Bethany Whelan Jones remembers it to this day.
asserted
Jones → remember → day
On a family trip to McDonald’s, sitting at an outside picnic table with her parents and sister, they noticed an old man with a scraggly beard, rummaging through a nearby garbage can.
asserted
they → sit → can
Her mother went inside to buy him a meal.
asserted
mother → go → meal
When she returned, she told them he reminded her of her father.
asserted
he → return → father
“Then, she looked at us kids in the eye, and said, ‘Remember that man?
asserted
she → look → man
Somebody loves him.
asserted
Somebody → love → him
He has a family out there that cares for him still.’”
asserted
that → have → him
Ms. Whelan Jones’s mother, Melanie, who died in 2021, had a deeply personal reason for her compassion.
asserted
who → die → compassion
Her mother’s father was Jacob Okonski, one of an estimated 1,500 Canadians who journeyed across the Atlantic in 1937 to take up arms in support of the democratically elected Republican government of Spain against the invading fascist forces of Generalissimo Franco.
asserted
who → estimate → Franco
Amid thousands of volunteers from other countries, they formed a distinctly Canadian unit: Widely known as the Mac-Paps, the storied Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion was named after the leaders of the 1837 Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada.
asserted
Battalion → form → Canada
Hundreds died on the Spanish battlefield, never to see Canada again.
asserted
Hundreds → die → Canada
Mr. Okonski, a 25-year-old Polish-Ukrainian miner from Alberta, survived the savagery of the Spanish Civil War.
asserted
Okonski → survive → War
But he was wounded twice, at the brutal Battle of Teruel and later, more severely, during the ill-fated Ebro Offensive in 1938, the Republic’s last-ditch, unsuccessful effort to halt Franco’s advancing armies.
asserted
he → wound → armies
Like a lot of Mac-Paps, he returned traumatized by what he saw and experienced in Spain.
asserted
he → return → Spain
Making matters worse was the reception accorded Mr. Okonski and his fellow combatants back in Canada.
asserted
reception → make → Canada
Rather than being lionized for their courage and willingness to put their lives on the line to confront fascism in a far-off country, the Mac-Paps were hounded and ostracized by Canadian authorities for defying a hastily passed ordinance making it illegal to enlist in a foreign war.
asserted
it → lionize → war
Some had their passports confiscated.
asserted
passports → have → ?
Others were threatened with arrest.
asserted
Others → threaten → arrest
Many were blacklisted for being communists, kept under regular surveillance by the RCMP.
asserted
Many → blacklist → RCMP
Noting that just a year later, Canada, itself, was embroiled in all-out war against Germany and Italy, the same fascist countries whose military assistance had turned the tide in Spain, the Mac-Paps referred to themselves, sardonically, as “premature anti-fascists.”
asserted
Paps → note → fascists
Mr. Okonski was no longer the person who had left for Spain.
asserted
who → leave → Spain
He drifted from job to job, married and fathered two daughters but drifted away from those responsibilities, too.
asserted
He → drift → responsibilities
He became an alcoholic, eventually winding up on skid row in Vancouver, now known as the Downtown Eastside.
asserted
He → become → Eastside
He died in 1976 at the age of 64.
asserted
He → die → 64
Ms. Whelan Jones’s mother did not know he had died until after she put a poignant personal ad in the Vancouver Sun, asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of her father.
asserted
anyone → know → father
Someone referred her to his small death notice in the Sun.
asserted
Someone → refer → Sun
He was buried in an unmarked grave in the city’s Mountain View Cemetery.
asserted
He → bury → Cemetery
But Mr. Okonski has not been entirely forgotten.
asserted
Okonski → forget → ?
In recent years, on Remembrance Day, a small group of Canadians dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion have pinpointed and made pilgrimages to known graves of those who fought in Spain.
asserted
who → dedicate → Spain
The initiative has been spearheaded by Raymond Hoff, a retired academic in Victoria, whose American father, Harold, also a volunteer in Spain, was taken in by the Mac-Paps during a hellish retreat from Italian warplanes and artillery.
asserted
father → spearhead → warplanes
While researching and compiling biographies of as many Mac-Paps as the group could find, Mr. Hoff uncovered Mr. Okonski’s history and the location of his unmarked grave.
uncertain
Hoff → research → grave
Last year, Ms. Whelan Jones came across a photo of two roses placed on her grandfather’s final resting place by the friends of the Mac-Paps.
asserted
Jones → come → Paps
She was overcome.
asserted
She → overcome → ?
“I saw the photo, and like, I cried, thinking of my mother.
asserted
I → see → mother
All these years, she thought that her dad didn’t matter to anybody because nobody contacted her when he passed.”
asserted
he → think → her
Nobody contacted her mother’s sister.
asserted
Nobody → contact → sister
“They treated his death like he didn’t have a family.”
asserted
he → treat → family
In a heartfelt message to the volunteers who gathered at his grave to pay tribute to her grandfather, she wrote: “Thank you for placing a rose on his grave and honouring his service.
asserted
she → gather → service
My mom carried a lot of sadness that her father ended up in an unmarked grave and felt that nobody cared about her dad or thought he was important.
asserted
he → carry → dad
“That is why seeing that photograph of a rose being placed on his grave meant so much to me.
asserted
photograph → see → me
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
