OTTAWA, ON, October 20, 2001 - The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Association will unveil a monument today at 10 a.m. at Rideau Falls on Sussex Drive to the Canadian Volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republicans who were opposing the "take-over" of the Spanish Republic by the forces of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in the late 1930s.

The unveiling will be in the presence of Her Excellency the Right Honourable , Governor General of Canada.

Cliff Chadderton, Chairman of the 39-member National Council of Veteran Associations (NCVA), will attend the unveiling as an indication of support for the gallant Canadians who fought in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.

Of the approximately 1,500 who joined the Battalion, approximately one-half never returned from the battlefields.

Mr. Chadderton has released the following statement in conjunction with this event:

I am privileged to pay tribute to fellow soldiers, many of whom died on the battlefields in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939.

They were fighting the same Nazis and Fascists who, less than a year later, were trying to kill my friends and me, who volunteered for the Canadian Forces in the Second World War.

As a veteran with combat experience, I can perceive no valid reason to withhold my admiration for these fellow soldiers, simply because of their reasons for joining the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, whatever they were. These Canadians were fighting on the democratic side against dictator Francisco Franco and his Phalangists who had decided to overthrow the democratic government of Spain.

I have long studied the makeup of the Mac-Pap Battalion. Admittedly, some were Communists. On the other hand, having lived through the Depression, I know that many were looking for a way out of the relief camps organized by the Government, for which they were paid 20 cents a day. Many were genuinely in the fray because they saw Mussolini and Hitler standing side by side with Franco. They recognized the evils of the Fascists who were planning, at that time, their assault on Britain and all democratic countries.

There were some, like those I fought alongside in World War II, who were seeking adventure and possibly a hero's death on the battlefield.

Although some politicians did indeed mount an unsuccessful campaign that they be seen as veterans and entitled to war veterans' benefits, the vast majority of the Mac-Paps simply wanted their place in history to be recorded.

It has been suggested that their sojourn to Spain was contrary to Canada's Foreign Enlistment Act, which prohibited Canadians from fighting against a "friendly" country. It was never decided, however, which side in the Spanish Civil War was "friendly," according to Canadian Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe. Their decision to risk their lives, notwithstanding, is an expression of the broad ideal of opposing dictatorship and fighting for what they thought was right.

The fact that the expense of bringing them home at the end of the war was borne by none other than the industrialist Garfield Weston and journalist Matthew Halton Sr. gave them a broad measure of legitimacy.

My tribute to them is from one soldier to another.