Flag theft, protests dog Remembrance Day ceremonies

Remembrance Day is supposed to be a solemn occasion to mark the sacrifices of Canadians in a century of warfare.

But it can't escape trouble and controversy, whether it's the intrusion of politics or base criminality, such as poppy donation-can thefts.

When members of Branch 291 of the Royal Canadian Legion in Richmond, B.C., paraded Monday for Remembrance Day, they did it with donated flags.

Just days before the sombre ceremony, someone broke into a locked storage container on the suburban Vancouver legion branch's property and stole its 10 flags.

When news of the theft broke over the weekend, offers to replace the flags poured in from other legion branches, community organizations and even scout troops, CTV News reported. So many that the legion had to turn some away.

Members were "kind of shocked," said John Kane, vice chairman of the branch's Remembrance Day committee.

“This time of year most flags are being used by most branches,” Kane told CTV News. “It's pretty hard for them to give them up.”

Donations replaced the missing Canadian, B.C., Union Jack and City of Richmond flags, branch vice-president Bob Miller told the Globe and Mail. But the unique branch flag and Legion Ladies Auxiliary flag are irreplaceable.

"We can't fly our own colours," he said.

The flags have little monetary value, Miller said, theorizing the thieves thought they had something more valuable because the flags were stored in ski bags.

“But when they realized there were flags in there, why not just drop them back?” adding the 350-member branch would be happy to get them back, no questions asked.

Politics sometimes intrudes into Remembrance Day, though perhaps not without justification.

Thousands of Nova Scotians joined veterans in a rally in Sydney on Saturday to protest Ottawa's planned closure of the city's Veterans Affairs Canada office, one of nine being shuttered in the country.

"I think this will hopefully send a message to the powers that be," protester Ron Clarke told the Cape Breton Post. "That tells [Defence Minister] Mr. [Julian] Fantino that on this end of the country we have the support. I understand this is going on across Canada as well for the other offices and it's great."

Other veterans across Canada planned to protest the Conservative government's treatment of veterans on everything from pensions to health care and even funerals by turning their backs on government representatives when they lay wreaths at local cenotaphs, the Globe reported.

Retired air force captain Claude Latulippe said he will face away when Conservative MP Mark Strahl lays a wreath at the ceremony in Chilliwack, B.C., "just like the Conservatives are turning their backs on veterans."

Many veterans are angry the government has scrapped lifetime pensions for disabled vents in favour of a lump-sum payment that that critics say will leave many vulnerable to poverty in later years. In a lawsuit filed by vets against the so-called Veterans Charter, the government is arguing it has no sacred duty to care for vets, the Globe noted.

The government has also come under fire for discharging some wounded soldiers who are no longer deemed fit for overseas deployment before they reach 10 years of service, the minimum required to qualify for a pension.

And it's also under pressure to open up the underspent burial fund covering mainly impoverished vets from the Second World War and Korean War to make modern vets eligible.

Protest doesn't come naturally to veterans, Latulippe told the Globe.

“Military don’t march against authority,” he said. “Military fall in line and do what they’re told.”

Last year's Remembrance Day ceremony in Toronto was marked by controversy when a handful of demonstrators protesting Canada's Afghan mission disrupted the two minutes' silence portion of the commemoration.

Women who were part of the protest argued they were trying to draw attention to the thousands of dead and wounded resulting from the NATO-led foreign intervention in Afghanistan.

But Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington said the protest "was spitting in the faces of Canada's 158 Afghanistan war dead and the thousands who fell in wars before them."

The Toronto ceremony was a political focal point again this year when some in the crowd briefly booed and yelled "shame," as embattled Mayor Rob Ford rose to give his address.

Critics had questioned whether Ford, who last week admitted smoking crack cocaine and whom police have observed consorting with people linked to the drug underworld, should have been the city's representative at the ceremony.

And in 2011, a man and woman were arrested in separate incidents at the Remembrance Day ceremony. The Canadian Press reported the two began shouting around the time Ford was speaking. They were charged with disorderly conduct in a public place.