and to inform them of the services available to them. Presentations were made by representatives from VAC, the community, and Legion service officers on services and benefits available to our veterans and their dependants.

In order to conduct this information session a venue had to be secured that would […]

One second. That’s about all you’ve got after you hit the buzzer. If you hesitate or begin to waffle, the question will go to the other team. And that’s not cool because the other team could get it right and score a point. And so here’s your question: What was the code name for an offensive launched on Feb. 8, 1945, preceded by a crushing air and artillery attack on the enemy positions?

The remarkable thing here is that you’re not a military historian—although you may be some day. You’re a junior high school student, born in 1995—50 years after the […]