The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Dear Editor, RE: Britain to Pardon Canadian Soldiers Our media seems somewhat divided on the question of whether it would be correct for Great Britain to pass an omnibus parliamentary bill creating a belated pardon for the 23 Canadian soldiers shot for desertion or cowardice in World War I. War historians are more certain that it would be what Desmond Morton of McGill University called "self-indulgent rubbish" and what Jack Granatstein has called "turning fact into fiction." The media were after me for a comment Ð like a terrier after a bone! Fresh in my mind were the stories from my father, a decorated World War I veteran, who survived the trench warfare. He never forgave the very small percentage of soldiers who took the easy route. Incidentally, most of them had bad service records, having committed other crimes before they deserted. A quote I gave to the Globe & Mail stated: "Deserters were bad role models for other troops. How can you expect other troops to go on sacrificing their lives if they knew they could get out of it and then get a pardon?" In a perfect world, the Great War of 1914-1918 would never have happened at all. It did. It took the lives of 60,000 young Canadians. I had studied the matter for many years. When contacted by the media, I had no alternative but to speak for the soldiers killed in action and for the British High Command who saw execution of deserters as the only way to maintain discipline. The War Amps, and most of the executive officers from the 55 organizations belonging to our National Council of Veteran Associations, were polled. They came down hard in their judgment against the contemplated action of the British Government to meddle with Canadian politics. Sincerely, Cliff Chadderton Chairman, National Council of Veteran Associations
