It's November and that just about every school in North America is engaged in learning of the Remembrance Day activities. The children are learning the age old poem 'In Flanders Fields' by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.

Thinking forward to those Remembrance Day cermemonies, I am reminded of Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, who, when he found the victims of the death camps, ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead. He did this because (as he said in words to this effect):

"Get it all on record now—get the films—get the witnesses—because somewhere down the road of history some [person of illegitimate birth] will get up and say that this never happened."

We are, today, at that place down the road of history: the UK is now debating whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it offends the Muslim population which claims it never occurred! It is only just over 60 years since Second World War in Europe ended. How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center will also have 'never happened'?

This Remembrance Day, let's give honour where honour is due. It's the military, not the reporter who has given us the Freedom of the Press. It's the military, not the poet, who has given us the Freedom of Speech. It's the military, not the politicians that ensures our Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It's the military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag.

This week on the evening CTV News Cast it was reported that Steven Marshall, a Sapper from Alberta was the 133rd Canadian soldier who has fallen by the enemy's hand in Afghanistan. From one Sapper to another I salute Steven Marshall, and say "Thank you for paying the ultimate price for the cause of freedom!"

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, in his powerful poem, charges us:

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch, be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields.'

As our young Canadians who are involved with the 2010 Olympic Games are carrying the flames across the country let us remember that there are also Canadian Soldiers who are still paying the ultimate price to carry 'The Torch' of freedom around the world. If you see or meet a veteran or someone in uniform this week, just go up to him/her shake their hand and say thank you… God Bless You.