Description
Mr. Toney discusses the meaning of Remembrance Day for him and encourages others to explore the significance of the poppy and of the Armistice.
John Martin Toney
John Martin Toney was born on September 26, 1923 on the Neskonlith Reserve, British Columbia. The strongest influence in his life was his grandfather, who taught him spirituality, life and survival skills. Mr. Toney feels that at that time he was being groomed to become a Chief. By the age of eight, he was hunting game to help feed his family. He later worked at a ranch and then as a carpenter. Proud to enlist, the army’s restrictive criteria forced Mr. Toney to renounce his Aboriginal heritage and designate himself an Irish Catholic. He was accepted by the Seaforth Highlanders, Engineering Corps, based on his success at demolition. His first action saw him in the second wave at Dieppe where he witnessed much death and suffering. Agile in the field, he hand-picked and led many reconnaissance and demolition patrols against the Germans. Mr. Toney was wounded twice, and after his second recovery, finished the war as motorcycle dispatch rider. He then signed up for Pacific duty, returning home early
Transcript
It means that I lost a lot of good people, friends and people that I knew, lived with for four or five years, and they won’t be coming back there. They’re there to stay, but they fought for a good reason. So I’m proud of them. Yeah I’ve laid the wreath, the second year now, up in our little community for, for the guys that didn’t come home and for those who survived and are around yet. Yeah, I think that’s a good tradition they got going. More people should attend things like that, but you’ve gotta read about these things, not, not just think about them. Like you actually don’t know what, what a dead soldier is. Like, you think well, it’s a dead man, got over there and got shot and he stayed there. They don’t think of his reason for being there. Why he died. Why you’re living a good life now and you’ve got nothing to worry about home. Like the majority of people don’t think that. They don’t know. They’ve never been taught that much in schools or anywhere. It’s a few, a few have it. Their dad’s been in the war or something like that, their mother. But they should learn more about it and then they’d understand the reason for these things Armistice, poppies and things like that.