I am a second generation Canadian of Japanese heritage. Last year, in the week before Remembrance Day, I had to appear in court, charged with a minor provincial offence. I was surprised, and a bit uncomfortable, to see the Justice wearing a poppy on her robe. I wondered, with my Japanese appearance, whether I would get a fair hearing. I was found “not guilty,” so all is good. And I feel petty even raising this question. But ethically, is it OK for judges, justices and other court officers to wear a poppy, in a multicultural country where so many people come from countries that were adversaries?

Don’t feel petty; a good friend who graced the bench for years tells me “there is an ongoing question among Judges and Justices as to whether it is proper to wear a poppy on our Judicial Robes in court. I wear a poppy on my street clothes but not my robe. Many others wear one on their robes.” So it’s an open question, on both sides of the bar.

Your concern, however, is misplaced.

Once upon a time, in the Canada where I grew up, many saw the poppy as a sign of the victory “our boys” eked out over the “Jerries”, the “Japs” and their allies. There’s no point trying to re-vision history; in post-war Ottawa, that was the understanding and the language used.

But a lot of water has flowed under that bridge.

In contemporary Canada, we’ve come to understand that the evil encountered in the Great Wars is, by no means, the particular possession of any one nation or race. It’s over 70 years since the end of the Second World War, and those years have seen so many eruptions of fascism, racism and religious hatred, in so many places, that no serious person today accepts the “Allies=good, Axis=bad” formula. And, as if we hadn’t seen enough already, this year’s American political imbroglio is sufficient reminder that the “isms” which led to Hitler, Mussolini and the rest have, by no means, been put to rest. Resentment, racism, religious bigotry and cultural superiority are, sadly and incontrovertibly, alive and well.

So for me, the poppy is no longer, so much, a symbol of remembrance as a reminder of the need for diligence and courage. That’s not, in any way, to diminish the efforts of people like my dad, who went overseas to do what they had to do. It is merely to say that the battles they fought are not over.

I’d like to see every judge, every lawyer, every witness, every accused in a Canadian courtroom wearing a poppy this week. Because an impartial judicial system is one of the first casualties of totalitarianism, whatever its “brand name” in a particular moment. When freedom dies, the courts, and all they represent, are early casualties. World War I poet John McCrae wrote: “To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.” The poppy is a silent, bold reminder that contemporary Canadians, regardless of background, now hold that torch in their own hands, regardless of what goes on around us, south of the border or in the rest of the world.