On this day 75 years ago, men huddled in pitching, yawing landing craft headed for Juno Beach in Normandy.

Most were young and scared, and small wonder. They were part of the Allied forces trying to penetrate Festung Europa, which Hitler and the Wehrmacht swore would never happen. The Canadians were facing mines, tank traps, booby traps, pill boxes, artillery, machine-guns, tanks and German soldiers who had been ordered to throw them off the beaches.

But attack they…

(I posted this here once before, but this will be the last opportunity to do so on Lorianne's excellent site. I'll miss you folks.

And to all the veterans and all their families, a salute from a former Royal Canadian Corps of Signals reservist.)

     When James Chaney Palms showed up at the Essex Scottish Regiment's recruiting office one fine fall day to volunteer for the Second World War, he was wearing his riding boots.

     It might…

“It was the 28^th of October, 1830, in the morning,

when my feet first touched the Canada shore.

I threw myself on the ground, rolled in the sand,

seized handfuls of it and kissed them...."

– Rev. Josiah Henson

     England formally abolished slavery across most of its empire in 1833, but British North America, particularly what is now Southwestern Ontario, was already a haven…

Let's see:

• 75-car pile-up on a Montreal-area highway;
• people with too much time on their hands;
• icy road conditions.

Only one solution.

GAME ON!

https://twitter.com/CBC/status/1089695251957194752