They say To Remember is To Work for Peace. I noticed that all of the musicians involved were wearing buttons the Mennonite Church hands out for Remembrance Day. Don Cherry sparked online backlash on Saturday night for his comments about immigrants not wanting to wear poppies ahead of Remembrance Day. On Sunday, November 10 a choir and instrumental group from my church presented Mass in a Time of War by Franz Joseph Haydn. The choir sang a piece called Arise, Cry Out by composer Norbert Palej that commemorated the death during the World War II Holocaust of the Jewish citizens from the Warsaw Ghetto including many children from an orphanage there.Īll members of the choir and band wore a single red poppy. The band played a piece called Letters From Home by Peter Meechan that included a section where World War I soldiers were in the trenches and the music portrayed the chaos and the guns and the mortar fire. Interestingly the concert music also reflected both these sombre realities. He told me during World War II 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians lost their lives. He said the red poppy was in memory of military personnel who died in wars and the white one in memory of civilians who died. My daughter-in-law sings in the Polycoro choir and they were presenting music for Remembrance Day along with the Regimental Band of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.īefore the concert, I bumped into an acquaintance wearing two poppies a red one and a white one. He’s a national icon that comes with responsibility. It’s unfortunate that Don Cherry said what he said, and in the way he did. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. On Saturday, November 10 I went to a concert at the Minto Armoury here in Winnipeg. Remembrance Day carries a certain solemnity, and it should. Don Cherry fired after anti-immigrant poppy rant In 2019, Don Cherry, Hockey Night in Canada's former commentator, ranted over new immigrants not wearing poppies during a broadcast. The American kids said on November 11 their country honours veterans in many different ways just as we do, but they don’t wear poppies. You know, I was talking to a veteran, I said ‘I’m not going to run the poppy thing anymore,’ Cherry began, referencing his annual Remembrance Day segment. I told them about the Canadian John McCrae and his poem about poppies growing in a battlefield in Belguim. Cherry, 85, used his platform during Coach’s Corner on Saturday night to lambaste people who don’t wear poppies for Remembrance Day, seemingly zeroing in on immigrants. It wasn’t something they were at all familiar with. They were curious about the people they saw wearing poppies. On Friday, November 9, I gave an art gallery tour to a group of visiting teenagers from the United States. Soldiers from the Punjab helped protect the port of Calais, a key port for the Allies to bring troops and supplies to the Western Front.I attended a football game in the United States one Remembrance Day and military personnel brought out a huge flag and we all stood to honour veterans Sikh soldiers also fought in Flanders Fields in the first battle of Ypres five months before the Canadian Expeditionary Force arrived. Purewal says the British called upon the Indian Army to help protect ports along the English Channel at the outset of World War I. Izzat is a word for code of honour, central to Punjabi culture. It highlights the role Sikh soldiers played in World War I. By using his Coach's Corner pulpit to turn the poppy into a social weapon against immigrants to Canada, Don Cherry has selfishly made this Remembrance Day about him instead of the veterans. On Monday, Purewal will be at the Museum of Surrey with an exhibition he created called Duty, Honour & Izzat, the same title as his book. Listen to Steven Purewal discuss his book with the CBC's Sheryl MacKay: "What Don Cherry did was endorse a stereotype of the thankless immigrant, of an immigrant that isn't patriotic, of an immigrant that hasn't paid his way, and it's completely wrong," he said. and the author of a book about more than 1 million Indian soldiers sent to fight in World War I, said before news of the firing that Cherry's comments vilify new immigrants. Variants include ask and thou shall receive and the more colloquial them as asks, gits them as don’t ask, don’t git. Steven Purewal, a historian based in Surrey B.C. The proverb is of biblical origin, appearing in Matthew 7:7, and is sometimes encountered in its fuller form: Ask, and it shall be given you seek, and ye shall find knock, and it shall be opened unto you. "During the broadcast, he made divisive comments that do not represent our values or what we stand for." Today, Cherry has reportedly been fired, with Sportsnet tweeting: "It has been decided it is the right time for him to immediately step down." The comments prompted swift backlash, and apologies the following day from his broadcaster, Sportsnet, and his co-host Ron MacLean. Don Cherry sparks online backlash for comments on immigrants, Remembrance Day.
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