In Living and Learning in Retirement’s 50th year, Ted Barris continues his Friday lectures this winter at Glendon College’s Centre for Excellence. His series, “Missing in Action: Untold Stories of Canadians’ Participation in Historic Moments,” features famous periods of world history, in which Canadians played vital roles.

Lecture No. 7. “Why the Dutch consider Canadians their liberators.” Each spring since WWII, children and grandchildren of the generation of Dutch civilians who endured Nazi occupation of their country from 1940 to 1945, celebrate their liberation day – May 4, 1945. Indeed, every May 4, during silent marches in every hamlet and city in the Netherlands, the Dutch continue to acknowledge the sacrifice that thousands made, in particular their “liberators,” Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen. More than 7,600 Canadians died in the nine-month campaign to liberate the Netherlands. The Dutch have never forgotten that sacrifice. This presentation illustrates why that is.

Ted Barris has published 20 non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. His book, The Great Escape: A Canadian Story, won the 2014 Libris Award as Best Non-Fiction Book in Canada. His book, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany, received the 2018 NORAD Trophy from the RCAF Association. And his book, Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire, was long-listed for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada. In December 2022, Ted Barris was appointed Member of the Order of Canada.