Yukon-based WW II veteran, 98, awarded highest national order of France

A Yukon-based Second World War veteran received a prestigious French honour on Wednesday.

Retired lance-corporal Joseph Novak, 98, who served with the Canadian Army Service Corps during the Second World War, was made a knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour Wednesday. The order was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is the highest decoration in France.

Nicolas Baudouin, consul general of France in Vancouver, and Gen. Benoît Puga, grand chancellor of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, presented the award on behalf of the president of France at the Whitehorse Legion on Wednesday. Puga flew from France with his wife to do so.

"I appreciated it and I was more amazed than ever that he was sending a general from France … to present me with that medal," Novak said in an interview with CBC News.

The order is a symbol of "the profound gratitude that France wishes to express" to Novak, a news release announcing the honour said.

Novak said he felt more like a "keeper" of the medal than an owner, "in the name of all the veterans, from east to west, north to south, and especially for the veterans of the Aboriginal nation who volunteered their services."

"Because thanks to them, most people are free. And we are enjoying that extended freedom."

Novak felt it was his 'duty to join' the military

Novak is of Polish descent but was born in Montreal. He was just 16 years old when the Second World War began in 1939. He enlisted with the Canadian military at age 20 and said he felt it was his "duty to join." 

"I was so happy to be living in Canada, a free country where you could go wherever you want, do what you want, say what you want. And I felt very badly for all the people [in] France and Belgium and Holland," he said.

Novak was assigned to various roles while with the army.

He landed in Normandy, France, on June 9, 1944 — three days after D-Day, when thousands of American, British and Canadian soldiers brought overwhelming force to liberate France from the German army. It remains the largest sea invasion in history and included 14,000 Canadian soldiers.

Novak was very close to the fighting. He subsequently made his way through France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

After the war and back in Canada, he spent 73 years married to his wife, living in Montreal for most of that time, raising their two sons.

Novak moved to Whitehorse in 2006. Recently, he gave away a large part of his estate to the Yukon Hospital Foundation and to a scholarship fund at Yukon University, meant to benefit a multitude of Indigenous students pursuing journalism, "reminding us that reconciliation is a multigenerational process," according to a short biography he submitted.

'Deepest gratitude'

French officials said they have been actively seeking veterans like Novak to honour. Puga said in the last 15 years, France has awarded about 1,400 Canadian veterans who served in France during the Second World War.

"It's very important for the French government and especially for the president of the French Republic, to express his deepest gratitude for what our comrades and fellows from the Canadian Army did for us," Puga said.

"We need to pay tribute for those guys who went to defend us, in countries they have never been in, and [for] people they have never met."

Puga also said it sends a positive message of "nice exemplary of behaviour" to the younger generations.

"We never know what could happen in the forthcoming future. We don't know what could be the security situation," he said.

For Novak, the medal serves as a reminder of what happened during that war.

And, he said it's important for veterans to remind others of the contributions Canada made, so that it's never forgotten.

"We're all in the high 90s [in age]. We're gonna disappear one by one," he said. "And one day, there will be nobody to bring this up to [remind] the people of Canada what it means to be free."