The disappearance of a program announced to honour late veterans led to questions over whether or not Operation Remembrance was forgotten.
The program, which began in Surrey, was brought up north by then-Prince George-Omineca MLA John Rustad. The aim was to identify any unknown veterans' graves without headstones and provide them with grave markers. There was also a desire to commemorate those who had grave markers with bronze-mounted poppies to identify them as having served their country.
At the time the program was announced, Dave Labonte submitted information to have the grave of his father, Oscar, recognized for his service in the Second World War. Oscar's twin brother Leo also served and is buried in the local cemetery.
The program was carried out in collaboration with the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, the City of Prince George, the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, the Prince George Genealogical Society, and others. In 2008, after two years of research, 18 previously unmarked resting places were identified in a summer ceremony in Prince George.
But those with already-marked graves never did have the poppies attached.
"I'm sure there were other people that had brought stuff forward as well. It was fairly widely advertised," Labonte recalled. "It makes me think about it when it comes close to Remembrance Day."
Rustad, now MLA for Nechako Lakes, said the program is still thriving, but now in his new constituency.
"In Vanderhoof and Fraser Lake, we've identified 10 additional sites that we've now got markers for and we're still working on those particular areas but we're also expanding now further west out to the Burns Lake and Houston area and hoping to do some work there to identify any potential site in that area," he said.
However, the idea of recognizing the already marked graves with a bronze-mounted poppy has proved more difficult than originally thought.
"The challenge we ran across is vandalism," said Rustad. "It became very, very challenging to see how we could attach these to the markers without somebody coming along at some point and just taking them all. "
Labonte said that the program should continue locally and encouraged MLAs Pat Bell and Shirley Bond, who now split Rustad's old riding, to pick up where their predecessor left off.
Rustad also encouraged his colleagues across the province to get behind Operation Remembrance.
"Out of the 3,000 some-odd [unmarked veterans' graves] that we believe are out across the province, we're doing our best in our area to identify any vet that may be there," Rustad said. "I think it's important that we respect those who have served their country and provide us with the freedoms and certainly the democracy that we enjoy today."
