The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Blaðsíða 8

4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Where Do We Stand?
By JUDGE W. J. LINDAL
Humanity is passing through the
most fateful period of its history. All
in which freedom loving people be-
lieve and for which they feel life is
worth living is threatened by forces of
tyranny better organized, more power-
ful and more far-reaching in their plans
than anything previously known to
man. A challenge has been hurled at
every free man and woman anywhere
in the world. He or she must choose
one of two alternatives: he must either
accept the challenge and fight it
through or else accept a slavery of that
cruel wicked type which the self chosen
masters have devised for those whom
they conquer.
At such a time every nation which
believes in some form of self-govern-
ment, and every individual who desires
to have some voice in the mapping out
of his own life, must ask themselves
the question: where do we stand?
But it may be that some of those
Canadians who are of neither Anglo-
Saxon nor French descent have more
reasons than one for asking that ques
tion. Their fathers and mothers came
to Canada from different lands in
Europe. It is not without regret that
they see much of that which is distinct-
ly their own disappear or else merge
in the Canadian pattern. They are fast
becoming Canadians; they have become
Canadians. Yet for the moment they
are, as it were, on the crossroads in the
Canadian scene. They have a double
reason for asking the question: where
do we stand?
We, Canadians of Icelandic descent,
fit into this category. We have been
here a little over three score years.
Most of the pioneers have passed on;
their toil and sacrifice is still fresh with
us. But we look in the other direction,
to our own land, to Canada.
In seeking an answer to our question
from the Icelandic Canadian point of
view three central ideas emerge: we
are at war; we are Canadians; we are
of Icelandic descent.
For the present, the first of these three
facts transcends the other two; it
transcends everything in the lives of all
Canadians. For that reason it is accord-
ed first place in this discussion. In
subsequent articles an attempt will be
made to answer the question from the
other two points of view.
We are at War
A few short years ago our fathers
and mothers left the shores of Iceland,
an island where freedom has been
fostered for centuries, and came to
Canada where there was even greater
freedom, and in whose expanse of land
and lake, forest and virgin soil, they
felt there was limitless opportunity to
find an outlet for the yearning for that
wider and fuller life which only free-
dom can give.
And now we find ourselves at war.
The war was not of our choosing just
as it was not of the choosing of our
fellow Canadians. In a broadcast de-
livered September 3, 1939, His Majesty
George VI uttered these words: “It is
unthinkable that we should refuse to
meet the challenge.” That same day
Great Britain declared war on Germany.
We, as other Canadians, knew that that
declaration did not commit Canada to
war; Canada could and would decide
for herself.
The Prime Minister of Canada sum-
moned Parliament. As the members
travelled to the capital they were deep
in thought. They realized the inevit-
able consequences of the decision they
felt they had to make. But other