By Robert Smithson 

At this time of year, when we pay tribute to fallen members of our armed forces, I find myself thinking about what their workplace must have been like.  Theirs is, we should all remember, the toughest job of all.

There are, of course, many dirty, perilous occupations out there.  And for every one there are people who – for who knows what reason – are willing to subject themselves to it day after day.

These days we can, just by turning on the television, watch many such people facing harsh and risky working conditions.  And we can wonder, what makes them do it?

But having a job in which there are occupational hazards is nothing compared to the perils faced each day by members of our armed forces.  Regardless of the time and the context, and regardless of whether the action in which they have been involved was peacekeeping or an offensive action, they have faced the most overwhelmingly difficult working conditions.

That is, of course, because during their workday our soldiers – every one of them a son or daughter, a mother or father, a sister or brother – face other human beings who are tasked with eliminating as many of ours as possible.  The scale of the danger can, sadly, only be measured in the resulting number of deaths. 

We live in a time when the evening news frequently carries word of another Canadian combat death.  Maybe a time will come, soon, when months or years will elapse between such news stories.

Looking through the pages of the service record of my grandfather, after whom I was named, I was struck by how mundane it all seems in print.  He was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia and was a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (193^rd Battalion – Nova Scotia Highlanders) between 1916 and 1918.

His military record is filled with the sort of documents you might expect to find – pay records, contact information for next of kin, details of promotions and transfers, and the like.  It always gives me a chuckle to read in his medical record, “General condition good.  Is well nourished.”

He wasn’t killed or injured while serving.  He returned home to Nova Scotia to become a barrister and later to serve as a Member of Parliament from 1925 to 1935.

There is little sign in his service record of the risks and stresses that accompany military service, whether active or in reserve.  In fact, there isn’t much to distinguish it from the average employee’s personnel file.

Watching Hockey Night in Canada this past Saturday, countless photos of our deceased soldiers were shown at the conclusion of “Coach’s Corner”.  Their sacrifice makes the challenges and conflicts we face in our own workplaces seem insignificant.

We bicker about things like whether an employee is entitled to a few hours of overtime pay.  In war zones like Afghanistan, soldiers fight to stay alive for those same few hours.

We may not grasp what makes these men and women volunteer to go off to war, and we certainly can’t imagine the anguish suffered by their families when they don’t return.  But we can sure as hell dedicate a few minutes each November 11^th to give thanks that they stepped forward to shoulder this burden.

If they didn’t do this terrible job, who would?  As Don Cherry would say, God love ‘em, every one of ‘em.

Robert Smithson is a partner at Pushor Mitchell LLP in Kelowna practicing exclusively in the area of labour and employment law. For more information about his practice, log onto www.pushormitchell.com. If you have a labour or employment question for him to answer in a future Legal Ease, email him at smithson@pushormitchell.com. This subject matter is provided for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as legal advice.