File:Plaque of Mackenzie Papineau Battalion memorial, Victoria, B.C.jpg

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Summary

Description
English: The plaque reads:

"This monument commemorates the gallant men and women of British Columbia and Canada who offered their lives to defend the principles of democracy and served as the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of the International Brigades in defence of the Republic of Spain.

In july 1936, the opening shots of the Second World War were fired in Spain. Insurgent forces led by General Franco staged a rebellion to crush the democratically elected Government of the Spanish Republic. This treason was met with armed resistance by the people of Spain who rose to defend the New Republic. Thus the Spanish Civil War had begun which pitted the democracy embodied in the Spanish Republic against the fascism of the insurgent forces led by Franco, whose allies were the fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini.

Against a backdrop of appeasement of Hitler, the policy of Non-Intervention, and arms embargoes against the Republic rendering it virtually defenseless, volunteers from 53 countries - who formed the International Brigades - went to Spain to defend democracy and resist the spread of fascism. They fought at the side of the infant Spanish Republic to defend the right of the Spanish people to choose, by election, their government.

Nearly 1600 Canadian volunteers - confronted by the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1937 enacted by the Canadian Government and facing criminal charges under the Act - joined in that struggle to defend the Spanish Republic and the democracy it embodied. One-quarter of those volunteers came from British Columbia. Members of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion served with distinction, honour, courage and valour on the battlefields of Spain during the Civil War which raged from 1936 to 1939.

Over 600 volunteers in the Mackenzie-Papineau Batcalion were kilied in Spain. These brave individuals are forever part of the earth of Spain. Many of the survivors of the Battalion who returned to Canada in 1939 endeavoured to join and did join the Canadian forces to fight with the Aliies in World War II, which began six months later. Orce again they were fighting fascism. The fascist alliance of the Axis Powers was finally defeated in 1945."

The text at the bottom of the plaque is Spanish and reads "NO PASARÁN" meaning "They will not pass."
Date
Source Own work
Author IOHANNVSVERVS
Camera location48° 25′ 14.18″ N, 123° 22′ 16.46″ W  Heading=313.11322033898° Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

I took this photograph myself (IOHANNVSVERVS) on January 26th 2024

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Captions

Plaque of Mackenzie Papineau Battalion memorial in Victoria, B.C.

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depicts

26 January 2024

48°25'14.182"N, 123°22'16.460"W

heading: 313.11322033898307 degree

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current03:07, 27 January 2024Thumbnail for version as of 03:07, 27 January 20242,608 × 3,971 (4.96 MB)IOHANNVSVERVSUploaded own work with UploadWizard
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