The Torch: "In search of Canada's warrior spirit": Military memorials in Ottawa

Robert Sibley of the Ottawa Citizen takes us on a tour (National War Memorial at end):

Heroic monuments, obscure memorials and geometric forms reflect a nation's sacrifice

The Canloan Memorial commemorates the Canadian Army infantry officers who served with British regiments during the Second World War.
Photograph by: Chris Mikula , The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen

Canadians are often told Canada lacks a martial spirit. We are peacekeepers, not warriors. Yet, all day as I continue my search for Ottawa's monuments, I've seen evidence to the contrary.

Take, for example, the Canloan Memorial. The triangular stone cenotaph is, arguably, one of the more obscure war memorials in Ottawa. It occupies a circular pad on the east bank of the Rideau River, across Sussex Drive from Rideau Falls Park, commemorating the Canadian Army infantry officers who served with British regiments during the Second World War.

By 1940 [1943 actually, more here], the British Army was running short of officers in its numerous campaigns around the world. The Canadian Army, on the other hand, was fighting only in Italy and had more officers than could be deployed to active battalions. The Canadian government offered to "loan" junior officers to the British on a voluntary basis, under the code name CANLOAN...

Most of the military monuments I've seen walking along Sussex Drive today reflect similar sacrifice. The National Artillery Memorial, which was originally in Major's Hill Park but relocated in 1959 to the west side of Rideau Falls Park on Green Island, honours the "glorious memory of the officers and men of the Royal Regiment of Canada who gave their lives in the service of Canada." On the east side of the park, the Mackenzie-Papineau Monument commemorates the 1,546 Canadians who fought against the fascists during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Unveiled in 2001, it includes a long wall with the names of Mac-Pap volunteers.

The Commonwealth Air Force Memorial, unveiled in 1959, is nearby [for the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, museum here]...

...I'm struck by the difference in style between these monuments and other war memorials such as the National War Memorial and The Canadian Phalanx off Wellington Street I've visited in recent days.

The latter monuments are built in heroic proportion, with figurative statues in martial poses. The ones I'm finding today, many unveiled in the 1950s and 1960s, abandon heroic figures, and any explicit reference to heroism, in favour of granite and concrete walls, geometric forms, plaques and cairns.

Do these monuments reflect a conscious effort to downplay the motif of earlier eras so as not to glorify war or promote a warrior spirit? The question seems especially applicable to the Peacekeeping Monument at the intersection of Sussex Drive and St. Patrick Street...

I've long felt ambivalent about this monument, uncertain whether it succeeds in balancing the figurative (those three soldiers) and the abstract (those shattered walls) to achieve its symbolic purpose. I sometimes think the fact only one of the soldiers is armed suggests passivity, as does their static posture.

But over the years I've been reconciled to Reconciliation. It is not a war memorial; it's a monument to those who prevent war. So, perhaps, the restriction on warrior symbolism is appropriate...

Yet, sitting against a willow tree overhanging the Rideau River, studying the Canloan Memorial, I find I still prefer old-fashioned monuments. I walk over to run my fingers across the plaques with their embossed names of the dead. True, there's nothing glorifying war here either, but there is an implicit recognition of the warrior spirit and its necessity. The fallen, says the commemoration, "are honoured in this quiet place in gratitude and remembrance of the cost of liberty." Someone wedged a poppy in a crack in the stone. Maybe Canada's warrior spirit is not forgotten.

Robert Sibley is a senior writer for the Citizen (one of their best writers, his blog here). His "pilgrimage" continues tomorrow on Nepean Point.

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ABOUT THIS SERIES

Monuments are stories in stone and bronze that reflect who we are and where we came from. Join Robert Sibley on his hunt for the soul of the city...

Online: Do concrete walls, geometric forms, plaques and cairns downplay war so as not to promote a warrior spirit? Judge for yourself at ottawacitizen.com/ monuments Join the journey:

Spend an evening with Robert Sibley and Citizen photographer Chris Mikula, who will present a slideshow of their travels. Aug. 26, 7 p.m. at the Ottawa Citizen conference centre, 1101 Baxter Rd.

Admission is free, but please RSVP: stonesrsvp@thecitizen.

canwest.com or call 613-726-5800.