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The armistice of November 11, 1918, brought relief to the whole world. Never before had there been such a conflict.

For a nation of eight million people Canada’s war effort was remarkable. More than 650,000 men and women from Canada and Newfoundland served — over 66,000 gave their lives and more than 172,000 were wounded.

It was this immense sacrifice that lead to Canada’s separate signature on the Peace Treaty. No longer viewed as just a colony of England, Canada had truly achieved nation status.

This nationhood was purchased by the gallant men who stood fast at Ypres, stormed Regina Trench, climbed the heights of Vimy Ridge, captured Passchendaele, and entered Mons on November 11, 1918.

Throughout Canada's history, Indigenous peoples have helped shape this land into the country we know today. Before Canada became a country, Britain's military alliances with First Nations were a key part of the defensive network of British North America.

During the War of 1812, First Nations warriors and Métis fighters played important roles in the defence of these British territories against invading American forces. Thousands of First Nations warriors and Métis fighters fought beside British troops and Canadian settler militias during the war.

These Indigenous allies were often accompanied by officials from the Indian Department who spoke Indigenous languages and who could help First Nations war chiefs and British military commanders speak to each other.


Battle of Queenston Heights

First Nations and Métis communities sided with the British during the war because they shared a common goal: to resist American expansion. More than 10,000 First Nations warriors from the great lakes region and the St. Lawrence Valley participated in nearly every major battle.

The tradition of military service by Black Canadians goes back long before Confederation. Indeed, many Black Canadians can trace their family roots to Loyalists who emigrated North in the 1780s after the American Revolutionary War. American slaves had been offered freedom and land if they agreed to fight in the British cause and thousands seized this opportunity to build a new life in British North America.

This tradition of military service did not end there, with some Black soldiers seeing action in the War of 1812, helping defend Upper Canada against American attacks.
A number of volunteers were organized into the “Company of Coloured Men,” which played an important role in the Battle of Queenston Heights.

Black militia members also fought in many other significant battles during the war, helping drive back the American forces. Black soldiers also played an important role in the Upper Canadian Rebellion (1837–1839).

In all, approximately 1,000 Black militia men fighting in five companies helped put down the uprising, taking part in some of the most important incidents such as the Battle of Toronto.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Wordsworth reminds us, "is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings", and there can be no area of human experience that has generated a wider range of powerful feelings than war: hope and fear; exhilaration and humiliation; hatred – not only for the enemy, but also for generals, politicians, and war-profiteers; love – for fellow soldiers, for women and children left behind, for country (often) and cause (occasionally).

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He is best known for writing the famous war memorial poem "In Flanders Fields". McCrae died of pneumonia near the end of the war.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.