Tribute ‘continues unbroken’
Remembrance Day at cenotaph scaled back due to pandemic
The crack of cannon fire and the mournful notes of a lone bugle echoed through the streets of downtown St. Catharines Wednesday morning, marking Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Memorial Park cenotaph.
But despite the significance of the day — held during the 75th anniversary year of the end of the Second World War — there were fewer people gathered to participate in the ceremony than ever before.
“Last year we were here in the midst of a snowstorm with 1,000-plus people,” said Mayor Walter Sendzik.
This year as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, participation in the ceremony in St. Catharines was limited and community members were urged to watch it from the comfort and safety of their homes, broadcast live on social media, radio and on cable television.
For the first time ever, the parade that would typically start the ceremony in the city was cancelled as well.
“Since the opening of Memorial Park here in St. Catharines in 1927, I don’t think there has been a Remembrance Day where there have been so few people gathered in person to pay respect and honour those who have fought for our freedoms,” Sendzik said.
“This is not because we have forgotten, because we will never forget the soldiers. But rather it is because the collective we in our community are trying to do our best to protect our family friends and neighbours from a virus that we know can kill, can harm, and we know can overwhelm our health-care system if it spreads into our community.”
He said the scaled-down ceremony was a result of a leadership role taken by local branches of the Royal Canadian Legion, wanting to protect the community while giving people alternative ways to observe Nov. 11, “to ensure the act of remembrance continues unbroken in St. Catharines.”
Sendzik read from the diary of First World War veteran Jack Hardy, about the influenza pandemic that claimed millions of lives as that war ended.
“Jack’s entries are illustrative of how much soldiers had to endure as they fought to protect our freedoms that we have come to enjoy today. It captures the ravages of the virus that killed millions of people around the world, as well,” he said.
Sendzik also acknowledged Second World War veteran
Jack Morris, who died in June at the age of 102.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, he said, the dispatch rider did not receive “a send-off worthy of his contributions to our country and community.”
“From spending time with Jack, his reflections of the war as a dispatch rider in France illustrated the perils of war, the harrowing accounts, the near misses and the in his words the loss of friends that bore weight on his shoulders for the rest of his life.”
Chuck Page — a Second World War pilot who flew 19 missions into enemy territory before being shot down and captured by the Germans — celebrated his 100th birthday this summer by walking every day for 100 days to raise funds for Hotel Dieu Shaver hospital.
“Seventy-five years after coming home from war, Chuck found a new way to give back to his hometown,” Sendzik said.
“He spent two harrowing years as a prisoner of war. When Chuck returned home with his older brother in 1945, he learned that his mother had passed away during the war of cancer.”