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Since 1990, peacekeepers from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and civilian police forces, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), have served in Haiti on various United Nations (UN) missions. The purpose of these missions was to help stop the internal violence and civil unrest that had plagued the country for years and help promote and protect human rights and strengthen police and judicial systems.

In 1992–93, Canada contributed military forces to UNITAF, a United Nations–backed humanitarian mission in the African nation of Somalia. The mission was hampered by the fact that some of the warring factions in the Somalia conflict attacked the international forces that were trying to restore order and deliver food to a starving population. The Canadian effort was also clouded by the murder of a Somali teenager by Canadian troops. The crime — and alleged cover-up by Defence officials in Ottawa — became one of the most infamous scandals in Canadian history.

Masumi Mitsui, MM, farmer, soldier, Canadian Legion official (born 7 October 1887 in Tokyo, Japan; died 22 April 1987 in Hamilton, ON). Masumi Mitsui immigrated to Canada in 1908 and served with distinction in the First World War. In 1931, he and his comrades persuaded the BC government to grant Japanese Canadian veterans the right to vote, a breakthrough for Japanese and other disenfranchised Canadians. Nevertheless, Matsui and more than 22,000 Japanese Canadians were displaced, detained and dispossessed by the federal government during the Second World War (see Internment of Japanese Canadians).

"So you see, they do a great deal for us, bring out potential qualities that may have been deeply hidden: tenderness, love and understanding"

"So you know, we’d spend a whole day up at the front and get shelled the odd time and they’d tell you to get down or get into bunker or do something, get out of the road mainly because they wanted to fight, so you got out of their road."

"The Jerrys liked to get the leader. It wasn't very good to be the leader because most of them got shot down."

"I picked up a young lad, he was in uniform, a German. And I bet you he was only about 16 years old. He was very scared and it turns out he saw me and put his hand up and dropped his rifle."

"Well, I said, I’m leaving. Oh, he said, you can’t leave, you’re sick. I said, I’m going to be mental too if I have to stay here. I said, after all that prison camp time, I’ve got to be free. And I left."

"When we would distribute the mail, everyone would come to see if there was something for them; it was so important for a soldier's morale"

"The Red Cross went up twice to try and rescue the two wounded, right up in front, but the Germans kept firing on them."

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

"As countries were freed, they not only played for the military but they also played for civilians too"

"I didn’t return to Arnhem and the bridge until the 60th anniversary, 2004. I went down a walk on the Wednesday night and I walked along the river, the route we’d gone in, up the approach and onto the bridge and looked down at the buildings we’d occupied that were rebuilt, and it was an eerie feeling. It was strange. It brought back a lot of memories [...]"

See below for Mr. McCreesh's entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

"And when you think that, with your flying equipment on and the Mae West and a parachute, it was pretty cramped quarters."

See below for Mr. McVean's entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

"Major Mahoney was awarded the Victoria Cross, my troop officer was awarded the DSO, my troop sergeant was awarded the DCM and my bow gunner was awarded the Military Medal. Someone asked me what I got and I said, “Yes, I got scared.”"

See below for Mr. McLean's entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

"Now, we could have blasted the place off the map but Montgomery wanted the hand-to-hand fighting. He said the Canadians will handle it."

See below for Mr. McCourt's entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

"I was watching the Typhoons, or the ‘Tiffies,’ blowing up a forest and I was thinking, give them hell, boys."

See below for Mr. MacDonald's entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

"Why don’t I take the PIAT and I’ll shoot it at the first house. And he said, it’ll give an awful roar and a surprise factor and then we go rushing down towards the place."

See below for Mr. McDonald's entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was fought during the First World War from 9 to 12 April 1917. It is Canada’s most celebrated military victory — an often mythologized symbol of the birth of Canadian national pride and awareness. The battle took place on the Western Front, in northern France. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps, fighting together for the first time, attacked the ridge from 9 to 12 April 1917 and captured it from the German army. It was the largest territorial advance of any Allied force to that point in the war — but it would mean little to the outcome of the conflict. More than 10,600 Canadians were killed and wounded in the assault. Today an iconic memorial atop the ridge honours the 11,285 Canadians killed in France throughout the war who have no known graves.

This is the full-length entry about the Battle of Vimy Ridge. For a plain-language summary, please see Battle of Vimy Ridge (Plain-Language Summary).

"[She] said, that was the only thing she was convinced, that was the only thing that saved my life, was this supposedly over-prescribing of the penicillin."

See below for Mr. McAndrew's entire testimony.

Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.