Today is a sad day for Jim and Colleen Fitzpatrick. It marks the fourth anniversary of their son's death.
Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick, 21, died in Edmonton on March 20, 2010, two weeks after his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb 25 kilometres west of Kandahar City in Afghanistan. He was the first born-and-raised soldier from Prince George to die in combat since the Second World War.
In the summer of 2011, the former Glenview Park in the Hart was renamed Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park in honour of the Kelly Road graduate and member of the third battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
There were two others with Prince George connections who died as a direct result of the Afghan conflict.
Cpl. Matthew McCully was killed in action on May 25, 2008. His father Ron lives in Prince George. Michelle Lang, formerly of the Prince George Free Press, died on Dec. 20, 2009, near Kandahar City as the result of a roadside bomb. The 34-year-old reporter had been covering the conflict for the Calgary Herald.
Those were three of the 162 Canadians (158 soldiers, two civilian contractors, a diplomat and Lang, a journalist) killed during Canada's 12 years in Afghanistan. The final 100 Canadian soldiers returned home this week, prompting the tough question - was it worth it?
It was worth it as a response to the 9/11 attacks. Under Taliban rule, Afghanistan was the safe harbor for Osama bin Laden. The terrorists who hijacked those planes were trained at Al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan. Among the dead that day were two dozen Canadians.
But Afghanistan and Al-Qaida had already given Canada a reason to fight back even before 9/11.
Ahmed Ressam, also known as the Millennium Bomber, planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999. He entered Canada with a forged French passport in 1994 and then eluded immigration officials by obtaining a Canadian passport. With that new passport, he returned to Afghanistan in 1998 for explosives training at an al-Qaida training camp.
He lived undetected in a Vancouver home for months during the summer and fall of 1999, making bombs the entire time. The only reason he was caught was because a suspicious U.S. customs official at the Port Angeles border crossing stopped Ressam on Dec. 14, 1999. Inside the trunk of his car were the ingredients for bombs, along with four timing devices.
If Ressam had planned to bomb a major Canadian target on New Year's Eve 1999, it's far more likely he would have succeeded.
Canada rightly went into Afghanistan with its allies in late 2001 as a result of these attacks on our sovereignty and our security. Canadian soldiers served nobly in southern Afghanistan, where some of the fiercest fighting occurred with pro-Taliban forces and Al-Qaida guerrillas. Canada stayed for the long haul, unlike some of its other allies, not just to win the war but to win the peace and leave a more stable and secure country behind. History in the short and long term will decide if those efforts were successful but the effort was made and Afghanistan and its people are in a better place than they were 12 years ago as a result.
That's where the doubt comes in about the benefits of Canada's service in Afghanistan and whether those 162 lives made a difference. Violence and attacks are still an ongoing problem in Afghanistan and the stability of its government, the security of its borders and the safety of its people remain in question. Internally and externally, Afghanistan remains vulnerable.
But the future of Afghanistan shouldn't be the only measurement of the merits of Canada's and Fitzpatrick's sacrifice. It also needs to be assessed at the individual and community level. In Prince George, there is an ongoing School District 57 bursary awarded in his name and last fall, Canadian Blood Services mounted a donation campaign in his honour.
Fitzpatrick's legacy in Prince George is an inspiring story about a young man who willfully put himself in harm's way to serve his nation and to help others in need.
"He taught me a lot when he was alive and he is still teaching me a lot," said his father Jim at the 2010 Remembrance Day service. "One of the things he taught me was the true meaning of community and compassion and support."
Remembering Fitzpatrick's sacrifice, and not just for one morning in November, is the one thing local citizens can do to sure his death wasn't in vain.
