COLUMN: Viewpoint – Oak trees

When I traveled to Ukraine to find the birthplaces of my husband’s parents and my grandparents, I saw an ancient oak tree, which served as a gathering place and an important symbol for Mennonites who lived in the Chortitza area of Ukraine for some 140 years. Acorns from that oak came to Canada with Mennonite immigrants seeking freedom from oppression, and with their descendants who visited Ukraine to explore their heritage. Those acorns were planted across our country and have grown into mature trees. One such oak is at Steinbach’s Mennonite Heritage Village Museum.

Perhaps because an oak tree is an important touchstone in the history of my own people, I listened with great interest when Prime Minister Mark Carney referenced the symbolic nature of oaks several times in his speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France a week ago.

Mr. Carney talked about First World War lieutenant, Leslie Miller, who fought at Vimy Ridge in France. That battle claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Canadian soldiers and injured 10,000 more. Lieutenant Miller gathered acorns from Vimy Ridge oaks, took them back to Canada, and planted them in Milliken, Ont., where they grew into a splendid forest. A century later, grafts from those oaks were taken to France, to plant again on Vimy Ridge. Mr. Carney said that story was symbolic of the partnership between Canada and Europe. “Seeds, values, ideas, trade, people and progress carried back and forth across the Atlantic for centuries.”

Mr. Carney also described an oak in Germany that came to be known as Goethe’s Tree because the famed poet, who hugely influenced Western literature, politics, religion and philosophy often walked in the forested area where that tree stood.

That forest was felled to build Buchenwald, a Nazi concentration camp, but Goethe’s Tree was saved, because of its importance to German history and culture. It stood in the centre of the camp and was said to have served as a hanging tree for prisoners. However the tree burned when the camp was hit by Allied bombers near the end of the Second World War. Mr. Carney said Goethe taught us through his writings that ideals like freedom do not defend themselves. They must be earned every single day just as they were earned in 1945 when Hitler was defeated.

Mr. Carney talked about oak trees again when he explained some of the ‘storms’ our world is facing- “the erosion of democratic norms, the upheaval of climate change and the weaponization of trade.” He spoke about the current challenges trying to protect the sovereignty of nations, protect children from the spread of disinformation by technology, and protect economies when integration is used as a weapon, tariffs as leverage and supply chains as mechanisms to be exploited for coercion.

Mr. Carney said the combination of all these things was creating a ferocious storm that could easily fell a single tree but couldn’t destroy a forest. That’s because underneath a forest floor the roots of oak trees intertwine with those of their neighbours, giving them sustenance, strength and resilience.

Mr. Carney used that metaphor to describe how Canada and the European Union can combine forces to create an anchor that will maintain our values and provide a protective canopy, just as a forest does, a canopy under which both Canadian and European citizens can flourish.

I appreciated Mr. Carney’s use of the oak tree as a metaphor in his speech to the European Parliament. For me, it made his remarks more interesting, more accessible, and more relatable, especially given my Mennonite heritage and its connection to a symbolic oak.