Do war graves and corporate branding belong together?

A former head guide at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France says no.

Joshua Dauphinee says plans to list corporate sponsors at the soon-to-be-opened Vimy Visitors Education Centre will detract from the site’s true purpose of honouring Canadian sacrifice.

“I think the Crown should have ponied up the cash,” Dauphinee said. “The fact that any level of sponsorship had to take place to construct a memorial centre when you look at the level of funds that are being spent for Canada’s 150th anniversary — I’m confused. The money should have been ponied up.”

More than a decade in the planning, the visitor centre is set to to open this spring in time for the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge, the seminal First World War assault often cited as the time that Canada came of age. Nearly 3,600 Canadians were killed in the battle which began on April 9, 1917, and saw all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force fight together for the first time and under Canadian command.

“You have a memorial site that is very specific for commemorating the war dead that have no known resting place,” Dauphinee said in a phone interview from Luxembourg, where he works with NATO.

“To have a memorial wall for strictly commercial purposes runs, in my view, contrary to the intent of a memorial. To insinuate — and the direct link is very clear — that someone who donates $25,000 is the same as someone who died during war in a foreign land is offensive.”

An early Vimy Foundation document entitled Vimy Visitors Education Centre Dedication Opportunities did show features such as the ‘Bell Canada Memorial Gallery’ and the ‘Canso Investment Counsel/Lysander Funds Museum Hall’ with a red ‘SOLD’ stamp across them. Those initial plans were changed, according to a Dec. 6 email to Dauphinee from Veterans Affairs Canada.

“I have noted your concerns and would like to explain that the sponsorship information you attached to your correspondence has changed,” says the email, which was signed by Veterans Affairs minister Kent Hehr. “Donors will only be recognized inside the new centre in five named areas and on a standard donor appreciation panel that will not include a remembrance wall. These elements will be designed so as not to interfere with the centre’s commemorative message or compete in any way with the names of those honoured by the Memorial.

In an email to the Sun, Veterans Affairs Canada said it had agreed with the Vimy Foundation on a recognition protocol that recognizes “the sanctity and commemorative nature of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial site are paramount.

“Tangible recognition in the Centre will respect and support the commemorative intent of the site, will be in harmony with the general design and style of the proposed visitor experience and will be subtle and unobtrusive as not to detract in any way from the memorial experience.”

The executive director of the Vimy Foundation, Jeremy Diamond, says acknowledging sponsors and donors will be discreet.

“We feel it’s subtle, respectful and tasteful and will by no means take away from the reason why people will be in there in the first place, and that is to remember the sacrifice of these veterans.” Diamond said.

“It’s not going to be ‘Company X’ Vimy Education Centre.’ We did not want to do that… and neither did the donors. No donors came to us and said, ‘We want our name in lights.’”

The new $10-million education centre is set back in trees, about a 20-minute walk from sculptor Walter Seymour Allward’s soaring white limestone monument. Built over 11 years, the Vimy Memorial was unveiled on July 26, 1936 and sits on 100 hectares of land given by France in 1922 in gratitude for Canada’s First World War contribution.

Dauphinee, who was a guide at Vimy in 2004 and head guide in 2006, said the monument is a moving tribute to Canada’s sacrifice. Surrounded by peaceful French farmland, the land of the Vimy Memorial is still tortured by the remnants of trenches, shell holes and gaping craters from underground mines.

“It’s one thing to read something in a text book. It’s another to see what man can do to one another,” he said. “A hundred years after the fact, and you look at the terrain and think, ‘Wow.'”

One of those visitors was John Andrew Powell, a Montreal financier who went to Vimy and was saddened to see the signs in poor condition and little information to help visitors. In 2004, Powell and some friends founded the Vimy Foundation to improve the site and raise awareness about the battle’s significance.

The visitors centre was conceived as a public-private partnership with the Foundation raising $5 million which the federal government matched.

The centre is open concept with a central entrance hall and four display areas, each of which will have a small plaque on the wall naming the major sponsor.

“Walk into each room, the first thing they will see are those artifacts and displays, then in a subtle way will be the names of those generous donors who, to be honest, without which we wouldn’t have been able to build the centre in the first place,” Diamond said.

Acknowledging donors is tricky for any museum, said Jenna Zuschlag Misener, executive director of the Juno Beach Centre Association, which funds the private museum at Canada’s D-Day beach of the Second World War. The veterans who founded the centre were adamant that it not be corporately sponsored, Misener said.

“This was their vision of the Juno Beach centre — that it was a place for all Canadians and they were very reluctant to put any corporate naming recognitions anywhere.”

The centre has a glass panel at the entrance, about 1.5 metres by 1.6 metres, that lists the names of its founders and several of the major donors.

“Really, it should be called the ‘Walmart Canada Juno Beach Centre,'” Misener joked. “They gave us over $8 million over 10 years and they took no recognition for it. They didn’t want to mess with the vision that the veterans had for the Juno Beach Centre.”

Donors are also recognized with their names on small titanium bricks on several kiosks outside the centre, often bought in the name of a family member who served or died on D-Day.

Misener says the Vimy Foundation took on an ambitious job to raise money for the education centre.

“This is something that every museum struggles with. This is the world we live in. Corporations want to have their name out there.”

Dauphinee said the Vimy Foundation’s effort is noble and he supports its work.

“This has nothing to do with the Vimy Foundation. It’s a very admirable goal. I don’t see why they were even forced into a situation where the only route to achieve that goal was to seek private sponsorship.”

bcrawford@postmedia.com

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The Vimy Memorial

Work on the Vimy Memorial began in 1925. It took 11 years to complete and was unveiled on July 26, 1936 by King Edward VII

The monument rises 110 metres over the surrounding planes

Great care had to be taken during its construction since the area was still littered with unexploded bombs and shells

The names of 11,285 Canadians killed in France during the First World War who have no known grave are carved into the monument’s enclosing walls

3,598 Canadians were killed during the assault on Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917.