Commemorative Projects 2025

“No Peace to Keep”

I was asked by the Royal 22e Régiment to create a commemorative painting of the deployment of the 1 Battalion Battle Group to Sarajevo in 1992. The purpose of this mission was to secure and open the Aerodrome to allow the safe arrival and distribution of humitarian aid to the population of Sarajevo.

To get the right information and to inspire me for this painting, I met with Major Gneral Lewis MacKenzie and a group of veterans on December 8th at the Canadian War Museum. With the valuable help of Alex Bouchard and Chuck St-Charles, we recorded at least 10 interviews in which the veterans shared their experiences during this poorly understood chapter of our history. Those interviews will be part of a short Bravery In Arms documentary that will accompany the painting “ No Peace to Keep”. Our intent is to unveil the painting and show the documentary during a special event in the Spring of 2025.

“Path to Total Victory”

May 2025 will mark the 80th Anniversary of the Victory in Europe. For this reason we will create a short documentary of only two episodes in which we will follow the 1st Canadian Corps, freshly arrived from the Italian front to join the rest of the 1st Canadian Army, in their final struggle to acheive Total Victory and the Liberation of the Netherlands at the end of 1945. We will relive the actions of the battle of Apeldoorn, Otterlo, and other significant events. We will also take a look at the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion who participted in Operation Varsity, the last Allied Airborne Operation of WW2, and relate the story of Corporal Frederick Topham who earned a Victoria Cross during this Operation.

Our goal is to deploy our small filming crew to Holland from 10 to 18 April 2025 to film this documentary on the ground. Our collegues historians from the Netherlands, Jimmy (Jimbo) Hilgen and Tjarco Shuurman will be our guides on the ground. We are also planning to use the service of a group of volonteer re-enactors to recreate some battle scenes that will add to the visual effect of the documentary and help me visualise the commemorative painting(s) that will complement this project.

The Documentary and the accompanying painting(s) will be unveiled and presented to the public, during the Week preceding Remembrance Day in November 2025.

Your generosity and commitment as Guardians of the Memory, helps us to communicate and to preserve our rich military legacy. We could not do it without your support. Thank you.

CUSTOS MEMORIAE