Defence Today Archives - Legion Magazine

Biographer Brian Jeffrey Street on the Canadian hero of Dunkirk, Part 1

Alex Bowers — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:30:06 +0000

“He’s been with me for a long time,” said biographer Brian Jeffrey Street of the largely forgotten Canadian war hero he has chronicled for decades. Naval Commander James Campbell Clouston’s efforts during the Dunkirk evacuations were vital to its success. From May 26 to June 4, 1940, as German forces closed in on the French …

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Canada lost the war in Afghanistan: Top diplomat Ben Rowswell speaks out

Richard Foot — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:22:53 +0000

Ben Rowswell remembers the sinking feeling he had flying out of Kandahar in the summer of 2010. As the brown earth of southern Afghanistan receded below him, the despair inside him grew. Rowswell had spent the previous two years serving at the highest civilian levels of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, first as deputy ambassador …

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Danger Tree: A cherished symbol of sacrifice gets a new lease on life

Richard Foot — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:08:11 +0000

It is perhaps Newfoundland and Labrador’s most famous wartime icon. Certainly, it’s a symbol of profound sorrow among a people well-acquainted with loss and hardship. For more than a century, the Danger Tree, or a version of it, has stood amid the green expanse of the Beaumont-Hamel battlefield in northern France as a stark reminder …

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Documentarian Eric Brunt captures the last voices of Canada’s Second World War generation

Alex Bowers — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:00:53 +0000

Documentarian Eric Brunt isn’t in the business of irrefutable historical record. He has long understood that memories fade, that dates get lost to time and that details can be misremembered in recalling events from more than 80 years ago. Such is the nature of interviewing the last Canadian veterans of the Second World War, a …

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Law and order: Louise Arbour, Canada’s next governor general and former war crimes prosecutor, brings hope for peace

Richard Foot — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:13:57 +0000

The Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders were a turning point in history. They marked not only the end of the Second World War, but the hopeful beginnings of the postwar, rules-based international order. More than a half-century later, the idea that the conduct of governments and armies should be subject to international law arguably reached …

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Marilyn Morawetz on a campaign to preserve Canada’s last surviving WW II prisoner-of-war camp

Alex Bowers — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:12:31 +0000

A community campaign to save Canada’s last surviving WW II-era prisoner-of-war camp has reached a new milestone, according to its stewards. The historic Camp 30 site in Bowmanville, Ont., has languished for years due to various complications. Now, plans are underway to preserve its former cafeteria building after the local council approved fundraising efforts, effectively …

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Caring for the fallen: A new volunteer program to maintain war graves in Canada

Richard Foot — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:14:17 +0000

Brittany Johnson is expecting her first baby in July. But the mom-to-be is no stranger to nurturing needy souls. For the past year, Johnson has been carefully tending the memories of 25 veterans buried in Commonwealth war graves in and around her home of Yorkton, Sask. She regularly visits each grave across 10 cemeteries—some on …

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A conversation with Helmets to Hardhats

Alex Bowers — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:01:55 +0000

When military veteran Justin Curtis hung up his uniform after eight years of service, he asked himself the question that countless comrades throughout the history of the Canadian Armed Forces have asked before: what next? The challenges that others have faced in navigating civvy street were not lost on the former infantryman. Nevertheless, explained Curtis, …

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Speaking loud: In his first public update video, Carney channels Major-General Isaac Brock

Richard Foot — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:26:45 +0000

Who knew that Prime Minister Mark Carney kept a tiny toy solider on his desk? Canadians learned this last week in a remarkable video Carney released—the first in a series of occasional public updates he is promising to deliver from the Prime Minister’s Office via YouTube. The inaugural video posted on Sunday, April 19 was …

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Veterans Ombud Nishika Jardine on defending veterans

Alex Bowers — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:15:11 +0000

“Being able to respond to individual complaints that come into us is the bread and butter of our office,” explained colonel (ret’d) Nishika Jardine, Canada’s veterans ombud. “That is the service we provide, a free and independent service for fairness for veterans and their families. That is our number one priority. It will always be …

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