Former CSA president Jim Winter sends us his thoughts about the recent visit to the province on July 1 by the Governor General, Mary Simon when she paid her respects to the St. John’s War Memorial and the repatriation of the Unknown Soldier ceremony that took place on that day.

Governor General Mary Simon is traveling around our province but nowhere is there any mention of NL’s greatest peacetime marine disaster, when approximately 251 sealers died in one storm that blew across our island in late march 1914. Given the fact that her honour Ms Simon has written passionately in Canadian national media about the victimization of Canadian sealers – indigenous and non-indigenous – by anti sealing corporations it is strange that the Ottawa and NL politicians and bureaucrats in charge of her schedule have omitted a visit to the memorial site of that disaster in Elliston, Bonavista Bay.

The Memorials in Elliston to those who died are adjacent to the beautifully designed “Sealers Interpretation Centre”, which has an entire section devoted to the indigenous sealing that existed in NL prior to the arrival of settlers.

I realise that developing this schedule on short notice was difficult and that much of the schedule of the GGs time in our province is laudable.

However, the last day of the visit should be spent in Elliston, Bonavista Bay, visiting the Memorials citing the names and communities of the approximately 251 (78 from the SS Newfoundland and 173 from the SS Southern Cross)  men who died in the storm of late March 1914; the statue of the father and son, Rueben and Albert John Crewe, who died frozen in an embrace; and visiting the Sealers Interpretation Centre, also in Elliston, which focuses on the indigenous and non-indigenous roles of sealing in the evolution of our society

I mean no disrespect to the members of 9 Wing or to the actors in Come From Away but both have been recognised by personages of the highest calibre in the past.

However, there has been no official recognition of the Elliston Memorials and Sealers Interpretation Centre by either Canada or the British Royal family and Her Honour Mary Simon, as the Governor General, represents both these entities.

This is the 100th anniversary of our national war memorial and the planned service is proper and appropriate. The Governor General’s presence ensures that both Canada and the Royal family recognise and respect it. It would also be appropriate, if ten years after its opening, the Memorials and Sealers Interpretations Centre in Elliston received a similar honour.

Nothing is written in stone.

Jim Winter
St. John’s
Newfoundland and Labrador

Followup thoughts to the above letter from Jim Winter

Despite my feelings about the exclusion of Sealers’ Memorials and Sealers’ Interpretation Centre from the GG Mary Simon’s itinerary, the entire ceremony of the return of the unknown soldier home was emotional, caring, solemn, and beautifully presented and I congratulate ALL those responsible……
Credit where credit is due.

Jim Winter
St. John’s — NL