Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 01/99) - The federal department of Veterans Affairs has launched a new campaign encouraging Northerners to remember the sacrifices many Canadians have made in past wars.

This is the second consecutive year the department has launched a poster that will be widely distributed in the run-up to Nov. 11, Remembrance Day.

"We take for granted the security and the peace that we have in Canada," said Col. Pierre Leblanc, commander of the Canadian Forces Northern Area.

"Maybe the military has a better feel for the amount of unrest there is in the world because of the various U.N. peace-keeping operations that we and the RCMP participate in."

Leblanc estimated there are 14 countries in the state of war or armed conflict and that Canadians can be quick to forget this.

"In Canada we are very fortunate that our country has been at peace for so long. Even during the Second World War, apart from very sporadic activity by the German navy on the east coast of Canada and the Japanese navy on the west coast of Canada, the country was not physically at war or being bombed," he said at a ceremony to unveil the new Remembrance Day poster Oct. 14.

The poster simply says, Remember, and has photos from the Canadian Forces' past. One photo appears to be an aboriginal chief blessing an aboriginal woman before she heads off to war.

"This year Canada was declared by the United Nations as the best country in the world to live. That didn't occur by accident," said RCMP G division acting commanding officer Terry Elliott at the ceremony.

"That happened as the result of blood spilled on foreign soils by Canadian soldiers."

He said if there is one word that needs to be stressed in keeping peace it is the word "remember."

On reflection, we can remember the grisliness and horror of war as well as the mistakes of war, he said.