Community support for Legion celebrated during special evening
Tim Brody - Editor
The Royal Canadian Legion, Edwin Switzer Memorial, Branch 78 in Sioux Lookout celebrated its members on May 7 during a Membership Appreciation Dinner.
Legion President Kirk Drew said celebrating the people who have contributed to the Legion over the years as members is incredibly important.
“It’s a place that’s got to keep going and hopefully they will keep going all across the country,” he said.
During the evening, over 100 Legion members were recognized with lapel pins for 10 plus years of membership.
Of special note, John D. Cole and Bill Maskerine were recognized for 75 years of membership in the Legion in Sioux Lookout. Adam Zarecki was recognized for 74 years of membership.
Drew said he’s not sure how many other Legions across the country have that many active members with so many years of membership in the Legion.
John D. Cole, 96, joined the Legion when he returned home after serving in the Second World War.
“My whole family were veterans. I lost two brothers… We were all in Bomber Command,” he shared.
Well over 80 people attended the membership dinner.
“I’m very pleased with this turnout which represents Sioux Lookout so well,” Cole said.
Jack Roy, Knowles McGill, and Jane McGill were recognized with branch service medals awarded for exceptional service to the branch.
Doug Switzer presented Legion President Kirk Drew with a $500 donation in memory of his late father, Edwin Switzer.
He said the Legion means more to him than words can express.
“We have three (veterans) from World War Two left, we have veterans from Afghanistan, we have veterans from Korea, we have veterans from all of the past recent conflicts that we’ve been involved with in the last 20 years,” Drew said.
One of those veterans from past conflicts, Drew’s brother Phillip, was the guest speaker for the evening.
Dr. Phillip Drew is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University College of Law as well as a teacher in the Queen’s Global Law Program at Herstmonceux Castle in the UK.
Dr. Drew is a member of the faculty of the International Institute for Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy. He was awarded his Doctor of Laws degree from the European University Via Drina (Frankfurt on Oder) in 2016. His LL.M. (2012) and J.D. (2000) degrees were conferred by Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He also has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from the University of Manitoba and is a graduate of the Canadian Army Command and Staff College.
In 2011 he was awarded the Canadian Forces Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Commendation for his efforts in supporting Rule of Law initiatives internationally. In 2018 he was the recipient of the ANU College of Law Award for Teaching Excellence. A retired military officer who served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 31 years before moving into academia, his teaching is focused in international humanitarian law and military operations law.
During the evening, Dr. Drew shared his experience as an intelligence officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda in 1994-1995.
Dr. Drew shared that the atrocities he witnessed during the Rwandan genocide left him and other soldiers on the mission with PTSD.
The experience spurred him into law.
“It was my feeling of not being able to do anything about it (Dr. Drew said Canadian Forces were told they could not come to the aid of civilians during the conflict) … ultimately we ended up with international criminal courts etcetera. At the time, we didn’t have that kind of stuff. I wanted to do something different than being an intelligence officer, something that maybe I could make a difference,” he said.
“As a result of Rwanda, I want to talk about it and I want people to understand and try to convey to them through my own experience and through photographs, etcetera, what it was actually like to be there and what I witnessed,” he added.
After witnessing the genocide he informed, “I have no time for disrespect of other people, we’re all human beings.”
Dr. Drew said he sees too much hate today on social media and cautioned people to be critical of what they share or like.
“It’s so easy because it’s anonymous… So when you have a group and somebody speaks out and says something that agrees with our perceptions of the world, and perhaps they’re digging those perceptions out where you may never say that kind of stuff, but they’re putting something out there on Facebook and you go, ‘I agree with that. I kind of like that.’ And then you like it or you share it, essentially quite often what you’re sharing is a message of hatred. It may not even look like hatred. It may look like, you know, when I was a kid, we stood up and we said our prayers in school. Well, guess what, it was a Christian prayer, what about the people who aren’t Christian: Jewish people, Muslim people. When you say, ‘I think we should be saying a prayer in school’, well, you’re saying to those people that their religion doesn’t matter. And again, the thing that gets me with that one is a lot of people will like that kind of stuff, but when is the last time they were in church?”
Legion President Kirk Drew said he would like the membership dinner to become an annual event.
The last time the Legion held a membership dinner was in 2014.
“I believe the Legion is a focal point of the community,” he said.
Open six days a week, Drew shared, “January, February and March are generally your slow months of course in Sioux Lookout, as everybody knows. This year we were able to sustain and maybe make a little bit of a profit.”
More and more people are coming out to support the Legion he said.
Ron and Lorraine Bennett, who were both recognized for 15 years of membership, said that’s a very good thing.
“It’s a facility that’s really needed in town. It’s one of the biggest places you can have a wedding or a social, so if you lose that, you’re really in trouble,” Ron Bennett said.
Becoming a Legion member is easy Drew said, “To join the Legion all you have to do is come down and it costs $40.”
“We’re seeing more and more people show up,” he said.
The Legion has made efforts to revitalize itself, expanding its hours of operation and offering craft beers, pizza, shuffleboard, foosball, darts, cards, pool and has been hosting live entertainment and socials.
Royal Canadian Legion, Edwin Switzer Memorial, Branch 78 membership recognition
Member lapel pin presentations:
Affiliate members:
Arnold Beebe - 20 years
Wayne Srigley - 10 years
Eldon Wong - 20 years
Associate members:
Debra Adams - 30 years
Muriel Anderson - 25 years
Neil Anderson – 30 years
Dale Babcock – 25 years
Marilyn Babcock – 25 years
Brian Band – 20 years
Robert Bellerose – 15 years
Lorraine Bennett – 15 years
Ronald Bennett – 15 years
James Biggs – 30 years
Rachelle Boone – 25 years
Scott Boone – 15 years
Dale Brezinski – 40 years
Judy Buchan – 15 years
Thomas Buchan – 15 years
Dave Button – 25 years
Lydia Carlbom – 20 years
Allan Carroll – 40 years
David Carroll – 40 years
Margaret Carroll – 35 years
Jim Carroll – 35 years
William Carroll – 20 years
John Davies – 35 years
Roy Favot – 45 years
Aldo Gervasi – 25 years
Kristine Grandmont – 10 years
Jennifer Hancharuk – 10 years
Garth Hyslop – 15 years
Leslie Hyslop – 15 years
Christopher Jefferson – 10 years
Laurie Jefferson – 40 years
Karl Johnson – 25 years
Marjorie Johnson – 25 years
Shawnessy Johnson – 25 years
Marian Keyland – 15 years
Dorelene Kusick – 20 years
Jim Kusick – 30 years
Ken Legros – 15 years
Karen Luddington – 10 years
Kevin Lundstrom – 25 years
Norman MacDonald – 25 years
Dick MacKenzie – 10 years
Lorena Maki – 15 years
John Manno – 25 years
Patrick Marshall – 25 years
Douglas McClain – 20 years
Robert McClendon – 25 years
Aaron McGill – 25 years
Dale McGill – 25 years
Jane McGill – 25 years
Patricia McNally-Reek – 25 years
Walter Michelin – 35 years
Antoinette (Toni) Mushquash – 20 years
Robert Norman – 20 years
Maureen Oakley – 15 years
Terrance O’Donovan – 20 years
Allister Ogilvie – 15 years
Jack Roberts – 20 years
Noelle Roberts – 10 years
Charles Roy – 15 years
James Roy – 25 years
Jason Roy – 25 years
Jack Roy – 20 years
Nancy Roy – 10 years
Pat Scott – 40 years
John Semotok – 10 years
Lloyd Sever – 15 years
Bradley Shields – 20 years
Douglas Shields – 15 years
Irene Shields – 45 years
Ronald Skitch – 20 years
Gary Sobchuk – 25 years
Craig Stewart – 20 years
Marguerite Stewart – 20 years
Judith Swickis – 30 years
Douglas Switzer – 45 years
Deborah Toppozini – 15 years
George Trist – 15 years
Leslie Wallace – 15 years
Robert Weaver – 15 years
David Williams – 40 years
Denise Williams – 20 years
Ivan Wilson – 15 years
Jack Woychyshyn – 20 years
Mikail Woyschyshyn – 10 years
Lifetime members:
John D. Cole – 75 years
John R. Cole – 20 years
Glenn Wilson – 65 years
Ordinary members:
Robert Bell – 30 years
Matthew Craig – 15 years
Dwayne Demers – 10 years
Lawrence Laviolette – 15 years
Dennis Leney – 20 years
Paul Marcinyshyn – 30 years
William Maskerine – 75 years
Richard McClain – 30 years
John McClain – 55 years
Knowles McGill – 30 years
Edna Robertson – 35 years
Harold Robertson – 35 years
Fred Southwell – 55 years
Gordan Stewart – 25 years
James Voteary - 20 years
Adam Zarecki – 70 years
Jack Roy, Knowles McGill, and Jane McGill were recognized with branch service medals awarded for exceptional service to the branch.