On Remembrance Day, newcomers and students in Ottawa say nobody told them what the poppy is for, while a new teachers' handbook recasts the day as anti-war
Kipling's 1890 poem about the ordinary soldier ends "you bet that Tommy sees!" This year he would see a poppy left unexplained to newcomers and a cadet officer who cannot walk, his family says, after police allege he was assaulted while out with two cadets selling them in Hamilton.
BECOME A MEMBER
Article by Rebel News staff.
Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: Canada thanks its soldiers when the band plays on Remembrance Day, but the other days of the year now include a cadet officer who cannot walk after an assault at a poppy drive and people in the capital who say nobody ever told them what the poppy means.
Rudyard Kipling wrote "Tommy" in 1890. Tommy Atkins was the nickname for the ordinary British soldier, and the poem follows him as he is refused service at a pub in peacetime, then thanked "when the band begins to play."
The band played for four Canadian soldiers last month. Sgt. Morgan Wong, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Aidan Goulding and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark were killed at CFB Wainwright in Alberta on Oct. 17. All four served with the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and were training to deploy to Latvia. Flags were lowered and political leaders offered condolences.
One of the other days came on Nov. 1. Capt. Kenneth Kunkel, 59, a Canadian Armed Forces member and the commanding officer of 826 Gryphon Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets, was supervising two young cadets selling poppies outside a Mandarin restaurant in Hamilton. Police say two boys blew a loud air horn into the cadets' ears. After Kunkel followed them into the restaurant, police allege a 48-year-old woman assaulted him, causing him to fall, and that one of the boys struck him several times while he was down.
Kunkel had spinal surgery that day, and his family says he cannot walk. His son Christopher said no one expected Halloween, the night before, to be one of the last times his father would walk with his four grandchildren. Estela Quintanilla, 48, and a 12-year-old boy have been charged. Quintanilla told Rebel News' David Menzies she was protecting the boys, and she denies tripping or pushing him.
"Makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep is cheaper than them uniforms," Kipling wrote. The argument drawn from that line is that what is done to soldiers in peacetime is done because it is cheap, and that the same thrift is at work when veterans are offered medical assistance in dying instead of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
In Ottawa on Monday, Rebel News' Drew Sylver asked people a few blocks from the National War Memorial why they were not wearing a poppy. Newcomers and young people alike said nobody had told them what the poppy was. A high school student said her school shows one video and does not really talk about it. "It would be nice if we talked about it more," she said.
Seven years ago, on Remembrance Day itself, Don Cherry was fired within 48 hours of Coach's Corner remarks that began "you people." Last week, Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington walked downtown Toronto, found poppies very rare and wrote that Cherry may have been right.
The Royal Canadian Legion turns 100 this year. A Leger poll last year found 55 per cent of Canadians planned to wear a poppy, down from 58 per cent the year before. Even that figure may overstate the case, because telling a pollster you care is easier than caring, and on the street the share wearing one looks closer to one in 10. On that reading, those who do not know or do not care are not only newcomers but also young people who have been taught to think poorly of their own country.
A handbook for teachers of grades 1 through 12, released this month by World BEYOND War Canada, states that "Remembrance Day was founded to abolish war" and notes that the curriculum still presents "bravery and sacrifice" as central to the day. The youngest students make white poppies, students in grades 4 to 6 look for "militarism" in toys, air shows and movies, and older students write to their MP about defence spending and draw up a "peace budget."
Kipling ended his poem with a caution: "you bet that Tommy sees!" Nobody should be forced to wear a poppy, because the men it stands for died so that nobody could be forced to do anything. But anyone can do what the schools did not, and tell one person what it means.
GUEST: Kyle Hale, president of the Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association (CARDA), on Parks Canada cancelling its Banff search-and-rescue dog program.
COMMENTS
-
Terri Carter commented 2026-11-11 22:20:35 -0500I’m truly saddened beyond Carl Linletter.
It’s gone to far. -
Carl Linletter commented 2026-11-11 21:49:08 -0500 FlagThis year I felt different about remembrance day. I not only remembered those who gave their lives for us. I also remembered a dead Canada. The one who feared God and fought a war because it was right. I don’t think that our country knows either God nor what is right any more. And that is to our shame of face and our own destruction.
-
Terri Carter commented 2026-11-11 21:25:44 -0500 FlagThank you Ezra. Keep spreading the truth that my fellow boomers have forgotten.
I truly didn’t see this all coming, after trudeau won in 2015 because he legalized weed !
Sad day for sure ❤️ -
Bruce Atchison commented 2026-11-11 20:46:32 -0500What a good point about people not knowing about the poppy and what it symbolizes. Our schools don’t explain it. Newcomers, even the freeloaders, aren’t told its story. And the media doesn’t explain these red flowers we wear over our hearts. So how are people supposed to remember?
