The 62nd Field Artillery Regiment, RCA (french: 62^e Régiment d'artillerie de campagne, ARC) is a militia unit of the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

that has its own

military band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the tit ...

and is located in

Shawinigan Shawinigan () is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It had a population of 49,349 as of the 2016 Canadian census. Shawinigan is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) an ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It recruits primarily in Shawinigan,

Joliette Joliette is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of Greate ...

and

Victoriaville Victoriaville is a town in central Quebec, Canada, on the Nicolet River. Victoriaville is the seat of Arthabaska Regional County Municipality and a part of the Centre-du-Québec (Bois-Francs) region. It is formed by the 1993 merger of Arthabask ...

Origin

Its oldest and most notable subunit is the 81st Field Artillery Battery, which was founded in the

Eastern Townships The Eastern Townships (french: Cantons de l'Est) is an historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, Canada. It lies between the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border, and extends from Granby in the southwest, to Drummondv ...

in 1912 and relocated in Shawinigan,

Mauricie Mauricie () is a traditional and current administrative region of Quebec. La Mauricie National Park is contained within the region, making it a prime tourist location. The region has a land area of 35,860.05 km² (13,845.64 sq mi) and a popu ...

in 1936.

World War II

The battery was called to active duty during World War II. Its members were trained in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1944. In 1944-45, the 81st Battery contributed to the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

' effort in the

Normandy Landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, which led to the Liberation of France.

Anti-aircraft Unit

In 1946-48, members of the Shawinigan-based C Company of the Régiment de Joliette joined those of the 81st Battery to form the 62nd Regiment. From that moment until 1961, the newly formed unit served in an

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

capacity.

Field artillery

Since 1961, the regiment has been a field artillery unit. Its equipment consists of 105 mm towed howitzers. Its armoury is currently located at 5315 Boulevard Royal, Shawinigan. A substantial number of the 62nd Regiment

reservist A reservist is a person who is a member of a military reserve force. They are otherwise civilians, and in peacetime have careers outside the military. Reservists usually go for training on an annual basis to refresh their skills. This person is ...

s attend Collège Shawinigan. Every year on

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ...

weekend, members of the regiment gather near the Monument des Braves

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

and conduct a ceremony to commemorate soldiers who died on the field of honour. They also parade in the streets of downtown Shawinigan and Grand-Mère.

Contributions since World War II

Even though the 62nd Regiment has not served in active duty since World War II, it provided personnel for a number of operations, including: * United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP); * the

Oka Crisis The Oka Crisis (french: links=no, Crise d'Oka), also known as the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance (), was a land rights, land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 day ...

Montérégie Montérégie () is an administrative region in the southwest part of Quebec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Châteauguay, Longueuil, Saint-Hyacinthe, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Vaudreuil-Dorion. The ...

; * United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in

Former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

; * the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) *Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...

Well-known members

Well-known members of the regiment are: * Gabriel Chrétien, brother of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...

; *

Jacques Duchesneau Jacques Duchesneau, (born February 7, 1949) is a Canadian politician, civil servant, former chief of police, and former president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. Duchesneau was the member of the Q ...

Chief of Police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

of the

Montreal Urban Community The Montreal Urban Community (MUC) (''Communauté Urbaine de Montréal'' – ''CUM'') was a regional government in Quebec, Canada, that covered all municipalities located on the Island of Montreal and the islands of L'Île-Dorval and Île ...

from 1994 to 1998 and Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment since 2005; *

Gérard Dufresne F. Gérard Dufresne, (1918 – 27 January 2013 ) was a well-known local politician and a military officer in Shawinigan, Quebec. Born in East Angus, Quebec, Estrie, Eastern Townships in 1918, he got a degree from the Shawinigan Technical Institu ...

, Mayor of Shawinigan from 1963 to 1966 and Honorary Colonel of the regiment from 1966 to 2005; *

Yves Duhaime Yves Duhaime (born May 27, 1939) is a former politician in Quebec, Canada. He served as Cabinet Member and Member of the National Assembly of Quebec. Early life Duhaime was born in Chicoutimi, and grew up in Shawinigan. In the 1960s, Duhaime ...

, Provincial

Cabinet Member This is a list of the offices of heads of state, heads of government, cabinet, and legislature, of sovereign states. Date of Origin refers to most recent fundamental change in form of government, for example independence, change from absolute ...

from

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

; * Jean-Pierre Frigon, history teacher at

Saint-Tite Saint-Tite is a town in the province of Quebec, Canada, north of Trois-Rivières, in the Mékinac Regional County Municipality (RCM) and in the Mauricie administrative region. In the 19th Century, the Batiscanie economy was mainly founded on f ...

's Paul-Le Jeune High School and recipient of the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

; *

Antonio Lamer Joseph Antonio Charles Lamer (July 8, 1933 – November 24, 2007) was a Canadian lawyer, jurist and the 16th Chief Justice of Canada. Career Lamer practised in partnership at the firm of Cutler, Lamer, Bellemare and Associates and was a full ...

(1933–2007),

Chief Justice of Canada The chief justice of Canada (french: juge en chef du Canada) is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court sy ...

from 1990 to 2000 and Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment from 1992 to 1998; *

native Yannick Pépin (1973–2009), who reached the rank of Master Bombardier with the 62nd Regiment in the 1990s, before joining the

5 Combat Engineer Regiment 5 Combat Engineer Regiment (French: ''5e Régiment du genie de combat'') is a regular combat engineer unit of the Canadian Forces stationed at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier in Quebec. 5 CER is the only Canadian combat engineer regiment operat ...

(Major Pépin died in the line of duty while commanding a unit in the

); Yanick Poisson, Victoriaville rendra hommage au major Yannick Pépin, La Tribune, September 15, 2009
/ref> *

Ben Weider Benjamin Weider, (1 February 1923 – 17 October 2008) was a Canadian soldier, author, historian (Napoleonic history), fitness proponent, benefactor of the arts, and entrepreneur. He co-founded the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFB ...

(1923–2008), Co-founder of the

International Federation of BodyBuilders The International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness (IFBB), headquartered in Las Rozas (Madrid), is an international professional sports governing body for bodybuilding and fitness that oversees many of the sport's major international event ...

(IFBB), Jewish businessman from Montreal and Honorary Colonel of the regiment from 2005 until his death in 2008.

Footnotes

Precedence

{{s-end Field artillery regiments of Canada Shawinigan Military units and formations established in 1961