Canadians attend memorials for Vimy Ridge centennial

Though there are no surviving veterans who fought at Vimy Ridge, Canadians across the country are making sure their legacy is not forgotten on the battle’s centennial anniversary.

Those who were not among the 25,000 Canadians at the site of the battle in France on Sunday gathered in communities from coast to coast to remember those who risked or lost their lives in April 1917.

Debbie Ginter, 26, of Steinbach, Man., travelled to Ottawa’s Vimy ceremony because she said she couldn’t make it the ceremony in France.

She came to honour a man she never met, her great-grandfather Frederick Fox, who fought and survived Vimy — but not after experiencing unimaginable horror.

Like so many others, he’d been gassed and left. He was buried alive for four days before he was pulled from the mud. He would lose his right arm, but would return home to live another 41 years before dying in 1958.

Ginter knelt in silence under the clear blue sky at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, framed by limp flags on a windless morning.

She said more people of her generation need to remember the heroic sacrifices of those long gone.

“The selflessness that they had, the respect they had for each other, and just all the turmoil and the sacrifice that they’ve done, everything that they lost — it was all for this country that they never saw,” Ginter said.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna opened a sombre one-hour remembrance at the National War Memorial under clear blue skies. The battle, she said, marked “our coming of age as a country.”

In Toronto, dozens of people gathered at the cenotaph at Old City Hall, where wreaths were laid.

“Vimy was the first time where Canada really came together as a nation to accomplish something important,” said 15-yearold Abe Arafat, who delivered the poem La Rose et le Reseda at the Toronto ceremony. “So, although we’re celebrating Canada 150, it’s almost the 100th anniversary of the national sentiment.”