August 9 is Canadian National Peacekeepers Day, a day honouring the United Nations peacekeepers who served and especially those who gave their lives in the cause of international peace.
The date has special meaning. It was on Aug. 9, 1974, that Canada suffered its greatest one-day loss of Canadian peacekeepers’ lives, after an aircraft was shot down during a routine mission to Damascus, during the Golan Heights conflict.
The De Havilland Buffalo had been cleared for landing by Syria, flying in from Egypt, but eyewitness accounts described surface-to-air missile strikes that brought down UN Flight 51.
All nine UN personnel on board were killed, including Cpl. B.K. Stringer and Warrant Officer C.B. Korejwo, both from CFB Borden.
British Columbia was the first province to recognize the date in 1993.
Canada has honored peacekeepers nationally on that anniversary since 2008 – but Bradford West Gwillimbury was the first community in Ontario to raise the flag of United Nations Peacekeepers, several years before the federal designation, at the urging of resident and veteran of UN peacekeeping, G. Michael Comeau.
The Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury will once again recognize Canadian National Peacekeepers’ Week, Aug. 4 to 10, and National Peacekeepers’ Day with a flag raising ceremony. The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, July 31 at 6 p.m., at the BWG Leisure Centre’s Sunshine Square.
Since the first UN peacekeeping mission, more than 120,000 Canadians have served in a peacekeeping capacity with the United Nations.
In recent years, Canada has shifted its focus from peacekeeping to “peacemaking” – participating in military deployments in conflict zones, in countries that include Afghanistan.
The Bradford flag raising, held next to Brian Collier Way, also recognizes peacemakers - including local resident Sapper Brian Collier, who gave his life in Afghanistan in 2010.
The community is invited to attend.
