Sydney Remembrance Day ceremony bumped from Centre 200 by craft show

The people organizing the annual Remembrance Day ceremony for Sydney say they've had to switch venues at the last minute because Centre 200 had already rented the space to a Christmas craft show. 

But the venue says legion members were warned of the scheduling conflict a year ago. 

For the last two years, the ceremony was held at the municipally-owned Centre 200. It's big enough to accommodate the large crowds that turn out to mark the day. 

Smaller venue

This year, it will be at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion — a smaller venue — because the craft show is booked at the arena for the whole of the Remembrance Day weekend.

"Obviously we're disappointed," said Stephen MacLennan, a veteran and president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 128. 

He says Centre 200 donated its space for Remembrance Day and he can understand the municipality wanting to have a paying customer such as the craft show instead.

For him, though, the worry is the change to the smaller size of the cruise pavilion. 

"Last year, they had 3800 people attend and this year, the max we can have is 1200," MacLennan said. 

Communication breakdown

The job of organizing the parade and ceremony is rotated yearly among Sydney's three legion branches, and that may be the crux of the misunderstanding.

Centre 200 manager Paul MacDonald disputes the perception that the the arena became unavailable at the last minute.

"We had informed folks last year who we worked with that it wouldn't be available this year, due to the fact that the Cape Breton Homecrafters have a craft fair here," he said. "They've had it here for the past 15 years."

The craft show is always held on the second weekend in November. This year, Nov. 11 falls on the Friday of that weekend.

MacDonald said it's clear that information given to last year's organizers wasn't passed on to those in charge of the ceremony this year.

"Obviously communication wasn't moved forward or through the ranks or whatever," said MacDonald. "It turns into a mess and that's where we are now."

Stephen MacLennan said the size of Centre 200 also provided an opportunity for the Remembrance Day parade to be held inside in case of rain, but he says he and the other legions are making the best of the new location. 

"The most important thing is that we're honouring the veterans, not where we're at."