VETERANS RAISE THE FLAG
Sunnybrook is last stop for Invictus Games banner before it rises over downtown
Richard Ratcliffe, a Korean War veteran, waves the Invictus Games flag during a ceremony Thursday at Sunnybrook hospital. He’s flanked by Second World War vets Mac Joyner and Jean Vanwart.
When Second World War veteran Jean Vanwart hoisted the Invictus flag, it was in remembrance of her service in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.
“I enjoyed being in the CWAC and I enjoyed being a driver,” Vanwart said. “And I saw so many things that I would never have seen if I hadn’t joined the Forces.”
But Thursday morning at the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre, there was one person she really wanted to see.
“I was also sad that I didn’t see Prince Harry, but I guess he’s got other interests around,” Vanwart joked.
Mac Joyner, a Royal Canadian Air Force veteran of the Second World War and Richard Ratcliffe, a Royal Canadian Navy veteran of the Korean War, joined Vanwart as veteran bearers of the Invictus flag Thursday.
The national flag tour has visited 22 Canadian Armed Forces bases, 15 legions and more than 50 Canadian communities.
The tour began Aug. 16 and will end Friday at Nathan Phillips Square.
Vanwart, who was born in 1919 in Quebec and now resides at the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre, said she appreciates what Prince Harry has done with the Invictus Games.
“I think he’s opened up a new chapter and I hope we follow it through, and that it grows,” the mother of three, grandmother to five and great-grandmother to four said.
The flag tour allowed people across Canada to be involved with the Games, Andrea Poptsis, CFO of the Invictus Games, said.
“This really gave people an opportunity to come out in their communities and really acknowledge the struggle of the ill and injured soldiers that are trying to get back on their feet,” she said.
Stephan Moreau, an Invictus competitor in track and field, cycling and indoor rowing in 2014 and 2016, said the Games changed his life.
“I joined the Navy in 2000, and in 2004 was involved in an accident that left me with PTSD,” the Victoria, B.C. resident said. “I didn’t talk to anyone about it for six years.”
After seeking help in 2010, Moreau said sports helped him heal.
“What I find is: when I compete or train, I just shut off my mind for some reason,” Moreau said. “And for somebody who suffers some trauma, it’s really difficult to not think or just try to forget.
“It’s in our head all the time, but when I race or train, it’s not there.”