Canadians say Remembrance Day is as relevant as ever

Events are being held across the city and country today to mark Remembrance Day.

Near the memorial a separate display featured wooden crosses, in a container of sand, inscribed with personal tributes to individuals lost in the war and photographs of more recently-lost loved ones.

Strong winds saw a Canadian flag over the cenotaph flapping wildly, keeping the maple leaf and all it signifies in the minds of many.

For numerous top dignitaries present – Trudeau, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr and Chief of Defence Staff Jonathan Vance among them – it was their first such ceremony in their current roles.

We take a moment today to remember all of those sacrifices, and the many more besides. Certainly it reflects upon the poem In Flanders Fields. The grandiose ceremonies that honour the military assume that soldiers are off fighting wars that are necessary for the USA or Canada to survive, that without their sacrifices we would succumb to attacks from terrorist organizations and the like. Individually, there is a blood colour to them.

Representing The Second Battalion, Parachute Regiment, was 68-year-old Ray Anderson from Kingston Park; standing next to Cyril Coxon, from Blakelaw, who had served with The Royal Scots, 15th Highland division.

Oakville resident Marianne Hawthorne and her sister Renate Van Der Griend of Montreal laid a wreath prior to the ceremony on behalf of the people of the Netherlands.

Numerous men who fought Hitler’s armies are in their mid-90s. “I have visited their graves”, he said. She said the people there show no signs of forgetting Canada anytime soon. Veterans were asked to identify themselves by wearing their medals, beret, blazer, uniform or other similar belongings while traveling. This is the primary reason for condemning the military on Remembrance Day, but there is also another perverse aspect hidden from the celebrations: the disgraceful treatment of soldiers and veterans by the state.

“I did lose a few good friends in Afghanistan”. “It means so much to me”.

Thornbury Town Band were also in attendance, but not marching, playing for the both service at the memorial and in the church.

Anderson’s son, Corp. Jordan Anderson, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2007.

Victoria-Beacon Hill NDP MLA Carole James shed a tear during the vigil, remembering that her grandfather from England, who fought in the Second World War, took his painful stories of being a prisoner of war to the grave.