Rick Janson Art Studio

I don’t really do pastoral images largely because it is not my lived experience. I’m an urban dweller, and most of the places I like to visit are urban. I decided almost immediately that I would paint this image not because of what was in front of me, but because of what was immediately behind me. They appear related.

In 2002 we met up in the predawn hours near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to take a tour of Juno Beach in Normandy, the battleground where the Canadian forces came ashore on D-Day. There were many people waiting for buses that morning in Paris on one of the spokes leading to the Arc, most of them Amercians headed for Omaha Beach. Only six of us boarded a passenger van headed for Juno.

It was quiet that day, not a surprise given the reminder of the sacrifice these young men made to rid Europe of an axis of fascist regimes that had terrorized so many people. It was hard to imagine the noise of battle as they stormed ashore given all we could hear at the beach that day in 2022 was the wind and waves. Nearby there was a group of windsurfers preparing to go out.

We visited the beach, saw what became known as “Canada House,” the first building captured by any Allied forces on D-Day. We saw the impressive museum erected by Canada and toured the remains of a German bunker. We took in one of the peaceful war cemeteries and shown the furthest point inland any Allied force had gotten to on that day — the Canadians achieve stealth and speed by bringing their bicycles.

The last stop of the day was at the Abbaye d’Ardenne on the outskirts of Caen. When we got our of the van, the first thing I saw was this pastoral scene with the cows. When I turned I saw the Abbaye and a stone wall holding the pictures and names of 20 Canadian soldiers who had been executed at that spot by SS Colonel Kurt Meyer. According to Veteran’s Affairs, 156 Canadian prisoners had been executed by the 12th SS Panzer Division during the Normandy invasion.

Meyer was eventually put on trial for his war crimes. He was sentenced to death, but that was commuted to life in prison. Meyer only served eight years before being released in 1954. He died seven years later. Our tour guide thought the Canadians were far too lenient with Meyer given what he had done.

As unthinkable as this atrocity was, I kept drawing back to the cows, thinking perhaps this was the dividend for ridding Europe of fascism and all the fear that came with it. Despite being close to Caen, it was very quiet. It was what peace looked like. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

Curiously, as the world experiences new war crimes, crimes against humanity and cases of genocide, the Trump administration is trying to undermine the International Criminal Court in the Hague by imposing steep sanctions on judges and prosecutors and urging countries to withdraw from participating with it. In today’s New York Times article on the Trump sanctions, they quote Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge, who has been targeted by Washington’s sanctions on the Hague: “You lose immediate access to all the main credit cards that go through the Swift system, which is controlled by the US,” she said. “My Amazon and Google Accounts were closed. You cannot pay for your utilities, your subscriptions. You’re completely crippled when it comes to booking hotels, trains, flights. You can’t buy dollars because your name is flagged.”

The US has never recognized the court, and last summer threatened legal penalties to two New York law professors in order to pressure them to abandon their association with the international court. At present the ICC has outstanding warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The trial of former Philippines strongman Rodrigo Duterte is about to begin soon, according to the Times.

The generation that stormed the beaches of Normandy are few now, most having passed away. But the world now faces a new threat of fascism, not just in the US, but in countries throughout the world. Is this the end of the peace?

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