World War I

In World War I, war resisters played an important role in ending that war.

We rarely hear about this role, despite its huge significance. Why?

Perhaps the answer is found in below excerpts from Peter Smollett’s 2011 Opinion piece in the Toronto Star entitled, “War resisters also deserve a memorial.”

“The last veterans of World War I have left us and their place in the ranks has been taken by survivors of more recent wars. As the last notes of The Last Post fade away on Remembrance Day, speakers and journalists will have their say about the brave young men who “died for all of us” or “who died for freedom.”

But the rhetoric comes too easily. Did the “Unknown Soldier” and all of his comrades of the Great World War really die “for all of us”? Or were they slaughtered in a brutal and criminal war. Were they heroes or tragic victims?

Many can only bear the awfulness of these deaths by believing that they died for some noble cause. The tragedy of that particular war is that they didn’t. They died for an ignoble cause. They died to divvy up colonies, markets and raw materials, and to enhance the careers of politicians and generals.”

(end quote) (Click here to access the full article from the Toronto Star)

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Canada and Iraq War Resisters

Click here for link to the Wikipedia article entitled, “Canada and Iraq War Resisters”

Click here to link to the War Resisters Support Campaign