Remembrance Day: Start Here

“This feature documentary profiles poet John McCrae, from his childhood in Ontario to his years in medicine at McGill University and the WWI battlefields of Belgium, where he cared for wounded soldiers.”

"This 1964 documentary returns to the battlefields where over 100,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The film also visits cemeteries where servicemen are buried."

For Remembrance Day, Mi'kmaw linguist Bernie Francis reads his translation of John McCrae's war poem "In Flanders Fields."

"This documentary introduces us to thousands of Indigenous Canadians who enlisted and fought alongside their countrymen and women during World War II, even though they could not be conscripted. Ironically, while they fought for the freedom of others, they were being denied equality in their own country and returned home to find their land seized."

"This documentary tells the personal story of filmmaker Jari Osborne's father, a Chinese-Canadian veteran. She describes her father's involvement in World War II and uncovers a legacy of discrimination and racism against British Columbia's Chinese-Canadian community. Sworn to secrecy for decades, Osborne's father and his war buddies now vividly recall their top-secret missions behind enemy lines in Southeast Asia. Theirs is a tale of young men proudly fighting for a country that had mistreated them."

In this episode of Medicine Line, host Dave Gaudet travels to Arizona and New Mexico to Navajo Country to speak with WWII Veteran Teddy Draper Sr. and his vital role as a Navajo Code Talker. At barely 19 years of age, Teddy Drapper Sr. joined the navy. The American army would soon recruit Teddy and other Navajo men to use their language as a secret code. They were only ones able to use and decipher the codes and were a critical element to help win the war.

Black soldiers had to fight to be able to fight on behalf of Canada — but academics say their unique plight often goes unrecognized.

In this YouTube video by Historica Canada, the speakers explain what Remembrance Day means to them.