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This article was published 25/3/2015 (2006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

It wasn't our war. And yet, in some ways, it very much was.

As TV networks south of the border begin to roll out news and documentary programming that marks the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, it's interesting to note that CBC's Doc Zone is airing a new film that examines what the war meant, and continues to mean, to Canadians.

Vietnam: Canada's Shadow War, which airs Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC, takes the position that while Canada was never officially involved in the ill-fated military campaign in southeast Asia, the effects of the war on Canada were profound and long-lasting.

"We wanted to take a look at exactly what was going on here (in Canada) during the war," says Winnipeg filmmaker Andy Blicq, who produced, wrote and directed Vietnam: Canada's Shadow War in partnership with locally based Merit Motion Pictures. "There's this mythology that's been built up of 'Oh, no, we weren't involved in that; we took the high road and we didn't engage in combat.' And that's true -- officially, anyway -- but we accepted draft dodgers and, as it turned out, there was much more of a grey area to our involvement.

SUPPLIED PHOTO Winnipegger Kirk Leavesley enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and fought overseas.

"Some scholars (on the subject of Vietnam) call it a 'quiet complicity.' It's important to remember that America is our closest friend and ally; we had defence-sharing agreements with them, and economic ties, and there were agreements for us to supply military hardware and other things to the U.S. We wanted to put on the record what exactly was going on. A great deal of money was made here during the war by selling munitions and supplies to the U.S. military. I think most people don't know that."

Blicq, who produced a documentary on Canada's Vietnam vets about 30 years ago when he was a producer at CBC-TV, says it was relatively easy to get subjects with direct connections to the conflict to agree to tell their stories.

"The thing that struck us, once we started interviewing people who were actively involved in the various sides of the war, is that they're at a place in their lives now where they're looking back and reflecting on what that experience meant," he explains. "Most of them are in their late 60s or early 70s, and we found that people really want to tell their stories and put on the record what it was like to leave their country behind and flee to Canada, or to volunteer to go over there and fight. It changed their lives, and often not for the better."

Among those featured in the film is Winnipegger Kirk Leavesley, who ran away from home at age 14 and "rode the rails" for a few years before ending up in Minneapolis and enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17.

"I felt that if I were to join the U.S. marines, I would get some discipline in my life and it would straighten me out," he recalls. But instead of getting set back on the straight and narrow, Leavesley got shipped to Vietnam in 1968 and became one of the thousands who returned home wounded and broken. He struggled with drugs and alcohol for many years before a faith transformation allowed him to get his life back on track.

TOM DEFEO PHOTO John Phillips and Laura Jones.

No accurate records were kept of how many Canadians volunteered to serve in the U.S. military, but some estimates run as high as 3,000; at least 110 Canadians were killed in action during the Vietnam War.

The film also takes a detailed look at the experiences of many Americans who fled to Canada in order to avoid being drafted for service overseas. John Phillips and Laura Jones were teenagers when they crossed the border into Canada and took up residence in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood.

Even though they had all the necessary paperwork to make their move legal, FBI agents followed them to Toronto and only ceased their harassment after RCMP officers told them to stop. The young couple's stateside families continued to be the subject of FBI pressure for years.

"It took courage to go to Vietnam and fight as a soldier, but it also took an enormous amount of courage to stand up to your family and to leave everything behind," says Blicq. "You have to put it in the perspective of the time -- they didn't know if they'd ever be allowed to return, or if they'd ever see their families again.

"Laura Jones was just 19 years old, getting married and driving north to Toronto and starting a completely new life there, and being visited by the FBI and the RCMP. It's an amazing story."

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @BradOswald