BY TREVOR BUSCH insight magazine


celebration for the May 8 event, but unfortunately restrictions led to the majority of the itinerary — with the exception of a small ceremony — being cancelled.The Legion had planned a parade from the Taber Community Centre parking lot to Cenotaph Park where a more exten- sive commemorative ceremony was to take place, followed by a lunch at the community centre. In late February, Lieutenant Christoper Nguyen of the Canadian Armed Forces, currently attached to the 225 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron in Taber, talked about the importance of V-E Day and Canada’s WWII contributions as a delegation to town council on behalf of the Legion’s V-E Day 75th Anniversary Committee. “When WWII began in 1939, Europe was seized by Nazi Germany,


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arguably the most hateful and destructive regime of the 20th century,” said Nguyen.“At the onset of the war, it quickly became apparent to the Allied forces that what was critical for the greater good of all nations — whether they were directly involved or not — was to ensure that Europe and ultimately the world was free from Nazi rule.Canada


arking an end to six long years of war on the European continent, the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) in 2020 wasn’t exactly what many organizers had in mind due to the wild card of a global pandemic.


Taber’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch #20 had planned an extensive


became involved in the war as early as September 1939.Over the course of the Second World War, Canada’s economy had been transformed: a generation of young men had been mobilized to defeat the Axis powers and by 1942, conscrip- tion was applied to Canadians by the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, as great casualties began taking their toll.” Canadians had fought in virtually every theatre of the war by 1945,


and tens of thousands had made the ultimate sacrifice. “By the spring of 1945,Canadians had waged war against a relentless


enemy on the North Atlantic, at Dieppe,Hong Kong,Normandy, in the air over Germany, in the Netherlands,and the Rhineland,”continued Nguyen.“In all, some 1.1 million Canadians had served in the Royal Canadian Navy,the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and various other forces across the Commonwealth, with approximately 42,000 killed, and another 55,000 more wounded or awaiting liberation in prisoner of war camps.” In Britain, which had endured the hardships of war, aerial bombing of its cities and the decimation of its merchant marine, citizens were ready to temporarily throw off the shackles of a wartime economy and cele- brate in the streets. “Canadians were in an expectant mood, eager for victory and ready for peace. Finally, at enormous cost,Victory in Europe Day — generally


12 - insight magazine june 2020


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