Tag Archives: 25 years

25 years later: Gulf War veterans get recognized

WEHT_story, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Share

When Canadians think about Canada’s military history there are many examples that come to mind: Vimy Ridge, Juno Beach, Afghanistan, and peacekeeping missions around the world.

But rarely, if at all, do people talk about the men and women who served during the Gulf War according to those who served. For some veterans like Sylvia Vickers, who served for 11 years as a naval combat information operator, they believe that The Gulf War is a “forgotten war.” But 25 years later it looks like things might change.

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the Gulf War and events are taking place across the country to honour veterans and their families. After originally not having plans to commemorate the anniversary in 2015, Veterans Affairs Canada announced in August it would recognize the ending of the Gulf War.

Approximately 4,000 members of the Canadian Forces served overseas in the Persian Gulf between August 1990 and February 1991 to help liberate Kuwait from invading Iraq. It was the first time that Canada sent the military into a war since The Korean War. The navy deployed three ships: HMCS Terra Nova, HMCS Athabaskan, and HMCS Protecteur.

It’s an anniversary that veterans no longer have to celebrate themselves and feel neglected.

When Vickers first heard the announcement, she remembered the warm response the military received when they went overseas to the Persian Gulf. Where at times, she says they felt spoiled as famous news anchors and hockey stars would visit them. The announcement “made us feel the way felt when we were in the Gulf,” Vickers said.

Last year Canadian Gulf War veterans began celebrating the anniversary of the war amongst themselves. For Vickers and other veterans it’s been a different kind of battle just to get the recognition.

“As soon I complained a little bit to the media that they weren’t commemorating the Gulf War we got the same overwhelming warm response,the legion phone rang off the hook,” said Vickers.

But for Vickers, her overseas experience doesn’t always conjure warm memories. She says there were times on the Protecteur where “I remember praying that I would be brave when the time came” to protect the people around her as she monitored radar for enemy missiles.

Vickers remembers telling her worried family, “it’s OK, I’m happy that I’m doing this and don’t feel bad if I die,” she said. Vickers volunteered to work on the Protecteur when she was on the HMCS Nipigon because, as she jests, “my lucky horseshoe was being in danger.”

Stephane Tremblay served on the Athabaskan as an electrician and spent 24 years in the navy. He volunteered to join the ship from the HMCS Algonquin when there was a need for extra electricians.

On the Athabaskan he rarely paid attention to any news concerning the war and instead focused on his job. Tremblay stayed focused because he noticed that the people following regular news became stressed about the war. “The best thing was to just go on, and like your own ship just go with the flow,” he said.

For Tremblay, commemorations for any conflict need to be done sooner rather than later in order to recognize veterans before they pass away.

Harold Davis spent 31 years with the air force straight out of high school in 1978. He served on the Athabaskan and is now the president of the Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada advocacy group, which helps members with their medical conditions.

For Davis the anniversary is significant because “for 25 years nobody even remembered us,” he said after returning to Halifax Harbour after the war. But he does understand that “it took 50 years for the Korean veterans to get recognized. I think we’re doing pretty good at 25.”

Davis hopes that the anniversary can help create a better relationship with Veterans Affairs Canada. He hopes that it’s the beginning step to help meet the needs of Gulf War veterans, in particular medical treatment.

But like the anniversary it seems only time will tell.

Documentation – Gulf War Veterans – What ever hapened to story

The Bloc Québécois Faces Challenges After 25 Years

WEHT_story, ,
Share

Simon Deschamps

The Bloc Québécois wasn’t supposed to be around for very long. Twenty-five years after being formed as a temporary movement, it has become the institutional voice of Quebecers, say academics and former members.

“The Bloc is caught in a negative spiral,” said Michel Sara-Bournet, a professor of political science at University of Montreal. “The less it talks sovereignty, the less people are interested in this question. But the more it talks about it, the more people flee the party.”

In the past 25 years, the Bloc Québécois have entered eight elections. The party’s biggest achievement at the polls happened in 1993 when they became official opposition. The “Orange Wave” struck in 2011 and the party was almost wiped out, with just four MPs elected. Then the Quebec map shifted to a red tint during the last election in 2015.

“Quebecers wanted change and when they realized nothing has changed over the last 20 years, and the willingness to knock over the Harper government, they thought they had better chances to do it with Layton and Trudeau,” said Sara-Bournet, to explain the descent of the Bloc Québécois.

The desire for Quebec sovereignty hasn’t been as strong in recent years. A Radio-Canada/ Crop poll conducted in 2014 found that 60 per cent of the province’s population would vote “No” to a future referendum.

Before losing its popularity with Quebec voters, there was lots of enthusiasm on June 15, 1991 at its launching assembly. More than 900 people gathered at CEGEP Tracy, a post-secondary school. This is where the Bloc Québécois became an official party. Lucien Bouchard was confirmed as its first leader.

“So we are all in the parking lot and thinking we will form a political party, live an historical moment, and we don’t have the keys,”  recalled Joseph Facal, who had attended the event as the president of the Young Péquistes, an association for the young members of the Parti Québécois. He arrived early that morning to participate in the policy-making process, and the organizers of the event didn’t have the set of keys to enter the building.

Facal, now a political analyst for Quebec media outlets, says the party was organized by improvising. The goal of the Bloc was to assist in the sovereignty process and disappear when it would have happened. “To quote Lucien Bouchard, the Bloc’s success would be measured by its brevity,” he said. When sovereignty wasn’t achieved after losing the 1995 referendum by a slim margin, the Bloc faced a dilemma: disappearing or staying?

It stayed, and progress was made in the coming years. The return of the Quebec skills training program is one of the gains lobbied for by the Bloc. The province fought for this for 33 years. The Bloc also stood up for farmers when the Quebec agriculture model was threatened by international trades negotiation. They presented a motion adopted by the other parties. As well, the Bloc challenged the others parties to make them recognize a fiscal imbalance toward the province. About, 3.3 billion went back into Quebec government’s coffers.

Louis Plamondon,  who were part in the foundation of the Bloc and MP for it since 1993,  said that the party “still had to fight for Quebec’s interests in Ottawa where the interests of Canada always take priority”

He is proud of what the Bloc Québécois accomplished over the years, and is convinced more than ever of the necessity for sovereignty and hopes for another opportunity.

 

Documentation for Jim

 

The animated family that changed television has barely changed at all

Whatever-Happened-To? Assignment, , ,
Share

They were skinny. They were crude. And they were yellow.

And he loved them all.

Ken Priebe is an animation instructor working at VanArts in British Columbia. He was in middle school the first time he and his parents watched The Simpsons on TV.

He remembers seeing the sloppily-drawn family when they made their debut in a short skit on The Tracey Ullman Show.

But it wasn’t until they appeared on their own, full-length program that the animated family made their first real impact.

“It was a huge success. They were huge,” he said. “It was a really big deal to have an animated show like that on primetime.”

The Simpsons first premiered on the Fox network on December 17, 1989. The show featured the donut-loving father Homer, his scraggly-voiced wife Marge,  rabble-rousing son Bart,  super-intelligent daughter Lisa, and the pacifier-sucking infant Maggie.

It wasn’t long after the show hit the airwaves that the family began to take North America by storm.

Priebe remembers the massive wave of merchandizing, mostly centred around Bart and his bad-boy attitude.

“He was the superstar of the show,” Priebe said. “He was like the cool kid, the troublemaker.”

The spiky-haired ten-year-old became a cultural icon. Kids would show up at school wearing t-shirts and backpacks bearing catchphrases like “Underachiever and proud of it” and “Eat my shorts,” much to the horror of their teachers.

“This show was seen by a lot of people as a sign of the end of civilization as we know it,” said Robert Thompson, an expert on popular culture and television history at Syracuse University.

Before its first season had ended, one Ohio principal had already banned all Simpson T-shirts in his school. And other teachers soon followed his example.

But the outcries of disgust aimed against the show quickly died down.

“Most people who had actually bothered to watch the show began to start coming around to the fact that they were going to have to grudgingly admit that this show was the best thing on television,” Thompson said.

“It really was some of the best social commentary and political commentary out there.”

Priebe said The Simpsons is one of the reasons he is able to work in animation today.

According to Priebe, animation was a dead-end industry prior to the 1990s. But with its slick style and clever characters, The Simpsons was “one of the things that made animation cool.”

As the show grew in popularity, so too did the number of its imitators. 

Shows like Beavis and Butthead, Family Guy and South Park all took cues from The Simpsons, lampooning celebrities, politicians and pop culture in general.

“The Simpsons success spawned this whole new era,” Priebe said.

But for Priebe, a lot of the newer shows relied too much on crude humour and shock value rather than creating endearing characters.

“That’s what made The Simpsons work. The characters were like the people in your own town and the people in your own family. ”

Priebe hasn’t seen the show in a while, but not because he thinks it’s not funny anymore.

“I haven’t watched it regularly. It’s not cause I don’t like the show, but life gets busy.”

Thompson said the show has declined in popularity over the past few years because it no longer stands out in the landscape it created.

“I’m not willing to say The Simpsons is no good anymore,” Thompson said. “But it’s not innovative, it’s by definition old fashioned.”

But Thompson also said the show’s longevity is one of its crowning successes.

“The biggest thing about The Simpsons is when people ask, ‘Where is The Simpsons?’ 25 years later, the answer is it’s still on the air.”

Simpsons – Background Documentation