Remembrance Day in Canada

Remembrance Day was different this year.  People came out in much larger numbers to attend the many memorial services across the country.  In Ottawa, the National War Memorial was encircled by a crowd of 50,000

This morning on the CBC Radio program, The Current, Tim Cook, a military historian, described the history and the present reality of Remembrance Day for many of us.

Canadians are still mourning the deaths of two soldiers, killed last month here in Canada.  Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, died after being run down by a car in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.  Then in Ottawa, just days later, Corporal Nathan Cirillo was shot as he stood guard at the National War Memorial. Both men were killed by lone Canadians who had become radical Islamists,

Prime Minister Stephen Harper left China and the APEC Summit that country was hosting earlier than planned, to be back in Ottawa for this year’s memorial.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny day in the capital, as Governor General David Johnston formally rededicated the monument in the name of all who have died in the service of Canada. “Today, it is fitting that with this ceremony of rededication, we pay tribute to all those Canadians who in the intervening years have laid down their lives in the service of peace, justice and freedom.’”