Remembrance Day and the days surrounding it have been marred by several incidents in Toronto I can only describe as disgraceful. I suppose I should take these in chronological order as best I can determine since it isn’t known exactly when one of them occurred exactly.
First, on the evening of Saturday November 10, someone broke into a home in northeast Toronto and stole the medals of the homeowner’s grandfather from World War I and father from World War II. That someone stole the medals in the first place is bad enough, but to do it on the eve of Remembrance Day moves it into the “disgusting” column.
Next, as near as can be determined, sometime during the night of November 10 or early morning of November 11, some person, believed by many to be Muslim, and by some Muslims to be someone trying to blame the Muslims, desecrated a memorial in west Toronto by writing “Canada will burn Praise Allah” on the concrete. Immediately upon being advised of this, the City of Toronto had a man out there with cleaning equipment to remove rhe offending words. From the news video I’ve seen, the gentleman was successful.
The two minutes silence during the Service of Remembrance was also the scene of a disgraceful display on Sunday. Two young Muslim girls disrupted the silence by shouting anti-Canadian slogans, and they unfurled a banner condemning one operation in Afghanistan in which the Canadian troops were involved. According to a column in today’s online edition of the Toronto Sun, the two girls, to recruit others to their demonstration, set up a Facebook page which prominently featured the sentiment “F**k the troops”, although apparently they didn’t use asterisks in their posting. According to a this column, when people tried to stop their protest, one of the girls referred to those people as “a bunch of old white men”. Not only disrespectful, but racist as well. In the comments following the item that originally described the incident, most of the comments were of the “if you don’t like it here, go home” variety, or along the lines of “try that in Afghanistan and see how long you live”.
Finally, Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto is the veterans’ hospital in Toronto. I can’t recall all the details, but they had some campaign running to fill the front lawn of the hospital with little Canadian flags. On Remembrance Day, a couple visiting a nearby cemetery observed a man deliberately kicking over the Canadian flags on display. From the photo, this was a white guy, head shaved clean and when he noticed the couple taking photos, gave them the finger before leaving. A bit later, the couple observed this man on Bayview Avenue, where the hospital is located, again kicking down flags. The couple also reported they noticed an older gentleman replacing the flags.
Obviously I can’t speak for you, but personally, I find these acts of disrespect disgraceful, disgusting and any other negative adjective you can think of. This is the day when the country gathers together to honour the memories of those who gave their lives so we could have a country in which we have the freedom of speech to so insult our brave warriors.
Support our troops who are still serving in foreign lands and pray they all return home safely, and soon.
Cat.
Catseyeview 