Crerar and the Decision to Garrison Hong Kong

Acrimonious and often virulent debate surrounds examinations of the Canadian expeditionary force dispatched to Hong Kong in the fall of 1941. The tragic fate of the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers in the battle for Hong Kong and their horrendous treeatment at the hands of the Japanese following the surrender of the garrison has polarized opinion. Generally, historical treatment has ranged from C.P. Stacey’s and J.L. Granatstein’s considered assessments of the contemporary difficulties facing the political and military leaders to the Valour and the Horror’s and Carl Vincent\u27s accusations of negilgence among Canada’s political and military leadership. Major-General H.D.G. “Harry” Crerar was the Chief of the General Staff, the government’s chief military advisor and senior army officer, when the British telegram requesting “one or two” Canadian battalions for Hong Kong was received. “[The] Canadian Army,” advised Crerar after several days of deliberation with his political masters, “should definitely take this on.” The accepted historical perception has been that his strategic counsel was made in ignorance of the conditions of the situation in the Far East. Questions subsequently raised on the state of training of the two battalions chosen for the expedition further enhanced the belief that Crerar’s actions were hasty and ill-considered. Despite criticisms based on the unforgiving perspective provided by hindsight, Harry Crerar’s role in these decisions has been subject to only limited scrutiny. A closer examination of Crerar’s background and training reveals a carefully constructed logic in his approach. Placing the decision within the framework of Crerar’s training and education suggests that the three most important elements in his evaluation were a reasoned analysis of the contemporary strategic situation in the Far East, his long-term objectives for the army, and the reality of the state of the army’s training

Harry Crerar and an Army for Strategic Effect

Few people did as much to shape Canada’s Second World War effort, and no single person did as much to shape the Canadian army, as did General H.D.G. “Harry” Crerar. As chief of the general staff during the critical year and a half following the fall of France in June 1940, he was the primary architect of First Canadian Army, established the conditions for the army’s training and expansion, and advised the government to dispatch troops to Hong Kong. As a corps commander, he campaigned for Canadian involvement in the Dieppe raid. And, by 1944, he had assumed command of the army, eventually leading a combined Commonwealth army—the largest ever commanded by a Canadian—during the Rhineland offensive. His views on the form Canada’s military contribution should take became policy, even though many opposed them, including Prime Minister Mackenzie King. Crerar’s achievements (and failures) are explainable, in part, by the nature of the crisis facing Canada and the Commonwealth during the Second World War. Nazi Germany was on the verge of victory in the summer of 1940 and the logic of that situation seemed to dictate, at least in hindsight, that Canada, united in the face of this clear threat to national survival, indeed to western civilization, commit itself to an all-out war effort. From that starting point, Canada’s military effort—a full field army (First Canadian Army) and at war’s end, the third largest navy and the fourth largest air force—seemed logical. But there was nothing predetermined about Canada’s war effort. In the words of a recent critical review of a book on the “fateful choices” made that summer, “more than most periods in history, the summer of 1940 was pregnant with a veritable brood of…plausible futures.”

\u3cem\u3eThe Battle of the Generals: The Untold Story of the Falaise Pocket\u3c/em\u3e by Martin Blumenson [Review]

Review of Martin Blumenson, The Battle of the Generals: The Untold Story of the Falaise Pocket: The Campaign that Should have won World War II. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1993

Regimental History: The State of the Art

Review of David Bercuson, Battalion of Heroes: The Calgary Highlanders in World War II. Calgary: The Calgary Highlanders Regimental Fund Association, 1994 and Alex Morrison and Ted Slaney, The Breed of Manly Men: The History of the Cape Breton Highlanders. Sydney, Cape Breton: The Cape Breton Highlanders Association and the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 1994

Naming the Chronisms

Not long ago, I went into a store and told the man behind the counter that I needed a needle for my record player

‘It’s been a long haul, a big haul, but we’ve made it’: hepatitis C virus treatment in post-transplant patients with virus recurrence: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

The lived experience of both interferon-based and new interferon-free treatments in patients with hepatitis C virus remains understudied. To explore their journey through hepatitis C virus treatment, we interviewed seven post-transplant patients with recurrent hepatitis C virus. Three themes were identified using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Participants reported an ongoing sense of ontological uncertainty characterized by lack of control over their condition and treatment. Furthermore, an apposition of scepticism and hope accompanying each stage of hepatitis C virus treatment was described. A staged approach to psychological intervention tailored to the needs of the patient and their associated ‘stage’ of hepatitis C virus treatment was recommended

Learning With Friends: A Rational View of Remote Learning with Network Externalities in the Time of Covid-19

The debate within academic communities on the effectiveness of distance learning has never been as colorful and polarizing as they are today when higher education institutions (HEIs) shift instruction from the physical classroom to online platforms during a global novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Strict social and physical distancing measures and the prolonged closure of schools aim to minimize the spread of Covid-19 carving a role for online learning as a solution to bridge the gap. Disparities in the access to high-speed internet, differences in devices used, and the environment in which both instruction and learning take place have led some to argue that the current conditions for online learning are not optimal nor inclusive. The psychological toll of living through a pandemic characterized by fear and anxiety further exacerbates learning conditions rendering attempts to bridge the gap unsurprisingly polarizing. To provide an economic basis for policies that encourage online learning amid this pandemic, we give an analytical and rational view of online learning. This brief presents the results of a theoretical exploration of learning with network externalities identifying optimal conditions that: (1) maximize returns to education, (2) grow the knowledge accumulated within a network, and (3) leverage the positive relationship between the size of the network and the wealth on knowledge accrued to learners. We provide a basis for the implementation of remote learning as a rational countermeasure to government policies that are likely to keep schools closed, supporting the argument that learning need not be quarantined, too

Learning With Friends: A Theoretical Note On The Role of Network Externalities In Human Capital Models For The New Industry

Contemporary literature on how individuals learn in the 21st-century reveal critical differences from learning patterns in the mid-20th century–a period in which celebrated, pioneering works of Mincer, Becker and Ben-Porath on human capital were developed. Education and learning theories have evolved, but the prevailing human capital theories have not. Given continued technological progress, and the rise in available knowledge through the Internet, learning in networks is a distinct feature of the 21st-century industry. The connectivist theory of learning in the digital age is explored and substantiated. Using optimal control theory and dynamic optimisation, we define optimal conditions for knowledge generation and growth of learning networks. We find that knowledge per learner grows exponentially when the obsolescence rate of knowledge is less than the departure rate of learners from the learning network. We also find that a learning network will continue to grow as long as learners are sufficiently impatient and that technology sufficiently becoming obsolete faster. Furthermore, we show a positive relationship between the size of the network and wealth on knowledge. That is, as long as the remaining wealth on knowledge is increasing, the learning network will continue to grow over time. We present insights for policy consideration that address the necessary and sufficient conditions for sustained knowledge generation and the growth of the learning network

Learning With Friends: A Rational View of Remote Learning with Network Externalities in the Time of Covid-19

The debate within academic communities on the effectiveness of distance learning has never been as colorful and polarizing as they are today when higher education institutions (HEIs) shift instruction from the physical classroom to online platforms during a global novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Strict social and physical distancing measures and the prolonged closure of schools aim to minimize the spread of Covid-19 carving a role for online learning as a solution to bridge the gap. Disparities in the access to high-speed internet, differences in devices used, and the environment in which both instruction and learning take place have led some to argue that the current conditions for online learning are not optimal nor inclusive. The psychological toll of living through a pandemic characterized by fear and anxiety further exacerbates learning conditions rendering attempts to bridge the gap unsurprisingly polarizing. To provide an economic basis for policies that encourage online learning amid this pandemic, we give an analytical and rational view of online learning. This brief presents the results of a theoretical exploration of learning with network externalities identifying optimal conditions that: (1) maximize returns to education, (2) grow the knowledge accumulated within a network, and (3) leverage the positive relationship between the size of the network and the wealth on knowledge accrued to learners. We provide a basis for the implementation of remote learning as a rational countermeasure to government policies that are likely to keep schools closed, supporting the argument that learning need not be quarantined, too