[PHOTO] Mount Pleasant Cemetery (2)

Below are three nature-related photographs that I took at Mount Pleasant Cemetery on that hot, bright day.

Insects copulating on a bush
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Yes, what the subject line says.

The glazed stump
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

The park custodians must have cut down a sapling that was emerging as a threat and coated it with something to prevent regrowth. It looks frosted.

They marvel at the branch
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

talktooloose and lux_apollo look up at this astonishingly long oak branch.

[BRIEF NOTE] Canada in the Second World War

Today, the 7th of September, marks the 70th anniversary of the opening of the session of the Canadian parliament that would see Canada declare war against Germany (see Wikipedia, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Canadian Encyclopedia). Why did Canada wait until the 7th of September to issue its declaration of war According to the Toronto Star's Lynda Hurst, Canadian nationalism was involved, as prime minister William Lyon MacKenzie King sought to avoid the appearance of Canada being a British appendage.

At the start of World War I, Canada had had no choice in the matter: As Britain went, so did the Empire. But it had emerged bloodied from that "war to end all wars" with a burgeoning sense of itself as a nation.

In 1939, Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King desperately wanted to assert Canada's autonomy. As he told Britain's High Commissioner in the tense days of late August, "We (will) take this stand on our own, not in any colonial attitude of mind, simply following the lead from England."

After all, Canada had been a self-governing country since 1931, when the Statute of Westminster decreed that British law no longer automatically applied to the dominions. Or, at least, that's the way King – unlike the leaders of Australia and New Zealand – interpreted it, says Jack Granatstein, the eminent Canadian historian.

"Not everyone agreed with him. But it was very important to King that Canada go to war on its own, not because it was bound by Britain's declaration."

More prosaically, the delay occurred because the House of Commons was on summer break and King had promised to let parliament make the ultimate decision. By Aug. 31, when it was clear what was coming, MPs were recalled, but in those train-travel days, the process would take a week.

Also in the Star, Brent Popplewell suspects that if Canada had remained neutral or uninvolved, Britain might well have capitulated.

What if, 70 years ago next week, Ottawa decided not to go to war? World War II began Sept. 3, 1939, two days after Hitler's invasion of Poland. Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Nazi Germany. Seven days later, Canada entered the war, and the Battle of the Atlantic – referring to Allies' 1939-45 effort to keep supply convoys operating – was on.

The period between the fall of France in June, 1940, and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 is often cited as Britain's finest hour – when only the British stood between Hitler and the conquest of Europe.

But Britain never stood alone. "Between June 1940 and June 1941, Canada is the second most important military power on the allied side," says Terry Copp, a military historian at Wilfrid Laurier University. France and Poland had been defeated. Russia and the U.S. were still at peace with Germany.

[. . .]

[J]ust as the RAF's efforts in defending the British skies were integral to the country's defence in 1940-1941, so to were the efforts of the growing Royal Canadian Navy and fleet of convoys that were feeding Britain with everything from munitions to troops and food.

"Canada's presence in the fight looms really large in the sense of the possibility for Britain to continue to resist," says Copp.

"If you were to posit Canadian neutrality or appeasement, then in Britain really, the psychological blow would be immense."

Churchill seemed to understand this. In his now-famous June 4, 1940 radio address, he hinted at Canada's worth to the war effort: "We shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

No (Canadian) empire, no supplies, no possibility of continuing the war. Perhaps Britain might then have assented to a peace that would see Nazi Germany leave western Europe demilitarized so as to turn its full forces against the Soviet Union?

[LINK] "Is “declaration of war” an antiquated expression?"

Steve Fortin's article, taken from the 6 February 2008 issue of The Maple Leaf, is interesting. For different values of interesting, perhaps.

In Canada, it is generally conceded that the act of “declaring war” is a royal prerogative exercised by the Governor General, although the approval of the Canadian parliament is necessary so that democratic principles are respected. However, the very notion of a “declaration of war” may seem antiquated and has been invoked only very rarely in Canada since 1867.

In fact, the only Canadian declaration of war dates back to the Second World War. “In 1939 Britain declared war on September 3, but Canada waited, to emphasize its autonomy. Parliamentary debate (September 9) preceded the order in council declaring war (September 10). A similar procedure was followed when Canada declared war on Italy in 1940. The point is that only an order in council made the declaration of war formal. This was brought into stark relief in 1942 when war was declared on Japan, Romania, Hungary and Finland by simple proclamation, and no parliamentary debate or approval of an Address,” wrote Professor Christopher Dunn of Memorial University in a 2007 Canadian Parliamentary Review.

[. . .]

After the Second World War, the UN Organization, which grew out of the League of Nations, was established. The organization is mandated, on behalf of all member states, to ensure and maintain global peace and security. Canadian participation in conflicts after the Second World War has been through UN, and later NATO, resolutions, thereby excluding recourse to a “declaration of war” against a state, as the military intervention, whether led by an interposition or a peacekeeping force, had the assent of a supranational body. Kim Richard Nossal, Stéphane Roussel and Stéphane Paquin, writers for Politique internationale et défense au Canada et au Quebec, have clarified the issue, pointing out that all the peacekeeping operations, like all the wars in which Canada has participated, have been conducted under a multilateral framework (the British Empire, ad hoc alliances in 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, the UN and NATO), and indicated that this is a fundamental contextual element, because it highlights the role played by the CF as an instrument of foreign policy.

Not having been invaded in over 200 years, not having known the horrors of war on its own soil and not having participated in colonial conquests and the occupation of foreign lands, Canada has never had to unilaterally declare war on another country.

Canadian military efforts, Fortin goes on to argue, have always taken place in the part of Canada taking part in military endeavours waged by multinational alliances or organizations aimed at enforcing current norms of international order, making the idea of a Canadian declaration of war pointless. (Compare Prime Minister Mackenzie King's belief in my previous post.)

Thoughts?

[BRIEF NOTE] Labour Day in Canada

Today, the first Monday in September, is Labour Day in Canada. In this country, Labour Day came about as a result of 1872 workers protests.

In 1869 the [Toronto Printer's Union] sent a petition to their employers requesting a weekly reduction in hours per week to 58, placing itself in the forefront of the industrialized world in the fight for shorter hours. Their request was refused outright by the owners of the printing shops, most vehemently by George Brown of the Globe.

By 1872 the union's stand had hardened from a request to a demand and a threat to strike. The employers called the demand for a shorter workweek "foolish", "absurd" and "unreasonable." As a result, on March 25, 1872 the printers went on strike.

On April 14 a demonstration was held to show solidarity among the workers of Toronto. A parade of some 2000 workers marched through the city, headed by two marching bands. By the time that the parade reached Queen's Park, the sympathetic crowd had grown to 10,000.

The employers fought the strikers by bringing in replacement workers from small towns. George Brown launched a counterattack by launching a legal action against the union for "conspiracy." Brown's action revealed the astonishing fact that according to the laws of Canada union activity was indeed considered a criminal offense. Under the law, which dated back to 1792, police arrested and jailed the 24 members of the strike committee.

As history tells it, however, Brown had overplayed his hand. Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald had been watching the Nine-Hour Movement with curious interest, "his big nose sensitively keen," wrote historian Donald Creighton, "like an animal's for any scent of profit or danger." The scent of profit came from the fact that Macdonald's old Liberal rival George Brown had made himself a hated man among the workers of Canada.

Macdonald was quick to capitalize. In Ottawa, he spoke to a crowd at city hall, promising to wipe the "barbarous laws" restricting labour from the books. Macdonald then came to the rescue of the imprisoned men and on June 14 passed a Trade Union Act, which legalized and protected union activity. Macdonald's move not only embarrassed his rival Brown but also earned him the enduring support of the working class.

Canadians, then, received a 54-hour work week long before their American counterparts, the day being set by Parliament in 1894. In the meantime, in Canada just as in the United States, this end-of-summer long weekend is a beautiful, beautiful holiday.

[BRIEF NOTE] All the Billy Bishops

Billy Bishop is a military hero of Canada, a First World War military pilot responsible for more than seventy kills. He's a well-known figure: my grade 12 high school teacher named his class "Billy Bishop High" in the man's honour. Both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail have noted that the controversial Toronto City Centre Airport on the Toronto Islands will be renamed the "Billy Bishop Memorial Airport." The problem? As Globe and Mail's Josh Wingrove writes, Bishop's hometown of Owen Sound already has its own airport named after Bishop, the Billy Bishop Regional Airport.

The news came as a surprise 200 kilometres northwest of Toronto in Mr. Bishop's hometown of Owen Sound.

The small city is filled with tributes to the First World War pilot, including its own airport: the Billy Bishop
Regional Airport.

“You can't have two Billy Bishop airports,” Owen Sound airport manager Barry Lewin said, who hadn't heard of the TPA's plan.

“You'd think, out of courtesy, they would have notified or asked us? Because we certainly wouldn't be in favour.”

[. . .]

Beginning next month, the island airport's chief patron, Porter Airlines, is expanding its Toronto-Ottawa service and will make the round-trip journey up to 17 times a day.

Ottawa, meanwhile, is said to be looking favourably at a proposal to funnel millions of dollars in “stimulus funds” to construct a pedestrian tunnel connecting the airport to the lakeshore.

Two board members were unceremoniously let go this week, and questions continue to be raised over the spending of former TPA chief executive officer Lisa Raitt, who is now a cabinet minister.

“There are much more important issues [than the name],” said Brian Iler, leader of Community Air, a grassroots group that opposes the island airport.