Pays Plat retired Canadian Armed Forces Corporal a role model for Indigenous youth

By Rick Garrick

PAYS PLAT — Pays Plat Councillor Raymond Goodchild recently jumped at the opportunity to be a role model for Indigenous youth as one of about 49 Canadians featured in Veterans Affairs Canada’s Faces of Freedom online stories. The stories are posted on the Veterans Affairs Canada website.

“I wanted to ensure our First Nations people are represented and to ensure that we have role modelling for our youth in the future,” says Corporal (Retired) Goodchild, who served in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) from 1979-1983. “I would like to help them succeed in their life — I hope they go on to reach their future goals, whether it’s in the military or some other career.”

Goodchild says he was contacted in early August by Veterans Affairs to see if he was interested in being interviewed about his military service for National Peacekeepers’ Day, which is held on the Sunday closest to Aug. 9.

“I said, ‘Sure.’ I went overseas for six months with the United Nations peacekeeping tour of duty [in Cyprus],” Goodchild says, noting he was one of more than 25,000 CAF personnel who served in Cyprus since 1964. “I had ambivalence — I had fear and courage at the same time. It was quite the mixed feelings for me when I was on the green line for the [Greek and Turkish Cypriots] buffer zone.”

Canada has lost 28 CAF peacekeepers over the years in Cyprus.

“It was very different, a different world, a complete change in what I saw in Canada,” Goodchild says about Cyprus. “It was a learning experience, seeing the people, the housing. The food was different, even the sea was different. It was the first time I saw a sea — that was something.”

Goodchild says he enjoyed his five years with the CAF, noting his experience helped him grow in many ways.

“It helped me develop organization skills, facilitation skills, and it helped me strategize in my life how to do things, how to plan,” Goodchild says. “It helped me to basically analyze and strategize and it helped me to have a critical mind for thinking.”

Goodchild says he still recalls his time in the CAF when he sees military equipment going by on the highway or as he exercises during his walks at night.

“It reminds me of when we used to do long marches with our gear, with 60-pound packs on and marching during the night along a road during my training and getting ready to go outside on patrols in the countryside,” Goodchild says. “When I hear a helicopter flying by, I look up there and I say: ‘I remember training on those helicopters.’ Or I see an armoured personnel carrier going by on the highway and I say: ‘I used to drive those big armoured personnel carriers in training with the British when they had their machinery here.’”

Goodchild says he travelled across Canada and the United States as well as to Germany during his five years with the CAF.

“It was a very interesting life for a young Native man from a small First Nation,” Goodchild says.

Goodchild encourages youth to complete their Grade 12 and to pursue their education and career goals.

“One of the things I’ve learned from our Elders is never give up, always persevere,” Goodchild says. “Always keep trying in life.”

The Faces of Freedom stories also feature a story about Couchiching citizen Mary McPherson, from Treaty #3 territory, whose artwork on the Royal Canadian Mint’s silver 20-dollar coin that marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Scheldt was inspired by her late uncle Rifleman Rudolph McPherson, who was killed in action during the Second World War.