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Desecration of The War Memorial - Veterans Group Says Government Must Protect National Treasure |
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Written by Wire Services/Staff
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Tuesday, 04 July 2006 |
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Chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations Cliff Chadderton said today in a statement that the Federal Government must not be allowed to shirk its responsibility regarding adequate measures to protect the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
He pointed out that Canada was far behind other countries in establishing the necessary monuments and icons to its military heritage and added that it should look at three well-known examples.
"The first Unknown Soldier for the British military was established upon the entombment of the remains of a deceased World War I soldier in Westminster Abbey," Chadderton said. "The thought of anyone desecrating this tomb borders on the insane. I have visited it several times." Chadderton has repeatedly stated "that any attempt to defile this sepulchre would call for immediate public censure of the Government."
As a second example, Chadderton noted that after World War I, President Woodrow Wilson asked that the British and Americans exchange the bodies of unknown soldiers. This resulted in a well-known site in the U.S. National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia which bears the body of a British soldier entombed in American territory. The British arranged for an American killed in action in World War I to be buried in Westminster Abbey. The Arlington Tomb is guarded 24-hours-per-day and 365-days-per-year by specially trained members of the 3rd United States Infantry (The Old Guard).
The third example cited by Chadderton is a tomb recognized throughout the world which stands in Red Square in Moscow. Visitors and Russian people alike line up for days ahead to pass by the tomb which originally bore the remains of Josef Stalin and was later replaced by other Soviet war heroes.
The Canadian Government arranged, at the request of veterans, for a Canadian soldier killed in France in World War I to be buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the site of the National War Memorial in May 2000.
"The failure to adequately guard this memorial must be looked upon as a failure on the part of the Federal Government," Chadderton said. He added that veterans' organizations have been asking for protection of the War Memorial site for more than 15 years. No Federal Government has taken up the challenge which has been part of the agenda of veterans' organizations in their submissions to the Canadian Parliament.
Chadderton cited solutions that have been presented to numerous Ministers of Veterans Affairs including, "in the summer months, the Parliament Buildings grounds are the location for a Changing of the Guard. It would be quite a simple matter to have four representatives of the military at the four corners of the monument site in summer months."
Also suggested was a removable chain fence surrourding the Tomb at the War Memorial, a fence that could be removed for state occasions. "At other times," said Chadderton, "the fence would prevent the kind of conduct which Canadians would find reprehensible if access were too close."
Chadderton added that insofar as information is concerned, it has been the proposal of veterans' organizations that plaques be erected explaining both the War Memorial and, since its interment, the body of the Unknown Soldier.
"The desecration on July 1st should act as a spur to action by the Federal Government to protect this national treasure," Chadderton concluded. |
