Sleep came moments after my head hit the pillow. An hour later I woke up, falling asleep within minutes.
Then the dream started. It was vivid.
Four of us members of the Friends of the Forces Fellowship were on the shore of Great Slave Lake near Yellowknife in the NorthWest Territories.
How or why the members of this fellowship dedicated to helping military families and the community got there I have no idea.
As we walked along the quiet waters one spotted a bear. None of us were armed.
Frightened, we sought refuge. About 10 paces into shallow water from the shore was a large rock, big enough to give us standing room.
We chose to walk through ankle-deep water to save ourselves from the bear.
My partner was with us. How she walked into the water is beyond me for she fears water especially in a lake with a 2,000 foot depth.
We had waited for a while and then the noise erupted. We heard gunshots and then bomber aircraft flew over us discharging bombs.
Two of our members decided to head back to where people were and inform them of the invasion.
I woke up, falling asleep within moments.
The dream resumed like a two-act play.
All four of us were on the rock. Gun shots and bombing had ended.
There was another smaller rock to our right, with a small piece above water.
A tiny polar bear, small enough to fit in one’s hand, swam up and sat on the rock.
My partner reached over to pet the cute little bear and it bit her. She said the bite was like a mosquito.
Suddenly a small black bear the size of a big teddy swam up on the adjacent rock
Then I was wide awake.
Later I pondered over the meaning, if any, of this weird dream. I had talked with a friend a few days before about the pitiful protection of our sovereignty of Canada’s Far North.
Canada’s military presence in the Far North — Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut — is inadequate, according to most observers,
Forty per cent of our country is protected by one small base with 300 personnel at Resolute Bay and a small detachment in Yukon.
Canada has 2,000 volunteer Rangers equipped with rifles and binoculars to patrol and surveil 1.3 million square miles of territory.
Until a few years ago the Rangers used Second World War rifles and numbered 1,700
And the Resolute Bay base had 170 personnel, operating only a few months of the year.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Arctic the Russian Bear has built a super base on a port site recently made accessible all year by ice melting.
That base is in addition to 13 bases and three under construction. The Russian bases include one nuclear facility, four air bases, two naval bases and two multi-purpose bases.
In spite of prime ministers in the 1950s and 2000s vowing to build and protect the Far North we have no real security there.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
