By Kelly Malone

Sask. Métis veteran makes history on Remembrance Day

Nov 9, 2014 | 10:57 AM

A Métis veteran from northern Saskatchewan will make history on Tuesday at the Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa.

Alex Maurice will read the Act of Remembrance poem in the Métis language of Michif. It will be the first time the poem has been read in the language during the national ceremony.

“It’s quite an honour and it’s something that my family feels good about,” Maurice said. “I will be at the spot where Cpl. Cirillo was shot. It will be a year I will always remember. It will be an honour and a privilege.”

Maurice was born in Beauval, a small village about four hours north of North Battleford. He spent his childhood in the nearby lakes and woods before moving to Cold Lake for Grade 10 and 11. There he experienced his first taste of the military.

“I went to school in Cold Lake on the air force base. My sister married a person that had been in the air force,” he said.

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After finishing high school in Prince Albert, Maurice did a short stint working with CP Rail but decided that if he wanted to continue working in the north, he would have to join either the RCMP or the military.

“I knew there was not too much economic development or employment in northern Saskatchewan so I ended up in the military,” he said. “I signed my documents in Saskatoon in December 1973 and I started my training in CornWallis, N.S. in 1974.”

Maurice described the eight years he spent in the military as the best in his life where he learned discipline, teamwork and leadership skills. 

He accelerated through the ranks, becoming a sergeant in only six years. He taught other soldiers in Wainwright, Alta; received his Canadian and American jump wings; trained for advanced jungle warfare in Australia; and did a couple tours through Cyprus.

“What I enjoyed the best about the military was the teamwork that you learn, the hard training… tough training, but it was always done safely,” he said. “It was a chance to learn about leadership and how to get along with people.”

For Maurice, it wasn’t always easy getting along with people when he first began his military career. As a Métis person, the prejudices of everyday life made their way into the military.

“There are a lot of people that are old school and you come across prejudice just like you do in civilian street but you learn to ignore people like that and you educate them,” he said. “The general mind frame of an average soldier is pretty ignorant of what Métis is. What they see is a brown person and back then before we were called Aboriginal or native, back then we were just Indians.”

Once soldiers begin to put their lives on the line, Maurice said racism disappears quickly.

“Bullets are colour blind and you learn to value each other in terms of human beings, you learn to cover each other’s back,” he said.

Maurice will fly to Ottawa on Monday where he will join the Korean War veterans for a ceremony and the Aboriginal veterans for a separate ceremony. 

On Nov. 11, he will read The Act of Remembrance, an extract from the poem ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon, in Michif. The poem has been a staple at the national ceremony but up until this year it has been read in English and French.

Ahead of the honour, Maurice said he called his 100-year-old mother and some elders from the community to make sure that he got all the words just right. 

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