What is the militia?

Vincent J. Curtis

7 July 24

What is a militia? What was the militia?  Though a term now somewhat archaic, the Canadian Army Reserve is still sometimes referred to colloquially as “the militia.” The word militia appears in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

To offer the broadest definition, a militia is the set of military aged males capable of bearing arms.  In Canadian history, the militia was often divided into the sedentary militia and the active militia.  The active militia referred to formed military units under the command, and, usually, though not always, in the pay, of the colonial or Dominion government, and to the membership of those units.  The sedentary militia referred to those males of military age capable of bearing arms who were not members of any organized military unit under the command of a colonial or of the Dominion government.  The sedentary militia were often, though not always, the largest component of the militia in Canada, and were looked upon as potential conscripts for a defense force of the colony or of the Dominion. (Potential conscription for defense was not abolished in Canadian law until 1950).

In modern Canadian history, the first Militia Act was passed in 1855 by the colonial government of the Province of Canada, and was occasioned by the departure of most British regular army units for the Crimean War.  The Act created a Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM) and a Permanent Active Militia (PAM), sometimes called the Permanent Force, which today would be regarded as s cadre Regular Force.  There was no life like it: volunteers were paid 5 shillings a day for ten days training per year, while artillery units were paid for an outrageous twenty days per year.  However, the men had to provide their own uniforms. The Active Militia was called out during the Fenian Raids of 1866.  The Act also created the office of Minister of Militia and Defense, which title existed until 1923, when it changed to its current Minister of National Defence.

The Militia Act of 1868 continued the colonial arrangements of pre-confederation.  In 1869, there were 37,170 volunteers serving in the Active Militia, and 618,896 in the Sedentary Militia.  The Militia was mobilized for the Fenian Raids of 1870, the Red River Expedition of 1870, and the North West Rebellion of 1885.

The Second Boer War saw Canada send over 8,000 volunteers overseas for service in South Africa, and for this purpose Canada created a Special Service force. The Militia was expected to defend Canada, but service overseas was another matter; and for organizational and legal purposes the Special Service Force was established.

A separate, legally distinct entity for overseas service was continued in World War I. Sam Hughes threw the entire mobilization plan overboard and into confusion by organizing the Canadian Expeditionary Force along numbered battalion lines instead of on existing militia battalions. The CEF was managed by the Minister of Overseas Military Forces

On the advice of CGS Harry Crerar, the term militia was, on November 19, 1940, abolished and replaced by army: thus, the Canadian Army (Overseas), Canadian Army (Active) and Canadian Army (Reserve). The term militia was briefly revived in the 1950s when the reserves were renamed Canadian Army (Militia), which, in turn, was abolished and renamed (Reserve).

Following WWII the successors to the PAM and NPAM became, respectively, the Canadian Army Active Force and Canadian Army Reserve Force.  Korea again saw the creation of an Army Special Force comprised of many volunteers with WWII experience.  In 1954, the reserve was renamed the Canadian Army (Militia).  After unification in 1968, the Army was renamed Mobile Command, and the Militia was redesigned Mobile Command (Reserve). In 1993, it was renamed Land Force Command (Reserve), and finally, in 2011, was renamed Canadian Army (Reserve).

“The Militia” in Canada is not some hoary anachronism; though obsolete today, the term is properly expressive of the historical development of today’s Canadian Army, both Regular and Reserve.

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Isn’t Christmas awful?

Vincent J. Curtis

5 Dec 24

RE: Reduce your environmental impact at Christmas. Op-ed by Susan Koswan. The Hamilton Spectator 5 Dec 24.

Susan Koswan writes, “Isn’t Christmas awful? It creates such a mess.” (though not in as few words as put here, but that is the inevitable conclusion.).

“Zero Waste Canada calculates that our waste jumps by 25 percent over the [Christmas] season.”

Who cares what totalitarian fanatics say? Zero Waste Canada: their name gives the absurd game away.

Koswan quotes the never-before-heard-of Columbia Climate School “production and use of household services were responsible for 60 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.”, which claim ought to embarrass those who look askance at Alberta’s oil and gas emissions.

“Packaging accounts for 45 percent of carbon emissions from e-commerce…that is responsible for 36.4 percent of total transport emissions.”

Susan Koswan did not check the math; she did not examine the assumptions behind any of these figures. She can’t verify the claims of these manifestly totalitarian, activist, extremist organizations; she can only urge them on you with that assuring smile of moral superiority.

You can be certain of one thing: 95 percent of social statistics likes these are completely made up.

Canada, harm thyself: Support the Saudi Sheiks

Vincent J. Curtis

23 Nov 24

RE: An oil and gas pollution cap is the right move for Canadians. Op-ed by Aly Hyder Ali. The Hamilton Spectator 23 Nov 24. Ali works for Environmental Defense.

If you want to play into the hands of the Saudi oil sheiks, then follow the advice of Aly Hyder Ali. If you want to provoke Alberta and Saskatchewan to separate from Canada, then follow the advice of Aly Hyder Ali: impose “pollution” caps on the oil and gas sector.

However, if Ontario wants to demonstrate altruism in regard to oil and gas “pollution” it could do so by strict rationing of motor fuels, of natural gas for heating buildings and generating electricity, and of fuels for the agricultural sector.  Hamilton could just shut down steelmaking operations; just shut them all down.  Go ahead: stay home, go hungry, live under threat of blackouts, and pray spring comes before the heat gets shut off. It’s easy being moralistic at someone else’s expense; not so easy when it comes out of your hide, is it?

Carbon dioxide is no more a pollutant than oxygen is; ask the plants you talk to; it’s an essential gas of life on this planet. It’s called a pollutant, and only recently, by climate fanatics spreading disinformative rhetoric to sway the ill-informed and to prejudice fake news reporting.

It’s -13ºC as I write this, plunging to -21ºC tonight, and it’s only the third week in November. Don’t talk to me about global warming: show me the money!

Meanwhile, admit there’s nothing Canada can do about escalating world carbon dioxide emissions, which is the point of imposing productions caps on Alberta’s oil and gas sector..

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Canadas first First Soldier

Vincent J. Curtis

3 July 24

General Sir William Otter (December 3, 1843 – May 6, 1929) was the first Canadian born Chief of the General Staff, making him Canada’s first “First Soldier.”  His career is a monument to the Administration principle of war, and of showing up for work every day.

Otter was born in near Clinton, which lies in Southwestern Ontario, then Canada West.  Many young men his age in Canada West signed up for the Union Army during the depression of 1863, but Otter instead joined the colonial Non-Permanent Active Militia, a force under British command, in Toronto in 1864

Enrolling as a private in the Victoria Rifle Company of the Queen’s Own Rifles, Otter was appointed Staff-Sergeant on October 21, 1864, then Lieutenant in the 2^nd Administrative Battalion at Niagara 1864-65. On his return he was appointed Lieutenant in No. 1 Coy QOR May 19, 1865; Adjutant, August 19, 1865; Captain, March 8, 1866; and Major, June 4, 1869.  Otter was CO of the QOR from 1875 to 1883.

Otter’s first action was at the Battle of Ridgway, a Fenian Raid near Niagara Falls, which saw the inexperienced Canadian troops routed in confusion.  He received a service bar on his Canadian General Service Medal for that and 1870, the year of the first Riel Rebellion, but also a year of another Fenian raid.

In 1883, Canada created its own army, styled the Permanent Active Militia, or Permanent Force, and Otter secured an appointment as the Commanding Officer of Canada’s Infantry School in Toronto.  Sent west under the command of General Frederick Middleton to deal with the second Riel Rebellion, Otter commanded the Battleford Column (April – July 1885); and, at the Battle of Cut Knife (May 2, 1885), Canada’s first professional was worsted by a couple of Indian amateurs, Poundmaker and Fine-Day. Poundmaker, invoking a mercy rule, spared Otter’s whupped and retreating column further casualties, their having suffered 8 KIA and 14WIA.  After Batoche and the end of the rebellion, Otter was unable to nab an elusive rascal named Big Bear, who (all’s well that end’s well), eventually surrendered.

Withal, Otter was appointed Commander of No 2 Military District effective July 1, 1886; and in 1893, was appointed the first Commanding Officer of an outfit called the “Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry” (or some such).  Otter was known to be something of an austere professional, or martinet, and that proclivity for extreme attention to military detail and discipline seems to have passed on, generation after generation, in 1RCR.  This sort of attitude can arise in men who have seen action, experienced failure, and they employ it against those who haven’t.  Otter was appointed Inspector of Infantry on May 16, 1896.

When the Secord Boer War rolled around (1899-1902), Canada sent a large contingent of troops to aid the British effort. For this service, Canada created a Special Service force, and Lieutenant Colonel Otter commanded the 2^nd (Special Service) Battalion of the RCRI, which was dispatched to South Africa, and saw action at the Battle of Paardeberg.  In South Africa, he could have encountered Sam Hughes and Charles Ross. Otter was gazetted Colonel on July 19, 1900.

Returning to Canada, Otter was appointed OC Military District No 2, and in 1908 he was promoted BGen and appointed CGS (1908-1910), becoming the first Canadian born head of the Canadian Militia, which, until then, had ben commanded by a British officer. (The RCN didn’t come into existence until 1910.).  He retired, aged 67, in 1910 in the rank of MGen, and was knighted in 1913.  During World War I, he came out of retirement to command detention operations of enemy nationals in Canada.  In 1922, he, along with Sir Arthur Currie, was promoted to full General.

In 1914, Otter published The Guide: A Manual for the Canadian Militia (Infantry) perhaps a Canadian first attempt at a comprehensive training manual. He also headed the Otter Commission which established the perpetuation of Canadian Expeditionary Force units in Canadian militia units.

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TRACTABLE Plus 80

Vincent J. Curtis

23 Apr 24

TOTALIZE, despite Simonds’ best efforts, ended in failure; and he launched Op TRACTABLE on August 14.  It opened with eight hundred Lancasters bombing targets along the road from Hill 195 to Falaise.  Then, the 3^rd Infantry and 4^th Canadian Armoured Divisions struck southwards cross-country two miles east of the road.  They crossed the Laison River, and bore down on Points 184, 115, and 159 north-east of Falaise.  Simonds added a heavy smoke screen to impair the effectiveness of long range German anti-tank and machine gun fire.

TRACTABLE was another heavy slog; the Germans had been tipped off by captured documents; and it wasn’t until the 18^th that Falaise was cleared.  But taking Falaise was not enough to close the gap.

The places of real tactical significance were two small villages seven miles south east of Falaise: Trun and Chambois.  These were to be taken by 4^th Div and the 1^st Polish Armoured.  These two armoured divisions thrust south on August 16^th. The Poles swung east and outflanked German defenses; they then split into three battle groups, sending one in rear of Trun, one to Hill 262 (Mount Ormel), and one to Chambois, all in the German rear; meanwhile, 4^th Div captured Trun on the 18^th.

The final drama was to occur at St. Lambert-sur-Dives and Hill 262, where the Canadians and the Poles would choke the gap closed.

The gap was spanned by the Dives River, which formed an impassable barrier to vehicular traffic except at two points, Moissy and St. Lambert-sur-Dives. Moissy had a ford, reached by a single lane dirt track; and next to it was a narrow foot bridge.

St. Lambert had a two-lane bridge that was strong enough to support a Panther tank.  The terrain was flat, wide-open, and easily observed from the heights around Trun, ideal killing ground for artillery and Typhoons.

4^th Div sent forward a battle group, comprised of B and C Coys of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (about 50 men each) and C squadron of the South Alberta Regiment, to seize St. Lambert.  In overall command was Major David Currie of the SAR.  The task of Currie Force was to stop the passage of 100,000 Germans.

Backstopping the Dives position were two Polish battlegroups on Hill 262.  They had with them Capt Pierre Sevigny, an artillery FOO for the 58^th Bty, 4^th Medium Regiment.  After crossing the Dives, escaping Germans had to pass around Hill 262..  Over the 36 hours from the 20^th to 21^st August, Capt Sevigny was to win Poland’s highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.  His work inflicted thousands of casualties on the Germans, and enabled the Poles to hold out against German attacks.  Four depleted SS Panzer divisions east of the Dives repeatedly attacked the Poles, who fought them until they ran out of ammunition - and then fought them hand-to-hand. 

Currie Force approached St. Lambert at dusk on the 19^th, and was repulsed with the loss of two of its fifteen Shermans.  Pulling back 1,000 yards, Currie used the night to personally recce the defenses.  Attacking again at dawn, Currie Force gained half the village by noon, forming another gauntlet escaping Germans had to pass.  Currie Force repulsed repeated counterattacks, and near dusk surged ahead to capture the rest of the village.

Columns of death sprouted from the choke points. The corpses of men, of horses, wrecked vehicles, artillery pieces, trucks and tanks piled up along the roads. Prisoners were being taken first by the dozen, then fifty and then a hundred at a time.  The famous picture of David Currie winning his VC shows a German officer surrendering to Argyll George Mitchell, CSM of C Coy, with Pte John Evans to the right.

Over 50,000 were trapped, and the German 7^th Army surrendered.

For several feats of personal military prowess, his skillful and determined attacks and defense, and for demonstrating an epic coolness under fire for 36 hours, Major David Vivian Currie was awarded the Victoria Cross.

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Lesson Learned?

Vincent J. Curtis

12 Oct 24

RE: Councillors resign from Red Hill board amid rising tensions. News Itme The Hamilton Spectator 11 Oct 24.

I suppose it had to be created and entertained for a while, in the interests of “reconciliation” and all, but this Red Hill valley “board” was a farce from the beginning, and now it should be obvious, even to Council.

The City of Hamilton did not sign a treaty with any band of Indians, and is not responsible for upholding or enforcing the terms of any such treaty.  The so-called representative of the so-called Haudensosaunee call themselves the “hereditary chiefs’, meaning they are not democratically elected, and represent no one but themselves and whoever chooses to support them. Their word is not binding on anyone. (And we have no proof of their alleged hereditary status as “chiefs” by tradition.)

No doubt they rely for their land claim on the fraudulent 1702 “Nanfan Treaty”, in which the Mohawks surrendered title to land they did not possess to the Acting Governor of the Province of New York in exchange for the British to muscle the Mississaugas out of present-day Niagara Peninsula and south-western Ontario. (This was after the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Treaty with the Mississaguas of 1701!). Red Hill Valley and the environs of Hamilton – the Land Between the Lakes - was purchased from the Mississaugas in 1792.  The Mississaugas have no land claim over the Red Hill Valley, so why should the Mohawks?

This committee is merely an effort by a few Mohawks to mess with the white man, and are playing upon his conscience to gain the necessary leverage. Why else would studies and input from experts be vetoed except to mess with something? Why is Aaron Deltor pretending like he has veto power over the white man’s actions except to mess with him?

Wake up and smell the coffee, white man. The Mohawks have been playing duplicitous games like this for over three hundred years.

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Could owe trillions?

Vincent J. Curtis

30 Sept 24

RE: We’re not asking to break Canada. News item The Hamilton Spectator 28 Sept 24

Those who, over the years, have followed closely the land disputes raised by members of the Six Nations, the attacks in bad faith on two different property developments in Caledonia, and have researched deeply the so-called Nanfan Treaty know that there is no merit whatsoever in the land claim now before the courts and reported on in the Spectator article.

But this is not the place to discuss why. At no cost to themselves, Six Nations can throw this lawsuit and then another at Canada, for this reason or that, and Canada cannot afford to lose even once. Any court judge, for reasons having nothing to do with the law, can decide that he, in his superior virtue, thinks that Canada ought to give the Indians even more money.

For all the spaghetti Six Nations is throwing at the wall, they might well be Italian.

Canada has to figure out a way of dealing with bad faith litigation by Indians who have nothing to lose and trillions to gain. A price needs to be paid by the Indians if they lose.

Canada’s national debt stands are $1.2 trillion; the decision as to whether the Indian litigants are owed multiple trillions surely cannot be left in the hands of any old Ontario judge.

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