Crowd at Remembrance Day told sacrifice message ‘worth repeating’
On the centennial of defining Canadian battles at Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, more than 1,000 people crowded around the Windsor cenotaph Saturday morning for “a message worth repeating” at this year’s Remembrance Day gathering.
“A ceremony like this is about repeating things,” Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky told the crowd on a cold but sunny Saturday morning. “It’s about sharing those stories, talking about our veterans, talking about the sacrifices they made so that we can gather like this.”
Gretzky, among a number of politicians invited to speak at the ceremony, said she was hesitant at first to repeat something she had already said just the previous day at a remembrance gathering at the Windsor Jewish Community Centre.
But it’s only by repeating the stories of the sacrifices made by the men and women who went before them, she said, that future generations will understand them.
Gretzky encouraged veterans to continue to share their stories so they will be remembered.
As nearby seated veterans and their families watched, wreath after wreath was laid at the foot of the Windsor Cenotaph. Some sat in wheelchairs with poppy blankets covering their legs and others held Canadian flags. Three Canadian Historical Aircraft Association planes flew overhead passes as the solemn ceremony was conducted below.
Watching for the first time was Rita Rousseau, who dressed in five layers and covered herself in blankets to attend in her wheelchair. She said she is usually not able to get to the ceremony, but out of respect for friends who have a son named Kevin in the Canadian Armed Forces, she decided to head to the Cenotaph in her motorized wheelchair.
Rousseau said she was impressed with the crowd, “the amount of people that are here showing respect for the past and the present and future generations.”
Cathy Dufour, a cousin of Windsor Cpl. Andrew Grenon, who died serving in Afghanistan in 2008, said it means a lot to see such a large crowd. Some people stood on the courthouse steps across the street from the Cenotaph to capture a better view of the ceremony next to city hall.
“It just means that people, they respect and they care and no one’s ever going to forget what any of these heroes have done for us and our country and the world,” Dufour said. Grenon’s mother, Theresa Charbonneau, laid the first wreath at the foot of the Windsor Cenotaph as this year’s Silver Cross Mother.
Windsor West MP Brian Masse told those gathered to wear a poppy with humility and pride. “Wear it with humility for the freedom that you, your family, your neighbours have, an unconditional gift to you from people you may not have even known, that can never be repaid. But the dignity and integrity of that gift can be shown through the poppy,” Masse said.
Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac represented the City of Windsor as Mayor Drew Dilkens was in Ypres, Belgium, for a Remembrance Day ceremony there on the centennial of Passchendaele. This year was also the 75th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid which claimed the lives of many soldiers from Windsor.