Dear <<c_First_Name>>

Thank you for supporting Canada Company

These are challenging times. COVID-19 has disrupted everyone’s lives. Some of us are working from home. Others are experiencing layoffs or quarantine. And essential workers — from nurses to grocery store cashiers — are bravely keeping it all together for the rest of us. Not to mention the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, who are always at the ready to preserve our way of life. We appreciate and thank all of you.

 

Even as many businesses shut down, Canada Company’s work continues to support military members and their families. We are anticipating an even greater need for our services and supports when this crisis period is over.

Please, consider donating to Canada Company today. Just go to our website www.canadacompany.ca and click on donate online.

In an initiative we call Ready for Canada, we are reaching out to Employers of Reservists across Canada to ask them to join a quickly growing coalition of businesses who pledge to immediately make all their Reservist employees available should they be required for full-time service.

If your organization would like to get involved, please contact us at info@canadacompany.ca with the subject line, Ready for Canada.

We are pleased to report our 2019 results, thanks to generous donors like you!

• 5 more LAV III monuments unveiled honouring the legacy of our troops who served in Afghanistan, bringing our total to 29 monuments across the country.
• 14 children of military members who died in action or for reasons directly attributable to their military service received $4,000 scholarships each.
• 21 members of the Cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers movements, including aboriginal youths, received $1,000 bursaries to help them continue with their learning endeavours.
• 80 kids from military families, including some with special needs and others living with a parent suffering from PTSD, attended summer camps across Canada (up to $1,100 per kid depending on their needs).
• 110 business leaders got to live a Day In the Life of the Canadian Army soldiers at Exercise Collaborative Spirit in Petawawa.
• 1,000 military members and their families took part in ski days and picnics that we organized to thank them for their service.
• 10,000 secondary school students in the province of Quebec were touched by our military history educational program Je Me Souviens.

 

Remember when we could still get together for social events? If it seems like yesterday, you’re not far off.

Just a few weeks ago, on February 28, the Ontario East Chapter of Canada Company hosted a Military Family Ski Day at Calabogie Peaks in Ontario. This was the 6th such event to be held by the ON East chapter and the most successful to date. Close to 1,500 Military and family members attended the event.

Thank you to our sponsors; BMO, Star Motors, Cyber Defence, Commissionaires Ottawa, Rampart, ForgeStone Capital, Cushman & Wakefield, Metro Supply Chain, SAKTO as well as Misters Greene, Laberge, Bockstael, and Greenberg.

While social distancing guidelines are pausing everyone’s in-person events at present, we look forward to holding them again when this crisis has concluded. Watch this newsletter for future updates.

The fantastic people running our Je Me Souviens program, who bring military history to classrooms, have compiled this list of quality books and films to keep you engaged and entertained during extended time spent at home.

Books:

• Paris 1919 (Margaret MacMillan) – an in-depth account of the Treaty of Versailles (English)
• C’était la guerre des tranchées (Jacques Tardi) – a graphic novel set in the trenches (French + English versions)
• Three Day Road (Joseph Boyden) – a novel that follows two young Cree men who volunteer to fight in WWI (English)
• Le Dernier assaut : la vie de lieutenant Jean Brillant (Luc Bertrand) – biography of a French Canadian Victoria Cross recipient (French)
• Caging Skies (Christine Leunens) – WWII young adult fiction which inspired the film Jojo Rabbit (English)
• The White Donkey: Terminal Lance (Maximilian Uriarte) – a graphic novel written by an American Iraq veteran about the experience of war and PTSD (English)
• Maus (Art Spiegelman) – a classic graphic novel that recount’s a Holocaust survivor’s story (French + English versions)
• Out Standing in the Field (Sandra Perron) – the story of Canada’s first female infantry officer (French + English versions)

Film and television:

• Charité (series) – an excellent German series. Season 2 takes place in a German hospital from 1943–1945. On Netflix.
• Amour, haine et propaganda (series) – a documentary about the role of propaganda in WWII (Radio-Canada)
• Jojo Rabbit (film) – an award-winning 2019 film about a young boy in the Hitler Youth who befriends a Jewish girl.
• The Man in the High Castle (series) – an alternate history wherein the Axis had won WWII
• Paths of Glory (film) – a 1957 classic!
• Letters from Iwo Jima (film) – the Battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective