Thousands gather to honour Canada’s veterans.
Large crowd gathers under grey skies in Victory Square for B.C.’s largest Remembrance Day ceremony
Tears still come to her eyes when she remembers the way her brother looked in his uniform.
Watching the military parade at the Remembrance Day ceremony in downtown Vancouver on Saturday, Gail (she preferred not to give her last name) said she was a child in Montreal when her brother joined the Canadian military during the Second World War.
“I have a memory of standing at the window and seeing him come out in his uniform,” she said. “I was tempted not to come today because it looked like rain. But I live so close.”
Her brother was stationed in Canada during the war and eventually returned home. He died many years later, on a Nov. 11.
The woman was one of hundreds of people who gathered under grey skies to honour veterans of war at B.C.’s largest Remembrance Day ceremony. It was the 93rd year the event has been held at the cenotaph in Victory Square at West Hastings and Cambie Street.
The rain held off until 11 a.m. when two minutes of silence was observed followed by a 21-gun salute and a Royal Canadian Air Force flyby.
It has been 100 years since two key battles of the First World War took place. The Battle of Passchendaele, which happened in the fall of 1917, left more than 15,000 Canadians wounded or dead. Earlier, in April 1917, Canadian soldiers stormed Vimy Ridge.
The ceremony recognized Canada’s “honourable past,” but also emphasized more recent conflicts and veterans who have died since returning home.
Watching the ceremony with his two-year-old daughter, Erika, was Maple Ridge’s Cory Larson. Both his great-grandfathers fought in the Second World War. One did not return.
“I came to pay my respects,” he said. “It’s important for me to teach my daughter.”