3 minute read
Lest we forget
At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the sound of silence resonates with sorrow and thanks. The echoes of a twentyone gun salute pound in silent hearts. Adorned with paper poppies, Canadians stand before crosses, side by side. Pipes play and the bugle sounds the Last Post. It is a solemn moment, a sorrowful remembrance. We are grateful.
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On Remembrance Day, we commemorate those who served and those who died in the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War and the war in Afghanistan. Forefront in our minds are the 158 Canadian soldiers who gave their lives in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2011. Our soldiers fought these wars for the freedoms of Canadians and the values we hold dear.
We continue to honour the 7,000 Indigenous Peoples and the unknown number of Métis, Inuit, and non-Status Indians who served in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean World War. They were the forerunners of Reconciliation.
By the end of the First World War, approximately 619,000 Canadians enlisted for service overseas–an enormous contribution from a population of under 8 million in 1914. Of these, 61,000 Canadians died and 172,000 were wounded–and many more broken in mind and body. “Shell shock” afflicted thousands, and innumerable more suffered, and still suffer, from PTSD. Canada emerged from these wars changed, sacrificing lives and generations for the democracy, freedoms, and rights we have today.
Canadian communities from coast to coast maintain war memorials to honour the soldiers whose bodies could not be laid to rest at home. Their names are inscribed on plaques and cenotaphs to recount their sacrifice.
In Ottawa, Canada’s National War Memorial at Confederation Square is a symbol of remembrance, partnered with the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill to memorialize the war. At its base, the Memorial Chamber contains the official Books of Remembrances. Since the 1920s, a single Unknown Soldier represented the unidentified dead of Canada and the Commonwealth States in London’s Westminster Abbey. In 2000, Veteran Affairs Canada selected a set of remains to return to Canada from a cemetery near Vimy Ridge. On May 28, 2000, the solider was laid to rest at the National War Memorial.
This year, hundreds of thousands of Canadians will pay their respects to our soldiers and their families. Nearly 630,000 Canadian Veterans live with the memory of war. Over 71,000 Canadians are actively serving today.
“We Remember” is not an impersonal memory but a proclamation of pride. Our ancestor’s memories project on our minds: our great-grandfather and great-grandmother’s farewell, our grandmother’s tears over her father’s last embrace, their prayers for protection. We remember their heartache, their pride, and their resolve–and we make it our own.
May we not pass by the Veterans who stand dutifully in the cold selling poppies; but rather take up their post, calling our fellow Canadians to remember. May we remember the fallen and not forget those who gave their lives so we can live, feel dawn, see sunset glow, and love and be loved. May their sacrifice be inscribed on more than stone and pages but, for generations to come, on our hearts. For, in the words of John McCrae from the battlefield, the torch is ours to hold high g
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.
