True Patriot Love - November 11, 2025


They Lied About Their Age to Fight for Canada ｜ Remembrance Day Special


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

176.07855

Word Count

2,642

Sentence Count

168

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 James Monroe Franklin was born in Mississippi in 1899 and emigrated to Hamilton, Ontario with his family when he was still a toddler.
00:00:10.320 By 1915, he was just 16 years old, too young to enlist, but like so many boys of that generation, he lied about his age to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
00:00:20.840 Franklin was sent to France with the 4th Battalion and fought in the Bloody Battle of the Somme.
00:00:25.380 In October 1916, during the assault on Regina Trench, he was killed in action.
00:00:31.200 He was only 17.
00:00:32.860 His name is carved on the Vimy Memorial of France.
00:00:36.020 A reminder that Canada's army was built not only by those born here, but by young immigrants who saw Canada as their new home and willingly gave their lives for it.
00:00:47.460 Thank you.
00:00:48.740 Words we don't use enough in society anymore.
00:00:51.580 Gratitude, it's a feeling and an empathy that we don't exhibit enough anymore, but on November 11th at 11 a.m., it's a very simple time of the year for one or two minutes to say thank you and exhibit gratitude to those who served and those who continue to serve our country on Remembrance Day.
00:01:08.080 Joined by Mike Wixson, as we think about a solemn day that every year there was talk, Mike, about how we should remember what we should do.
00:01:18.520 There was controversy over whether or not you should wear a poppy in courts in Nova Scotia.
00:01:24.380 I know I wear a poppy for my father who served over 30 years.
00:01:29.220 And to say thank you for those who served and continue to serve because I'm eternally grateful.
00:01:34.080 I show gratitude.
00:01:34.880 Well, you know, I don't want to go all the way back to grapes telling us why we should be wearing a poppy.
00:01:40.420 He had his opinions about that.
00:01:42.120 Yeah.
00:01:42.680 But the history of it in my life is significant.
00:01:46.700 It was a year, you know, a part of the year that we actually remembered.
00:01:53.280 You know, I talked to my cousins.
00:01:54.520 We all attended the services together at the Woodbridge Memorial in Ontario here.
00:02:00.240 A place where every time I passed on my bicycle there afterward, I'm reminded of that day.
00:02:07.100 The reason that it's there, the reason there's cannons at the front and being in awe of these veterans in their uniforms, proud to still walk from the church to the memorial and place a wreath.
00:02:19.860 It had a significance to me, I'm hoping, is still in existence.
00:02:24.380 And this year, Mike, it's an extra gratitude in my mind.
00:02:27.960 And throughout our conversation, you're going to see vignettes of young men who immigrated to Canada in a few short years after they landed on our soil, making a better life.
00:02:37.680 They were one of the first to put their hand up to join their local regiment or the Navy or the Air Force and go back overseas to fight and often lose their lives for their new country because they believed in it.
00:02:49.340 And in fact, many of them, if you think about it, just boys, as often happened to the ability to do a quick check on somebody's identity.
00:02:59.500 Many of these young men could not wait to join the Canadian forces, even though they weren't of legal age.
00:03:05.760 And back then, in the 1914 to 1918 era, and in World War II, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, you could take your pen and forge your birth certificate.
00:03:16.060 Right.
00:03:16.540 And it's the digital age now.
00:03:18.680 But back then, you could say, grow a mustache, forge your birth certificate, and say, I'm 18, I'm 19.
00:03:25.440 When in reality, a lot of the young people who went overseas were underage and just growing up while they were in combat.
00:03:32.800 And many of them losing their lives.
00:03:35.060 Absolutely.
00:03:35.760 John George Patterson was born in London, England in 1875 and came to Canada with his family settling in Calgary.
00:03:43.520 A pipe fitter by trade, he was already 40 years old when the First World War broke out.
00:03:48.720 His son had enlisted first, and John followed, determined to protect him and serve his new country.
00:03:54.440 In April 1917, during the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France, Private Patterson saw a German machine gun nest cutting down Canadian troops.
00:04:01.820 Alone, he charged forward under heavy fire, throwing grenades and bayonetting the crew.
00:04:07.040 His courage cleared the way for his platoon and helped secure a key position.
00:04:11.260 For his actions, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest honor this country gets for bravery.
00:04:16.380 Just two months later, Patterson was killed in action near Lenz.
00:04:20.140 His legacy remains one of extraordinary immigrant courage and sacrifice.
00:04:24.060 You know, there's one story that you and I looked at yesterday that I found quite touching,
00:04:31.640 that almost an entire town of immigrants to Canada went and most of them died.
00:04:39.380 So they were here for a grand total of, I think, three years by the time that they put their hand up and said,
00:04:45.120 please, we'd like to be part of the Canadian forces to represent this country.
00:04:50.960 And it's sometimes because it's so far away and the veterans seem so old and we're constantly evolving as a country.
00:04:58.740 It's also time to say thank you and remember the sacrifices.
00:05:02.180 Over 67,000 Canadians died in World War I, over 45,000 in World War II, over 500 died in Korea,
00:05:11.780 over 130 Canadian men and women have died on peacekeeping missions, keeping the peace.
00:05:18.460 And just more than that in Afghanistan.
00:05:20.920 So Canadians who continue to serve and have served in whether it's World War I, World War II or in peacekeeping or during the Cold War,
00:05:30.740 it's just a matter of saying thank you because we are a country now of over 40 million.
00:05:35.920 There's just over 100,000 men and women in this country who wear the uniform.
00:05:40.640 And it's our way to say thank you for doing what you do.
00:05:43.560 The other thing is it underscores liberties we're handing away.
00:05:46.880 They fought for our freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of commerce, freedom of belief,
00:05:53.860 all of these things that we need to make sure that we preserve how important it was they gave their lives,
00:06:02.180 how important it was they left their homes and families behind to give them hope of a better future.
00:06:08.620 One that we, to be honest with you, Jim, feels often to me like we squander like we're not grateful for the sacrifice that was made.
00:06:16.440 And all we ask is a minute, two minutes of your time at 11 a.m.
00:06:20.860 on November 11th that you pause, you stop your busy life just to say thank you.
00:06:25.520 And you can go on with the rest of your life and do whatever you want.
00:06:29.020 And for me, it's not about celebrating a battle or glorifying combat.
00:06:33.160 It's anything but because the men and women who lost their lives or came back after the fact,
00:06:38.680 no one prays for peace more than they do.
00:06:40.880 No one hopes that there's never war again more than the people that were part of it.
00:06:44.400 Today we were in the middle of a staff meeting here at the network and there was a pause.
00:06:51.160 And it felt respectful.
00:06:52.740 It felt right.
00:06:53.760 It felt like the patriotic thing to do, to remember and to show that respect.
00:06:59.780 I think it's really important that in schools we don't marginalize what that means.
00:07:04.100 I think it's time to get back to it's really important that we remember this,
00:07:09.580 that we remember these people that still protect us to this day.
00:07:12.360 Max Lorenz remembered hiding his German fluency and training.
00:07:16.400 He didn't want comrades to mistake him for the enemy.
00:07:19.200 Shipped overseas, he found himself in Germany with the Canadian Occupation Force in 1945.
00:07:24.820 One night, after he instinctively spoke to a hurt civilian in German,
00:07:28.860 his lieutenant realized Lorenz's language skills were an asset, not a liability.
00:07:32.520 He was reassigned to interpret and help with security patrols and station interviews,
00:07:37.640 bridging cultures in the ruins of the country he had fled.
00:07:40.600 He even received his Canadian citizenship papers while serving in Germany.
00:07:44.520 Think about the world we live in now.
00:07:47.760 The images of the Middle East, of Ukraine, of Sudan, of around the world.
00:07:54.240 Do we experience that here in Canada?
00:07:56.780 No.
00:07:56.940 I'm not aware of that.
00:07:58.020 We live such a privileged life and we go about our business without worry about drone strikes
00:08:06.140 and cruise missiles and napalm.
00:08:08.980 We don't worry about that.
00:08:10.260 And so many people have come to this country to escape that, to live a peaceful life.
00:08:15.020 And it's just a matter of saying, I'm grateful.
00:08:17.400 I have gratitude.
00:08:18.460 Thank you.
00:08:19.260 The other thing that we need to remember is that our armed forces served us here at home
00:08:24.580 so many times through so many emergencies over so many decades.
00:08:30.580 And, you know, we've been in situations where we were in floods or we had no power or we needed wildfires handled.
00:08:41.180 We need to remember that that's important.
00:08:43.820 And at this time, I think it's also kind of important to encourage people to enlist,
00:08:49.360 to encourage people to become part of the recruitment process where you can get an education,
00:08:54.560 where you can get a discipline in your life.
00:08:56.880 Get a trade.
00:08:57.340 In fact, come out of the Canadian forces with potentially an amazing career for yourself
00:09:03.620 while having done something to serve the country and serve the world.
00:09:07.060 A friend of mine has served in the Canadian Navy Reserves for 30 years.
00:09:11.200 He's been in HMCS Toronto, HMCS York, which is based on the Lakeshore in Toronto and Queens Quay.
00:09:17.500 And so he's part of the Navy Reserves.
00:09:20.020 He has a civilian job and has raised his family in just north of Toronto.
00:09:25.160 But every once a week, he goes down to the armory.
00:09:29.420 Right.
00:09:29.940 And one weekend and then a couple of times, like four or five weeks in the summer,
00:09:33.640 he'll go on one of the Navy ships out of Halifax or Esquimalt in Victoria, BC.
00:09:38.580 And so he has his civilian life, but then he serves the country in the reserves.
00:09:43.300 And for a lot of people, it's a great way to be part of the military, but live the best of both worlds as aware.
00:09:49.900 These people are leaders in business.
00:09:52.580 Have you noticed that?
00:09:53.800 Absolutely.
00:09:54.280 Reservists are leaders in their fields, whether it's science or commerce or whatever it is.
00:09:58.920 They have a discipline that, you know, certainly makes a difference in almost any career.
00:10:04.480 And it's just, you know, really, Mike, 364 days of the year, people in Canada don't often think about our military.
00:10:13.920 But one day, November 11th, for one minute at 11 a.m., we pause and say thank you.
00:10:19.340 And we think.
00:10:20.060 And it's a simple term.
00:10:21.160 You see someone in uniform or at one of these ceremonies, you say thank you.
00:10:24.960 There can be no more powerful expression of gratitude and love as a Canadian to someone in uniform who have served or continues to serve than to say thank you.
00:10:35.020 Do you know where you get most of that gratitude?
00:10:37.420 It seems in places like France and the Netherlands.
00:10:40.820 Yes.
00:10:41.160 Canada made a real difference where, you know, they stopped an occupation and they, you know, connected the community where bridges had been blown out.
00:10:51.180 You know, I've heard stories about how the Canadians went in there and fed from their own rations the starving people.
00:10:58.660 So certainly around the world, our military has has been expressed many times the gratitude of France and Netherlands and parts of Europe where we made a big difference.
00:11:10.920 We are going to show a photo that I took.
00:11:12.640 We were on a family vacation in 2018, and it's the Commonwealth Military Cemetery in Rome.
00:11:18.680 And there is an acre of Rome that is set aside for the members of both Bernard Law Montgomery and Harold Alexander in the Eighth Army, Canadians, British, Australians, Commonwealth soldiers who fought liberating Sicily and Italy.
00:11:35.340 And we were going through it.
00:11:37.160 And there was a young gentleman from the Hastings Prince Edward Regiment of Eastern Ontario.
00:11:42.480 And he's there and he died in July of 44 after the liberation of Rome.
00:11:46.620 He was 20 years old.
00:11:48.480 He was 20 years old.
00:11:49.680 And there's a lot of 19 year olds and 20 year olds and their names are in those headstones.
00:11:55.180 And it's in Rome and it's a month of casino, Italy, and it's in Sicily and it's in France, whether it's the Vimy Memorial or along the Normandy Memorial or in Holland.
00:12:05.640 And to this day in Holland, young Dutch kids, school kids are assigned the headstone of a Canadian who died liberating their country and they put fresh flowers on their every remembrance day.
00:12:16.280 Oh, that's incredible.
00:12:17.340 Yeah.
00:12:18.080 That's an incredible thing.
00:12:19.180 And that's their way of saying thank you for what they have.
00:12:21.160 So all we ask is Canadians, just one minute of one day of 365 days, 11 a.m. on November 11th, just take a moment to be quiet and say thank you.
00:12:32.020 You know, it's interesting, Jim.
00:12:33.360 It's quite an honor for me to do this show with you, an army brat of Air Force Freddy.
00:12:39.100 Air Force Freddy.
00:12:40.760 God rest, Air Force Freddy.
00:12:42.340 And it's important to me to remember that my friends had interaction with this experience of being in the military.
00:12:52.260 And I'll ask you before we go.
00:12:54.040 Sure.
00:12:54.420 What was that like when you were a kid, when you were stationed someplace and Remembrance Day came about?
00:13:00.980 It's what I knew growing up.
00:13:02.700 It was a busy day and a big day and an important day in the Canadian Forces military installation.
00:13:09.240 My dad was a high school dropout in Halifax and a group of his friends realized they didn't have much education and they had very little job prospects in the late 1950s.
00:13:18.920 And they got all their moms to sign the paperwork because they were just under the age you had to be to join up.
00:13:24.840 And my dad joined up and with a little education, became an aircraft engine mechanic and worked on C-130 Hercules and 707s and became a master mechanic in turbo, especially turboprop engines.
00:13:39.280 And so Remembrance Day was an important day.
00:13:42.920 And I remember in his uniform, he'd have his poppy and they would have ceremonies in the base.
00:13:47.360 And a lot of the roads on the bases where we grew up on were named after famous soldiers, famous battle sites.
00:13:55.780 I see.
00:13:56.340 A Dieppe Road, you know, Juneau Beach Boulevard, things like that.
00:14:01.920 That's what I grew up in.
00:14:03.060 And a lot of my friends from different bases who I'm still friends with to this day, you know, we I mean, that's one of my things where I think Facebook is a good thing because they share photos of their fathers and uncles and grandfathers, the black and white photos of them in uniform and serving.
00:14:20.200 And that brings me a lot of joy.
00:14:21.700 It is with great gratitude in my heart and I know in yours that we reach out to veterans today and people serving in our military have served in our military and are retired.
00:14:35.200 Thank you very much for representing us so well and protecting us in the ways you do and looking out for us.
00:14:40.400 We mere words are not enough, but all I have to give is my words and might say thank you.
00:14:45.960 And I will keep saying it.
00:14:47.800 I will wear my poppy with pride.
00:14:49.720 It's not a political statement.
00:14:51.280 It's not about anything, but this is my personal way of saying thank you to those who served and I'll always wear it with pride every November.
00:14:59.080 Thank you, man.
00:14:59.900 Thank you.