Glossing over the Great War: Canadian Methods of Remembrance and Commemoration

Abstract

The following study seeks to provide a critical overview of Canadian methods of remembering and commemorating the First World War. Offering commentary on various memorials, monuments and tributes erected both domestically and internationally, it argues that Canada’s way of honouring its fallen soldiers through physical means of commemoration is immensely flawed, failing to accurately encapsulate and communicate the historical reality of World War I (WWI). Analyzing the effectiveness of specific grave sites, artwork, commemorative events and larger-scale memorial pieces dedicated to Canadian soldiers — such as the famed “Grieving Woman” statue located at Vimy Ridge and the epitaphs of mass cemeteries designed and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) — this paper thus encourages readers to pause and reflect on the shortcomings of deliberately well-polished, tailor-made methods of remembrance that appear in the contemporary era, especially those designed and promoted by Canadian officials to strategically and purposely “glorify” the reality of the First World War by erasing and/or fabricating select narratives, histories and emotions.