Liberation and Remembrance Symposium

This year marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War and the liberation of Europe. Eight decades later we reflect on Canada’s contributions to the war effort, unsung heroes and narratives that remained “under the radar,” and the lessons that resonate today, lest we forget.

Doors open at 9:15 a.m. Each presentation will last approximately 45 minutes followed by a question period. Snacks and lunch will be provided, and a cash bar will be available.

• 10 a.m.-“Stories of Black Canadian Military Service” by Jade Ferguson
• 11 a.m.-“The Royal Canadian Air Force during the Liberation” by Mike Bechthold
• 12 p.m.-Lunch catered
• 1 p.m.- “The Joy and Anxiety of Liberation, 1944/1945” by Geoff Hayes
• 2 p.m.-“The Royal Canadian Navy and the Liberation of North-West Europe” by Roger Sarty
• 3 p.m.-“Underwater Munitions and the Environmental Legacies of the Second World War” by Alex Souchen
• 4 p.m.-“La Montanara, a musical remembrance of the Italian Campaign.” by Mike Ford and Murray Foster

Preregistration via Eventbrite is required. A student discount of $40+HST is available.

Header image credit: Dutch civilians and Canadian Army troops celebrating the Liberation of the Netherlands, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Celebrating_Liberation_.png 

About The Presenters

Jade Ferguson-“Duty and Discrimination: Black Soldiers and the Struggle for Civil Rights” at 10 a.m.

This talk explores the motivations and experiences of Black soldiers, particularly during World War I, who saw military service as a path to prove their duty, earn citizenships, and affirm their manhood. Despite facing segregation and menial assignments, Black soldiers sought to use their service to gain respect, achieve racial uplift, and fight for political equality. This talk examines the sacrifice and service of local Black men who served in the No. 2 Construction Battalion and the 107th Pioneer Battalion.

Jade Ferguson is an Associate Professor in the School of Theatre, English, and Creative Writing and the Assistant Vice President, Academic Equity and Anti-Racism at the University of Guelph. Her research focuses on segregation and civil rights activism in Canada. She is currently writing a book entitled “Jim Crow Canada: Segregation and Civil Rights in Canadian Literature and Art.”

Mike Bechthold-“The Royal Canadian Air Force during the Liberation” at 11 a.m.

Mike Bechthold holds a PhD in History from the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia and an MA & Honours BA from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Mike is the author or editor of eight books and numerous articles. His most recent monograph is “Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign,” (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017) and he is the co-author of a series of guidebooks about the Canadian battlefields of the Second World War. He specializes in the fields of military air power (especially tactical air operations in the First and Second World Wars), the Canadian army in Normandy and Northwest Europe, and the Canadian Corps in the Great War.

Bechthold was recently employed as a historian with the Royal Canadian Air Force History and Heritage section. He has taught history at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Waterloo, Conestoga College, and the Schulich School of Business at York University. For 22 years he worked as the Communications Director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies and the Managing Editor of Canadian Military History, an academic quarterly journal. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in the UK, a Fellow of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, a Research Fellow at Nipissing University Centre for the Study of War, Atrocity, and Genocide, and he recently served as the Executive Director of the Juno Beach Centre Association.

Geoff Hayes-“The Joy and Anxiety of Liberation, 1944/45” at 1 p.m.

The Dutch people still celebrate the role that Canadian troops played in the liberation of the Netherlands. With good reason. The occupation and the liberation came at an enormous cost to the Dutch people. But that joy brought anxiety. While Canadian soldiers needed to get home, Dutch civilians needed to get on with their lives. This talk explores some of the complexities of liberation in 1944 and 1945.

Geoff Hayes is a professor of history at the University of Waterloo where he teaches Canadian and Canadian military history. He is also the editor of Canadian Military History.  His current research centres on the challenge of morale in the wartime Canadian army.

Roger Sarty-“The Royal Canadian Navy and the Liberation of North-West Europe” at 2 p.m. 

The Canadian navy, at the peak of its wartime expansion with 90,000 personnel and more than 250 seagoing warships, played a major part in the Allied victory campaign in Europe. From early 1944 the Canadian navy took over responsibility for the escort of Allied convoys across the North Atlantic, while dispatching destroyers and frigates to protect British waters in preparation for the Normandy invasion in June 1944. The navy committed a hundred warships crewed by 10,000 personnel to the landings and follow on operations in northern France. These forces, strengthened with fresh ships and personnel from Canada, then operated all along the European coast into the Arctic, engaged in some of the most intense combats of the war against a still capable and determined enemy.

Roger Sarty began his career as a historian at the Department of National Defence, and  later moved to the Canadian War Museum where became deputy director. In 2004 he joined the History Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, and retired in 2022. Roger co-authored the two-volume official history of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War, and has published several other books on Canadian naval history.

Alex Souchen-“Underwater Munitions and the Environmental Legacies of the Second World War” at 3 p.m. 

When the Second World War ended in 1945 the Allied powers encountered an enormous problem: how to destroy the immense stockpiles of surplus and captured weapons and munitions leftover in Europe and around the world. This presentation will explore that history by examining how and why millions of tons of conventional and chemical munitions ended up underwater, dumped there by Allied forces to expedite demobilization. The presentation will also discuss the role of historians and historical research in addressing the environmental legacies of the Second World War and especially these dangerous weapons corroding away at the bottom of the world’s oceans and lakes

Dr. Alex Souchen is an Associate Professor at the University of Guelph, cross-appointed between the Department of History and the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences Program. His interdisciplinary research explores the history of science and technology and the environmental legacies of warfare in the 20th century. He is the author of “War Junk: Munitions Disposal and Postwar Reconstruction in Canada,” (published by UBC Press in 2020), and co-editor of “Silent Partners: The Origins and Influence of Canada’s Military-Industrial Complex,” (published by UBC Press in 2023). He has also published many articles on military pollution and the ocean dumping of munitions after the World Wars in North America and Europe. His next book will examine the history of Canada’s industrial front during the Second World War and the environmental and health risks of explosives production.

Mike Ford and Murray Foster-“La Montanara: A musical remembrance of the Italian campaign” at 4 p.m.

Ford and Foster bring a wealth of musical achievements: their diverse projects (including as members of Great Big Sea and Moxy Früvous) have sold well over half a million albums, garnered numerous songwriting awards, received nominations for multiple Juno and Canadian Folk Music Awards, earned a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, and have created critically acclaimed musicals, films, and internationally performed historical plays.

“La Montanara” by Mike Ford and Murray Foster is an original song-cycle exploring Canadian soldiers’ involvement in the Italian campaign of 1943-45. Inspired by the writings of Farley Mowat, Fred Sederberg, Mark Zuehlke, Caroline Moorehead, Tim Cook and others, this performance presents a musical tapestry that spans various styles, with masterful guitar work and soaring harmonies that evoke the passion, sacrifice, camaraderie, and challenges central to the Italian Campaign.