Canada Day
under the reign of Maldegem
On 14 September 1984 naval captain viscount Poullet served as
the representative of the king.
Behind the viscount we see consulting minister Fraser of Canada, burgomaster
Rotsart de Hertaing and seated, the wife of Minister Fraser.
From
11 September 1977 until the commemoration of 12 September 1993 the course of the
whole ceremony was kept under very strict control: welcoming the guests, solemn
Holy Mass, reception at the town hall, march to the Canadian cemetery, and here
speeches, flower tributes and welcome to all invited. This was then
followed by a banquet laid on by the town council.
The number of invitees and invited associations kept going up and up
and that meant (and still means) a very extensive and thorough organization for
instance to provide parking spaces. And soon, because of the considerable
number of participants, the reception could no longer be held in Adegem's town
hall. Many thought this a regrettable break with a tradition going back
many years.
It is to the credit of burgomaster Jean Rotsart de Hertaing that
every year every little thing was taken care of and the ceremony went off
perfectly. Again and again Adegem town is a sea of flags and during
the week preceding the ceremony everyone who passes by the cemetery in the
Prince Baldwin Lane (N9) knows it will soon once again be Canada Day because
dozens of flags fly high in front of the cemetery.
Welcoming the guests in the town occurs according to protocol and is
timed to the second. In the cemetery in the grandstands seats are provided
for the VIPs. It is all is the result of many months of preparation and
intensive discussions with the clergy, the Adegem schools, the associations etc.
It has become a professional job: the Canada Day has changed from the intimacy
of the Adegem commemoration to a grand and colourful celebration. One
thing though the burgomaster couldn't change either: the rain that was (and
still is) quite literally associated with the Canada Day. It is really
typical and at the same time remarkable that so often this day has been washed
out and drowned by heavy rain, and this since 1945 !
On 11 September 1977 Ambassador Lamoureux was there for the first
time and on 9 September 1979 Prime Minister Wilfried Martens in person attended
the ceremony for the 35th anniversary of the liberation. Thanks to
burgomaster Rotsart de Hertaing a small picture exhibition of the liberation was
set up and the Canadian guests appreciated it very much.
For the ceremony of 14 September 1980 no less than 50 towns from
East and West-Flanders and from Zeeland Flanders were invited. Besides viscount Poullet who
had represented the king for years, Minister Fraser of Canada was also
present. And he thanked all those present for the annual homage that was
very much appreciated in Canada.
In 1985 Ambassador Yalden was at the same time amazed and happy
about the massive presence of pilgrims and he hoped that this tradition would be
continued for many years to come because it meant more intimate relations
between Belgium and Canada.
On 13 September 1987 for the umpteenth time the ceremony took place
under menacing clouds. "Worse than the dead would be their absence
from our thoughts" said burgomaster Rotsart de Hertaing. Minister of
Education Daniel Coens in a very nice speech stressed the promotion of peace so
the coming generations might benefit from what had been won back so many decades
ago.
One of the guests was Adams T. Roy, president of the Lincoln and Welland
Regiment Association, whose brother Armand L. Roy died on 4 March 1945 and lays
buried in the cemetery (XI.D.3). About the moving ceremony someone
wrote that "it was a commemoration that appealed not only thanks to all the
preparations Maldegem lavished on the ceremony but also because of the way in
which it gripped not only the guests but also all others present."
On the occasion of the 1987 Canadian ceremony sergeant Ronald Haunts was
again in Adegem where after 42 years he once again set foot in the cemetery he
had laid out. He did this of course in the presence of Mr Jozef De Keyser;
these two wartime friends and families seeing each other again was charged with
emotion.
In newspaper reports on the Canada Day from 1989 we see constantly
two things. For a start almost every year they stress the fact that more
people of distinction are present and that the public interest increases every
year.
10 September 1989:
... more interest than the previous years...
9 September 1990:
... since the merger more interest, the number of participants increases...
8 September 1991:
... more interest than the previous year...
13 September 1992:
... the number of cities and towns and associations increases...
12 September 1993:
... more visitors than last year...
In view of the fact that the majority of the
young people have little knowledge of and little interest in the war and its
consequences, an attempt was made to implicate more of them in the ceremony of
10 September 1989. Two school children were asked to read a text about the
war of granddad and the war of the television. It was not attempted a
second time. And it is not surprising then that from the young people critical
remarks came about the way the Canada Day was organized.
Agalev, the green party, wanted a very different commemoration
ceremony in 1990. In the town council meeting councilor Geert Dhont had
expressed his displeasure about the way the ceremony passed off: he wanted more
restraint. On 9 September Agalev put cards on the graves with an appeal
for enduring peace. The officials got there like a flash and a summons was
served. In 1991 the incident was referred to "A couple of years ago
the organization of an alternative ceremony was announced, closer to the
people. Nothing came of it..."
The young and the adults, those who went through the war and those
who never yet saw a war from close by, pursue the same goal and ideal: to stress
the senselessness of war and to work for a lasting peace.
|