Last weekend, protesters attempted to interrupt a community event honouring a Port Moody soldier who died in the First World War.
For some reason, the protesters mistook a simple ceremony to open a recently completed authentic WW1 trench by volunteers and the Port Moody Heritage Society as propaganda promoting war.
But with a little Google search, the ad-hoc group of sign carriers would have known that this is far from the truth.
In fact, volunteers spent hours digging and building the trench not to glorify war but to promote peace and to show young people some of the uncomfortable truths surrounding war that it is fought by average people, not superheroes; that living conditions are terrible, cramped and cause disease; and that people die.
It's ironic that those who did die to protect Canadian freedoms, such as free speech, made it possible for such a disrespectful display. But that is at the heart of this exhibit, and a lesson the protesters would do well to learn.
