Barely 55 years after the crash of Canairelief aircraft CF-NAJ, which was used to transport medicine and relief materials into Biafra (Eastern Nigeria) during the Nigerian civil war, a dedication service, unveiling of a memorial plaque and a grand reception in memory of the aircrew will hold at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Toronto (corner of King and Simcoe Streets) on May 11, 2024 starting from 12pm.
The event will also feature the screening of a documentary film, entitled, “Operation Lights Out: The Story of Canairelief.”
Canairelief was started by a Canadian team of Oxfam Canada, the Presbyterian Church and Jewish entities, which came together in 1969 to organise the flying in of relief materials to save the starving and malnourished people of Eastern Nigeria (Biafra) during the civil war.
They were later joined by the Canadian Catholic Organisation for Development and Peace, the United Church, the Anglican Church, Save the Children, Caritas and countless individuals.
According to Richard W. Fee, “Canairelief was unique, but it led us forward into the coalition model which defined Canadian social justice for decades following.”
In a letter of invitation to the May 11, 2024 event, Fee said: “It has been said in humanitarian and social justice academia that, “Biafra was the beginning.” Indeed, most of the international refugee and emergency relief protocols and standards were forged during the tumultuous days of the Nigerian Civil War.
“While the Red Cross negotiated each flight with a federal military government, and various nations sought to collaborate with the same military government, it was the churches and interfaith bodies who ultimately banded together to form ‘Joint Church Aid.’ They established what became the largest civilian airlift in history to break the impasse to provide aid to two million displaced persons in the land-locked enclave.”
He said that the dedication service and unveiling of a plaque became necessary “to honour the memory of the heroic aircrew who died serving in the Biafran airlift. Europeans, Americans and Canadian aircrews risked death nightly, under the threat of bombing, to fly medicine and food into Biafra. On behalf of Canadians, these men sacrificed their lives to save those most vulnerable caught in a vicious civil war.”
Fee said his research for the documentary film, “Operation Lights Out: The Story of Canairelief,” led him to “meet the families of the four Canadian aircrew who died when their aircraft crashed on August 3, 1969. Their first flight of two – or possibly three – that night was to deliver close to 20 tons of salt and stock fish.
“I was astonished to learn that there is no memorial to this Canairelief aircrew who died during the Biafran airlift, no remembrance in Nigeria nor in Canada of their selfless sacrifice. In fact, the men’s families were given few, if any, details about the crash and local burial. The heroism of their loved ones has gone unrecognised by Canadians. Silence surrounded the families as they grieved for First Officer Raymond Levesque (aged 27, born in Gaspé, Québec); Load Master Gary Libbus (aged 29, born in Sydney, Nova Scotia); Captain Donald Merriam (aged 49, born in Norwich, Ontario) and Flight Engineer Vincent Wakeling (aged 37, born in Brantford, Ontario).”
He revealed that the documentary film, “Operation Lights Out: The Story of Canairelief” by director Angela Onuora “provides a testimony to a remarkable Canadian, civilian-led, life-saving initiative. Forty-nine Canadian employees ran this airline from the island of Sao Tome using five Super Constellation aircraft, flying nightly into the land-locked enclave of break-away Biafra.
“It operated as the only Canadian agency in a large coalition of churches and religious organisations known as Joint Church Aid. It is estimated that during the two-and-half year Nigerian Civil War, the Biafran Airlift saved more than a million lives; the majority were children and women.
“Canairelief is credited with flying over 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid into Biafra between its first flight on January 23,1969 and the end of the war on January 10, 1970.”
Expected at the May 11 event in Canada are several family members of the deceased aircrew, including Captain Lajos (Louie) Gyarmathy, the last living pilot of Canairelief, and Mrs. Hazel McGraw, a relief worker who was flown out of Biafra on the last flight.
