Description
Mr. Raymond gives his opinion about Remembrance Day and the lack of importance attached to it.
Jacques Raymond
Jacques Raymond was born in Trois-Rivières and lost his father when he was very young. He was placed in an orphanage with one of his brothers, because his mother could not take care of her seven children all by herself. At the age of 17, he returned to Trois-Rivières to work at Wabasso Cotton Mills. When war broke out, he received a letter asking him to undergo some tests in Longueuil. He started his two-month training in Valleyfield. He spent six months in Western Canada, where he learned English and continued his training. He shipped out from Halifax in early 1943 on board the Nieuw Amsterdam for Greenock, Scotland, to continue his training. He took part in the Normandy invasion with the Régiment de la Chaudière. He also participated in the battles of Carpiquet, Falaise, Caen and crossed Belgium and Holland. He even went as far as Germany. He remained in Europe for 11 months.
Transcript
Remembrance Day I find it a shame that the newspapers, the press no longer do enough . . . I find it sad that television hardly talks about Remembrance Day . . . I remember that in the past, on Remembrance Day, the Nouvelliste or the newspapers would have a beautiful poppy on the front page, and the war . . . Today, if we asked a journalist to meet with us, nothing would happen. They go to the cenotaph and they take a photograph of the cenotaph and that’s all. But they say virtually nothing. They hardly ask the veterans to turn up. Today, there are fewer and fewer but, all the same, it’s not right. Particularly in Quebec, we are the forgotten ones. We walk around with them, and the children ask us where we got the medals. You know, there’s no history in Quebec. We know that it’s not a nation of warriors. However, after what happened in 1939-45, it seems to me that . . . particularly when you look elsewhere, in the Western Provinces and in New Brunswick, I saw people there and I visited there. They have stronger feelings there for veterans than in Quebec. In Quebec, we are isolated. They hardly talk about us.Interviewer – Why do you think that is? Because for our governments here, it’s always the English-French issue and the sovereignty issue. That killed the little that was left. There’s nothing left. Our leaders are not concerned enough about us and the newspapers don’t get involved. The newspapers have dropped the issue . . . almost completely.