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.

 

 


© Hugo Notteboom / Heemkundige Kring Het Ambacht Maldegem, 1994
Translated in English by Denis Noë

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