This Thursday, Major Donald Paisley will address U of T as a representative of something called the Memory Project.
Maj. Paisley, a retired member of the Canadian military, is the keynote speaker of today’s Remembrance Day ceremonies at Hart House. His topic is “Reflections on Warring for Peace,” incorporating his work with The Memory Project, an initiative of the Dominion Institute of Canada, collects and archives oral histories and primary documents of the Canadian experience. One of its primary missions is to document Canada at war.
Maj. Paisley first joined the Canadian Forces in 1951 when he was 26 years old. He served for 21 years in locations around the world, including Korea and Cyprus as an intelligence officer. In Korea, he was involved in a peacekeeping mission in the demilitarized zone. “The North Koreans came across at night and weren’t supposed to because it was a demilitarized zone and captured two of our soldiers,” he said in an interview with The Varsity on Tuesday. “My boss told me to go and get them…In the military, you do what you’re told.” He added that the conditions the soldiers had to contend with in Korea were rough, that they would often live in cramped tents in pairs for six months at a time.What attracted him to the military in the first place was the structure and attention to detail that are such essential characteristics of the army, habits which have stayed with him all his life.
“Timeliness is next to godliness,” he said.
Patriotism and his sense of duty to serve his country also played a large role in his service, he said.
“When I was a little guy,” he said, “I watched soldiers march around and all that sort of stuff.”Today, Major Paisley is able to keep in touch with his fellow veterans through the Royal Canadian Military Institute. He said that while soldiers serving in different places and at different times have vastly differing experiences, they are still united by a common bond. Therefore, he feels that events like Remembrance Day ceremonies are important to show veterans that they are appreciated.
He is troubled, he said, by the lack of poppies he has noticed this year.
“The other day,” he said, “I was on the subway and the only people that were wearing poppies were me and the gentleman sitting next to me.” He also dislikes the idea of turning Remembrance Day into a national holiday because “people would take advantage of it as a day off from work.”
Maj. Paisley received his B.A. at U of T in political science and economics and remembers his time here fondly. He was even able to take a class on military studies in his first year, at Victoria College
“I loved Vic,” he said. “[It was] just terrific.” His daughter and grandson also graduated from U of T. “The only thing I don’t like about the University of Toronto,” he added, “is they don’t have a decent football team.”
Maj. Paisley says that his main mission, in Korea decades ago and in his speech today, is “to bridge the gap between war and peacekeeping.” He strongly believes in the need for peacekeeping and the United Nations.
“What it’s doing,” Major Paisley said of the various peacekeeping missions currently under way around the globe, “is [it’s] doing away with war, if it’s done properly.” He said that the decision to not send Canadian troops to Iraq was the right one because the mission was not supported by the United Nations. He described the UN as “the godfather” of world affairs.However, he also hopes that the Canadian military will receive more attention from the government.
“It’s not being supported adequately by the government,” he said. “They said they were going to increase the military by 5,000 troops. Now they’ve forgotten about it.”Maj. Paisley hopes that The Memory Project will “help to explain the mandate of the United Nations, to explain remembrance. I like speaking in particular to young students, young university students.” He also wants to convey some larger lessons to the youth of today: he hopes to make them understand “the impact of peacekeeping…[and that] education is the be-all and end-all.”
