Saturday will be the first day of Remembrance Week here in Ontario. It’s that time of year when we remember and reflect on the sacrifices of so many in both small and great conflicts over the years. Their sacrifice was the price of the freedom and the rights we all enjoy today.

One of those who paid the price for us was Robert Ansley Cavanagh. He died at Dieppe on August 19, 1942. He was 19 years old. He was my wife Linda’s uncle, the one she never met. More importantly, he was the brother and best friend to my mother-in-law, Yvonne. His loss was devastating for her. She loved him dearly and never got over it, and for almost 80 years she had his picture by her bedside, right up until the day she died. She never forgot. We have that picture now so that we’ll never forget.

These are turbulent times in our world. We are seeing the rise of fascism with Putin’s attack on the people of Ukraine and all those other conflicts that are happening in the world, and throughout the world whenever we see an effort to take away fundamental rights and freedoms from people it requires all of to us stand up.

It’s important for all of us to remember that our way of life, our democracy, things like our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, were purchased with the blood and sweat and lives of women and men like Robert Ansley Cavanaugh, and the tears of people like my mother-in-law, Yvonne Hooper. We must never forget.