Canadian Military History, Warts and All

From this CBC online article I learned that the new Canadian War Museum will house two paintings depicting two Canadian soldiers committing atrocities from the Somalian deployment in 1993 which has Cliff Chadderton, head of the National Council of Veteran Associations up in arms and threatening to boycott the museum’s opening if the paintings are allowed to hang prominently.

Both paintings have been given prominent placement at the museum, a $120-million multimedia complex slated to open May 7. Dr. Laura Brandon, the museum's curator of war art, stands by the choice of art. "It's part of Canada's military history. We're a military history museum: our job is to tell ... military history, warts and all."

Museum director Joe Guertz said Chadderton's comments are disappointing, but he believes the museum must take a frank look at Canada's war experience – at horror and human frailty as well as heroics and glory. The artist, Gertrude Kearns, said these two paintings deal with the theme of how Canadian soldiers deal with the psychological toll of modern warfare. She said a committee, which included several veterans, approved her concept. "These particular works, the ones in the museum, are about conscience. They're also about complexity," said Kearns.

Personally, I am with Cliff Chadderton and I find the reasoning of museum director Joe Guertz and Dr. Laura Brandon, the museum’s Curator of War Art for commissioning these paintings and displaying them prominently bizarre and cannot help but wonder if there is not another agenda at work here.

Yes, there were a small number of Canadian soldiers that committed atrocities in Somalia. Were Canadians outraged by the behaviour of Master Cpl Clayton Matchee and Pvt. Kyle Brown? Absolutely. But to commission and hang these painting in the museum prominently suggests that the actions of Matchee and Kyle are representative of Canadian soldiers rather than the behavioral aberrations of a few soldiers out of literally a collective history of millions of Canadian soldiers.

I don’t buy the argument from the museum’s Curator of War Art, Dr. Laura Brandon, who believes that as a military history museum’s job to show “military history, warts and all”. That’s true as far as it goes but it is far more telling about the collective values of a museum and its directors in what warts a museum chooses to highlight and display prominently.

If the museum is going for realism and “wartism” were any paintings commissioned that depict Canadian soldiers lining up for their rum rations during WW1? Or how about a picture of noted teetotaler Victor Odlum (nicknamed “Old Lime Juice”) when he commanded the 7th Bn. and took his missionary background so seriously that he cancelled his battalion’s rum ration which lead to such "high mutinous feelings" among the men under his command that General David Watson was forced to intervene directly and re-institute the rum ration. Pierre Burton had much to say about the general drunkenness of Canadian soldiers in his book on Vimy Ridge. Though I am sure that the WW1 section in the Canadian War Museum has chosen to deny the vital roll rum played in life in the trenches during WW1 which is by far more representative and realistic of the collective experience of Canadian soldiers than the actions of a few soldiers in Somalia.

(tipped off by Neale News)