EXHIBITION RECEPTION: Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas

Join us for a reception to celebrate Founders’ Gallery’s latest exhibition: Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas.
This new exhibition provides a rare and candid look at the realities faced by Canada’s Reserve soldiers when serving abroad. Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas spans four decades of peacekeeping, training, and war, from the 1970s – 2000s.

The exhibition revolves around a feature-length documentary film made by Colonel Michael Vernon (Retired) including interviews with troops and operational footage. Seen alongside weapons and artefacts from the frontlines, augmented with stories of service and sacrifice, the exhibits offer an insider’s perspective on how deployed Reserve Forces fulfill the same duties as Regular Forces.

Set against today’s era of geo-political upheaval and pressures on a rules-based order of international law, Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas provides a timely look at the critical value of Canada’s Reserve Forces during a period of expanded recruitment and rearmament.

Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas
Founders’ Gallery, The Military Museums
Oct 1 - Jan 3, 2027

ABOUT THE FILM MAKER: COLONEL MICHAEL VERNON (RETIRED)

Michael (Mike) Vernon was raised in a military family. He studied English literature at Royal Military College and Dalhousie University, and was commissioned in the Regular Force, serving with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

After nine years in the army Mike switched to journalism and in 1994 covered the war in Croatia as a freelance reporter, before joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He then worked as a television news producer and video journalist for Newsworld and CBC TV Calgary. In 2002 Mike reported from the War in Afghanistan, returning in 2010 as a Reserve Force officer with the Calgary Highlanders.

In 2011 Mike produced the video documentary Desert Lions: Canadian Forces Mentors in Kandahar, followed in 2017 by Deployed: Canadian Army Reservists Overseas. Mike also taught journalism at Mount Royal University for sixteen years, retiring in 2025. He lives in Comox, BC with his wife Sherri.

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