Peacekeeping is a core function of the military today

Aurel Dubé showed up for his interview with Windspeaker sporting a chest full of medals.
The veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces was born on the Kitigan Zibi First Nation reserve near Maniwaki, Que., but because his mother was an alcoholic, he and his brothers were put in foster homes when he was five.

He thinks that her drinking had something to do with her experiences in a residential school, though she only stayed less than a year when her father took her out.
“The priest used to beat her when she spoke Algonquin,” so Dubénever learned the language.

He lived with two different foster families, and he feels that they did not like Indians.

“They just wanted me for farm work.”
When he was 18, he moved to Hull and two years later entered a Quebec community college, but he dropped out and joined the army the next year.

It was in the army that he learned English. His home base was Val-Cartier, Que., but he also found himself at bases in Shilo, Man., Shawinigan, Que., and Gagetown, N.B.

His overseas postings were all United Nations peacekeeping missions; missions that have been a matter of great pride for Canada.

Cyprus was his first foreign deployment in 1987. Dubé was intrigued by the cultures he encountered there, so different from what he knew back home.

“Religion was so important that they went to war over it; religion and culture.”

The locals became accustomed to the UN forces, and people stopped by the camp asking for food and water. On one occasion while on patrol, Dubé was confronted by a group of armed Turks, one of whom pointed a rifle at his head. They had no language in common, so Dubé left and reported the incident at the base. He found the incident unnerving.

During the 1995 election campaign in Haiti, he went there with a Petawawa helicopter squadron to deliver ballots around the country. The poverty was overwhelming, with people living in aluminum shacks. Once again people begged the troops for food, but money as well.

“It was hard to see the poverty, especially the children. It made me think of my own kids back home.”

Dubé one really traumatic experience, however, was at the scene of an accident. Nearby Martinique was flying Haitians back to their home; the people that had tried to flee from the conditions in Haiti.

The plane crashed.

It was night, and Dubé was out on patrol at night to find the crash site. With only a small pen flashlight aiding his search, he stepped on something slippery, and found it was a body. All around him were body parts, except for the babies, who were in one piece.
In one of his domestic assignments, Dubé was placed in an uncomfortable position when he was sent with the forces to deal with the Oka resistance in Quebec.
His family was strongly against his participation against Indian people, but he told them that he was duty-bound as a warrant officer to go. He had no choice, even though he did not want to.
His last overseas posting was in Bosnia.
“We were there to protect the Bosnians from the Serbs,” he said. Once again, he found himself providing material aid to people. He got a pair of beds for a family that was sleeping on straw. It was in Bosnia that he suffered his career-ending injury. It was not in combat, however. While on patrol, he ran into a street post. The impact injured his back.
Racism was a constant irritation in the military.
“Big time,” he said.
Yet, the Forces tried to do something about it. They had a training film showing a family looking out the window as another family was moving in next door.
“Look who is moving in! We don’t want that kind in the neighborhood!”
The film was stopped and the men watching were asked who the new family was. Some said it was Blacks, others Chinese, others Aboriginals.
As the film progressed, the men saw the new family– they were military.
“Then,” said Dubé, “I took out my Indian status card and slapped it on the table for them to see.”
Dubé meets up with a group of fellow vets from United Nations and NATO missions once a week.
“You can take the boy out of the military,” he said, “but you can’t take the military out of the boy.”