Tuesday, November 10, 2026

Remembrance Day, The Freedom to Choose, and the Value of Work

By Kristine Cavey, Representative

Remembrance Day is upon us, a time to pause and reflect on what was, what was lost, and what might have been had it not been for the sacrifice of so many.

For me, Remembrance Day is a time to reflect on the freedoms I enjoy today. Those freedoms can become easy to overlook because they are part of everyday life. We wake up, go to work, make plans, care for our families, pursue education, change jobs, build relationships, and look ahead to the future.

But these ordinary choices are not ordinary everywhere, and they have not always been possible.

I am Filipino, born in the Philippines. My grandparents spent some of their childhoods living through the Japanese occupation during World War II. I can remember sitting safely in my living room at my grandmother Lola's feet, listening to stories both terrifying and tragic: stories like running for safety in the middle of the night. She was around 12 years old when the country was invaded in December 1941. The occupation continued until the Philippines was liberated in 1945. While a timeline can tell us when the occupation began and ended, it cannot fully describe what those years meant for a family living through them.

War reaches into the home. It affects ordinary life, disrupting the kitchen, the classroom, the workplace, and the family budget. Families are separated, displaced, or forced to make decisions based on immediate survival rather than long-term plans. Food becomes harder to find. Prices rise. Money loses value. Transportation and communication become unreliable. Schools, businesses, homes, hospitals, and public services can be damaged or destroyed.

The Philippines emerged from the war with enormous loss of life, widespread destruction, shortages, inflation, and a long road to economic recovery.

For families like mine, work during those years ceased to be just a career or a means of getting ahead. It became essential to survival. The question was no longer, "What occupation will allow me to grow?" but "How can I find food, protect my family, and preserve something for tomorrow?" The ordinary rewards of work—security, savings, education, a home, and the ability to plan for the next generation—could be swept away by forces beyond anyone’s control.

This is why, on Remembrance Day, I find myself reflecting on the value of work.

Work is more than a livelihood. For many, it provides purpose, structure, independence, dignity, and the ability to support their families and communities.

Of course, a job is not automatically fair, safe, secure, or meaningful. But the ability to pursue opportunities, develop our abilities, and have a voice in our workplace is an important part of living freely.

That freedom is not only individual. It can also be exercised collectively.

Through unions like CLAC, workers come together to have a greater voice in decisions that affect their lives. They can work toward safer workplaces, fair treatment, reasonable compensation, training opportunities, and respect on the job. Collective representation does not remove every difficulty, but it helps ensure workers are not left to face workplace challenges alone.

In this way, freedom is linked to the dignity of work. It means more than the ability to earn a living. It means having the opportunity to work safely, be treated fairly, develop your skills, and help shape the conditions under which you work.

Whatever our political beliefs, religious traditions, or personal backgrounds, we can recognize a common truth: the consequences of war often endure long after the fighting ends.

In the Philippines, liberation in 1945 did not mean life immediately returned to normal. Homes and businesses still needed to be rebuilt. Food and employment remained difficult to secure. Public institutions and infrastructure required years of repair. Independence came in 1946, but recovery continued for many years afterward.

That history, my history, reminds me that freedom is not simply the absence of occupation or oppression. It is also the presence of possibility: the ability to learn, work, provide, organize, serve, and build a future.

However we define it, freedom rests on a simple principle: people should have the opportunity to make meaningful choices about their lives and work.

This Remembrance Day, I am grateful to those who served, those who sacrificed, and those who did not return. I am also mindful of the families and civilians whose lives were forever changed by war. Remembrance is not about glorifying conflict. It is about acknowledging its human cost, honouring those who carried that cost, and refusing to take peace and freedom for granted.

As we observe Remembrance Day, my hope is that we take a moment to recognize what freedom makes possible: the freedom to choose a path, to work toward a better future, to stand with others, and to build something that can outlast us.

Lest we forget those who sacrificed to protect these freedoms, and our responsibility to preserve them for future generations.

Remembrance Day, The Freedom to Choose, and the Value of Work

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