Legion Magazine July/August 2016 Back Issue

CANADA’S FIRST BLACK BATTALION
After considerable lobbying by black and by white supporters, Canada fielded one black battalion in the First World War. No. 2 Construction Battalion was formed in Nova Scotia with recruits from the Maritimes, Ontario and the United States. Although they wore their country’s uniform, they still suffered prejudice. When they went overseas, it was to serve with shovels instead of rifles.

Also in the issue:
Search for an Old Contemptable: A surprise tweet leads a writer to discover family members he never knew he had. Living in England, they were the descendants of a great-grandfather who fought in the first battle of the First World War and was never the same.

The militia and the coal-miners’ strike: When a lengthy strike by coal miners on Vancouver Island became too much for local authorities, the militia was called out in 1913. It would be the longest military assistance to civil authorities in Canada’s history.

Crazy weapons of the Cold War: the Big Stick, the Dead Hand and the Tsar Bomba, were just some of the bizarre weapons created during the epic standoff between superpowers.

Kennedy and Khrushchev: The leaders of the two most powerful countries in the world during the Cold War go nose-to-nose over warheads bound for Cuba.

Should the Canadian Armed Forces purchase armed drones? The debate over using unmanned armed weapons.