Watchdog: How one bullet came to define the modern world through war

On June 28, 1914 that bullet was used to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in the city of Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip.

Princip was a Bosnian Serb and the assassination was part of an attempt to free Serbia and other nations from Austrian domination.

That assassination led directly to the First World War as Austria-Hungary declared a war of retribution on Serbia a month later.

That began the fall of political dominos that brought nearly all of the European powers into military conflict in a matter of days.

In my own family’s history, the story goes that my grandfather, who was working for a butcher, closed up shop to enlist as soon as he heard that war had been declared.

He was rejected for service due to a childhood injury and when he came back to the shop the owner fired him on the spot.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
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He went home dejected, but my grandmother saw it as an opportunity for him to finally open his own butcher shop, which he did.

As a result he prospered and after the war he came to have several stores, one of which was at Pape and Cosburn avenues and the other at Danforth and Woodbine avenues.

The effects of that bullet did not change the life of just my grandfather, but came to define Canada as a nation.

Canada mobilized 620,000 people of whom 67,000 were killed and 250,000 were injured.

It was during the battle of Neuve Chapelle, the Second Battle of Ypres, and the Battles of the Somme, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele that the modern Canadian identity came to be forged.

The impact upon Europe, and indeed the world, by that conflict was indeed catastrophic in its scope.

The total number of military and civilian casualties was over 37 million, with 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded.

The turmoil of that ghastly war would not end as it only planted the seeds for the Second World War.

That global conflict resulted in a death toll that has been estimated to be between 60 to 85 million, of which 38 to 55 million were civilians.

Again, all of that death and destruction is traceable back to one single bullet fired from a gun 100 years ago this week.

Yet, due to the Second World War my parents met and married and out of that relationship came me.

This year is definitely a time to reflect and remember the history and sacrifices made 100 years ago that begins this week.

I will mark special events in my columns and link them to our community today.

The truth is that each one of us has been touched by some event triggered by that fateful bullet, which came to form and shape the modern world as we know it.

Lest we forget.