Читать книгу Two Freedoms - Hugh Segal - Страница 6

Academics write, teach, and research about foreign policy; diplomats and foreign service officers are posted in pleasant, unpleasant, or dangerous spots worldwide; and politicians learn quickly about the intricacies and surprises to be found in foreign relations. Men and women in uniform, however, make the ultimate commitment of their lives and wellbeing in support of foreign policy when their deployment is required.

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I dedicate Two Freedoms to Trooper Max Dankner, of the famed Princess Louise Dragoon Guards, a small, historic regiment (formed in 1872 in Ottawa) that was among the Canadian Forces vanguard that began the liberation of Sicily and Italy in July of 1943. Max is robust and ninety-one years young at the time of writing. He is my uncle, my mother’s youngest brother. In battles at places like Piazza Armerina, Pachino, Agira, Catenanuovo and Regalbuto, Miglionico, and Rimini, not to mention Ortona, among others, the Canadians met strong enemy resistance as they advanced north. There were many Canadian wounded and dead. Uncle Max was one of the more seriously wounded, mentioned in dispatches and recommended for a decoration in the battle where he took the shrapnel hit. After recovering in an Allied armed forces hospital, Max continued on through Belgium and in support of the Canadian liberation of the Netherlands before returning home to Montreal in early 1946.

His generation of Canadians faced the most serious threat to our core freedoms and those of our allies. They volunteered, they served, they sacrificed, and they liberated an entire civilization from a horrific, murderous, efficient, and determined tyranny. There would be no freedoms to defend, promote, or advance without the courage, loyalty, and service of the thousands of Canadians, from all walks of life, like my Uncle Max.