By Scott Taylor
As Canadians become more ‘woke’, we are seeing a growing trend to rename streets and buildings along with the removal of statues dedicated to individuals associated with historical discriminatory racial policies.
There are of course a large number of self-proclaimed traditionalists who loudly object to any revisionist review of our nation’s history.
There is no institution more steeped in its own traditions and ceremony than that of the Canadian Armed Forces.
That being said many of the former battlefield glories may not seem as honourable when viewed through the prism of today’s values.
One case in point would be the 1885 Northwest Rebellion which included the battles of Cut Knife Hill and Batoche.
Those battles and campaigns are still cited as honours on the Regimental Colours of the Queen’s Own Rifles, the Governor General’s Foot Guards and the Royal Canadian Artillery.
Those units were part of the military force dispatched to crush an uprising by the Cree and Assiniboine tribes, allied with Metis leader Louis Riel.
There is no denying that these were battles but to consider it an honour to suppress Indigenous people through military force may no longer appear to be glorious.
I have no doubt that pressure will be applied to have these citations removed from those colours.
Which then brings us to the British-led Nile Expedition 1884 – 1885 in which Canadian volunteers operated rafts to enable Lord Kitchener to invade the Sudan.
To this day the Sudanese view that military assault and subsequent slaughter of their military forces and execution of their Mahdi (leader) as a war crime.
In Ottawa there is a plaque dedicated to the seventeen Canadians who died on that expedition. Yet some might question whether that enterprise is something we should still herald in 2021.
Ditto for the Canadian participation in South Africa from 1899-1902 to assist the British in subduing the Boer settlers. This was the first conflict wherein the concept of concentration camps was used to quell the populace.
Canadian troops were involved in the burning of Boer homes and farms and an estimated 28,000 Boer civilians died in the filthy conditions of those concentration camps.
Yet to this day South Africa along with Paardeberg and Leliefontein are listed proudly as battle honours by the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Royal Canadian Regiment and Lord Strathcona’s Horse.
One way for the military of today to shed any links to these historical actions – and this will sound like heresy to the Colonel Blimp Brigade – would be to thoroughly restructure and rename all of our current military units.
Many of the names currently used are so long out of date as to be laughable and arguably misleading.
Our armoured units have tanks or reconnaissance vehicles, they do not ride horses, yet they bear the names Dragoons, Horse or Hussars. A number of our militia regiments include the term Rifles dating back to an era when the majority of regular army units carried smooth-bore muskets.
As all our infantry and support personnel carry rifles the term Rifles is redundant.
Likewise for those units still bearing the moniker fusiliers. The fusil was a light musket that has not been used since before the turn of the last century.
Of the 49 Regiments in the Primary Reserve, fifteen of those include the title Highlander or Scottish and then there is the Irish Regiment of Canada. While those names may have reflected the general composition of those units when they were founded – many as local militias – but that is hardly the case in 2021.
While we are at it, we could also remove the title ‘Light’ from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Infantry.
The truth is that since being founded at Lansdowne Park in 1914 they have always been infantry. The word ‘Light’ was added as a nod to Hamilton Gault who funded its creation because he thought it sounded cool.
Switching to numbered units may actually make the militia seem more inclusive to those new Canadians who don’t see themselves as Highlanders or Irishmen.
It would also freeze those regimental honours and histories in a time capsule which would insulate them from the current wave of historical scrutiny.
