Thousands gather in Ottawa for Remembrance Day tribute to Canada's veterans
Gloomy weather conditions and threat of rain did little to dent crowd size
Thousands of veterans, military personnel and their supporters gathered at Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa to remember those who have fought and died to protect this country and its freedoms.
Monday's grey and gloomy weather conditions — and the threat of rain — did little to dent the crowd size as many Canadians, some from points faraway, were eager to be in the nation's capital to honour the men and women who have defended Canada in times of war and peace and the 118,000 Canadians who have been killed in service to this country.
The crowd assembled was one of the largest in recent memory with people snaked around the memorial and down the surrounding city streets, a return to form after smaller crowds of the COVID era.
Some people fought back tears as MCpl Timothy Reid played the Piper's Lament on his bagpipes and four CF-18s flew over the skies above the ceremony — an important tribute as this year marks the 100-year anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Dignitaries, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), laid wreathes at the base of the memorial in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as the choir sang In Flanders Fields, the First World War poem penned by Canadian officer and surgeon John McCrae.
Rabbi Idan Scher delivered the benediction, urging all Canadians to look out for the country's veterans.
"We must pledge as a nation to leave no veteran or their families behind. The best among us have fought for our freedom, it is now our duty to fight for their wellbeing," Scher said. "We honour our fallen by proclaiming: united we rise, unbreakable we stand."
The ceremony comes at an uncertain time for the world, with conflict still raging in Ukraine as Russia continues to pummel its neighbour with drones, missiles and bombs.
It's not just a day to mark past service — Monday's ceremony also paid tribute to the 4,385 Canadian forces personnel who are currently deployed.
Some 1,900 Canadian forces are in Latvia as part of a build-up of forces on NATO's eastern flank to defend member countries from Russia as part of Operation Reassurance, Canada's largest international military operation right now. Some 300 CAF personnel are also in eastern Europe to train Ukrainian troops as part of Operation Unifier.
The Middle East is teetering on the edge of a wider conflict as Israel fights Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The government is also pushing ahead with a plan to ramp up military spending to finally meet NATO's spending target of two per cent of GDP on defence by 2032. U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has been urging allies to spend more and faster.
It's in that context that Gen. Jennie Carignan, the chief of the defence staff (CDS), called on more Canadians to sign up to serve in the Armed Forces. "It's very, very important that we recruit volunteers," she said in an interview on the sidelines of the service. "That's priority number one for us."
Carignan said the military is working "as fast as we can" to rebuild Canada's military capabilities to better meet its NATO commitments and face the challenges of the time.
Historical milestones
This is a year of important anniversaries for the CAF — it marks the 80th anniversary of Canadians landing at Juno Beach on D-Day in 1944 to take on the Nazis in the largest seaborne invasion in history.
Canadian sailors, soldiers and airmen played a critical role in the Battle of Normandy, which was a pivotal turning point in the Second World War and the campaign to liberate Western Europe from Adolf Hitler's forces. It came at a huge cost: there were more than 18,700 Canadian casualties.
According to Veterans Affairs Canada estimates, there are approximately 7,300 Canadian veterans of the Second World War and Korean War still alive today out of the more than one million Canadians deployed as part of those conflicts.
Speaking to CBC News from a service in Calgary, George Couture, a 99-year-old veteran from the Second World War, said he "has memories — good and bad" of his time in military service.
"Us soldiers, we took part, we did our best," he said, while noting he doesn't dwell much on his wartime experience.
As for his plans today, Couture said: "I'm going to have a few beers at the Legion and then go home."
It's also been 10 years since the end of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, a conflict that saw some 40,000 Armed Forces personnel take part in an international coalition to destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban regime.
The war killed 165 Canadians — 158 soldiers and seven civilians. Many others came home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a sometimes gruelling campaign against Islamic fundamentalists.
This year's Silver Cross Mother lost two sons
This year's National Silver Cross Mother, Maureen Anderson of Oromocto, N.B., lost both her sons after their service in Afghanistan as part of the Royal Canadian Regiment, an infantry regiment of the army.
Sgt. Ron Anderson, a father of four, died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 39. Ryan, also a sergeant and a father of two, died in 2017 at 38. Both men had been diagnosed with PTSD.
Anderson, representing the other mothers or widows of Canadian soldiers who died on active duty or as a result of it, laid a wreath on behalf of all Canadian families who have lost someone in military service.
"It brings back a lot of memories of loss, especially if you've lost kids of your own," Anderson said ahead of today's ceremony. "It [PTSD] is rampant, and it's a shame," she said.
Anderson is the daughter of a Second World War veteran. Her late husband, Peter, was a soldier, serving with the Regiment of Canadian Guards on Parliament Hill and then the Royal Canadian Regiment. Maureen herself served briefly with the Air Force as a nurse in Ottawa.
"My boys were very kind to me, and I miss them terribly," she said.
Another Silver Cross Mother, Agatha Dyer, whose son Ainsworth was killed by American friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2002, was in Ottawa for the Remembrance Day service for the first time in 20 years.
"It means so much to be here today, it brings back a lot of memories," she said in an interview.
"It's very hard when you lose your loved one — it's even harder when you lose a child."
She's questioning whether Canada should have ever been part of that war, given what's transpired there in the years since.
The Taliban took back the country in 2021 after the U.S. troops pulled out and the Afghan government collapsed.
"It wasn't worth it, no, not at all. They lost their life for nothing because there's been no changes," Dyer said.
Dan Milner, a retired major-general and the former commander of Canada's Joint Task Force Afghanistan, said Canadians should be proud of what their military accomplished in that country.
"If someone asks me if it was worth it, it's a tough, tough question because we didn't win in the end but having said that we made lives better for so many for so long in Afghanistan. We did get rid of al-Qaeda, we did get rid of international terrorists — we did a lot for that country," he said.
He said Canada should have stayed in Afghanistan longer to secure peace. "We left too early," he said. "I would've liked to have seen us carry on."
It's also the 60th anniversary of the start of Canada's peacekeeping mission in Cyprus when thousands deployed to tamp down a crisis in the Mediterranean. More than 30,000 Canadian service members have served on the island over the years.
"I've always wanted to come and I'm getting older — it was time," said retired corporal Allan Methven, who served as a peacekeeper in Cyprus and was on hand for today's ceremony.
He said Remembrance Day is so meaningful to him and other veterans.
"The sad thing is we don't talk enough about it other than on the 11th of November. Entire generations are growing up not knowing why they're growing up in a country like ours," Methven said.
He had a message for young people thinking about joining the Armed Forces. "They need you now more than ever, perhaps," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from the CBC's Ashley Burke, The Canadian Press