BARRHEAD - Two Barrhead Royal Canadian Legion members want to let Barrhead residents know what they are losing with the loss of the Red Ensign flag at the town's Cenotaph.
John Tiemstra and Herman Barkemeyer said they were disheartened when the Legion had to remove not only the Legion flag but the Red Ensign due to the Barrhead Neutral Spaces Bylaw.
Barkemeyer talked to the Barrhead Leader directly while Tiemstra submitted his thoughts in writing.
The bylaw effectively prohibits decorative crosswalks and limits flags on Town of Barrhead property to national flags along with the provincial and municipal flag.
The Canadian Red Ensign was the de facto Canadian national flag from 1868 until 1965.
"The Red Ensign is as important as the Canadian flag is," Barkemeyer said, adding that Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel who served during the First and Second World did so under the Red Ensign.
"More than 60,000 Canadians died in the First World War and over 45,000 in the Second World War," he said, adding that does not include the more than 225,000 wounded in the campaigns. "I'm ashamed to admit that I did not know that, and I am a veteran."
Barkemeyer served 10 years in the CAF, five in the army with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), including an 18-month tour during the Korean War and five in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He joined the PPCLI as a 17-year-old, lying about his age, they fought under the Maple Leaf.
Growing up, Barkemeyer said they all knew the Royal Union Flag, commonly called the Union Jack, so that is why he believed Canadians fought under in the First and Second World Wars.
It wasn't until much later that he learned that he learned that Canadian service people in the two World Wars had served under the Red Ensign.
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So much later, Barkemeyer said, it was only an accident that the Legion decided to fly the Red Ensign at the Cenotaph.
Barkemeyer noted that the Legion first flew the Red Ensign by accident, saying they first flew the Union Jack when the Cenotaph was moved from outside their building to Memorial Park.
"We just got it set up on the flag poles, and we were so proud. Then someone from England came to visit someone here, and he gave me a call and told me that we have the Union Jack upside down," he said. "So [Legion member] Roy Zuk suggested we put the Red Ensign up because he didn't want someone else to tell us that we had accidentally hung the flag upside down."
Former Legion president Chuck Mortimer and his son Ed, current Legion treasurer, removed the flags shortly after the municipality officially enacted the Neutrality Space Bylaw at a special Dec. 16 council meeting.
In fact, Barkemeyer said the pair were so "pi#$ed off" that they had to remove the flags from the Cenotaph flag poles that they also removed the Canadian and provincial flags as well.
"We thought if they do not want the Red Ensign or the Legion flag, then there should be no flags at all," he said.
Barkemeyer added that he was not upset with the municipality. He realized the town had no choice but to implement the bylaw and ask the Legion to remove the flags after the plebiscite results.
However, he said he does place the blame on the initiators of the petition, Barrhead Neutrality.
"It cheeses me off," Barkemeyer said. "Close to 8,000 Canadian soldiers died liberating the Netherlands, 1,000, [in April 1945, the last month of the campaign alone]. All these people could come here, and those from Belgium and Italy because of those soldiers who fought and died under the Red Ensign."
He also noted that 732 Barrhead-area men and women served in the First and Second World Wars under the Red Ensign.
Barkemeyer said he also believes the result of the plebiscite vote would have been much closer, if not reversed, if the wording of the question had been more clear.
The official result of the vote was 653, or 57 per cent, in favour of the bylaw and 492 voters, or 43 per cent against,
"A lady [who lives in the same building as I do] came up to me and told me she voted 'yes' because it would allow us to keep the flags," he said, adding he believes she is not the only one.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
