Remembrance Day 2020 - Lest we forget

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Lest we forget

REMEMBRANCE DAY NOVEMBER 11

In honour of those who have served and sacrificed for our freedom

Thank you

For your service, For your courage, For your sacrifice, For our freedom.

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Legion organizes scaled down day of remembrance

SHANE CARLSON editor@prpeak.com

An annual gathering at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Townsite to reflect on and recognize members of the armed forces who served their country will have a scaled down presence in 2020.

The Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Townsite will be held on

Wednesday, November 11, but the traditional service inside Dwight Hall and parade on streets surrounding the park have been cancelled due to COVID-19.

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 164 is asking the public not to congregate in the park, or on the streets surrounding it, in order to view the ceremony.

“The service at the cenotaph is guests by invitation only and we have a list of confirmed attendees which will be checked as they come into the cenotaph area,” said Legion poppy committee secretary/treasurer Karen Crashley. “What concerns us is that the public will want to stand on the sidewalk on Walnut Street or outside the barriers so they are a part of this gathering.”

The 2020 ceremony will be unlike years past, where people were encouraged to participate. This year, organizers are asking residents to stay away and recognize veterans and those who made the ultimate sacrifice at home with their family members.

“Just because you’re not able to be at the ceremony doesn’t mean you can’t recognize veterans and those who sacrificed for our freedom,” said Crashley. “People can keep everyone safe by having their own moment of silence on Remembrance Day, at home.”

While commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and recognizing all the sacrifices made by soldiers and veterans, the ceremony will fol-

qathet Regional District thanks all veterans and active members of our armed forces for their service to our country

low BC health guidelines by including a minimal number of veterans, including one from World War II, and allowing for social distancing.

“The only ones who are going to be there to participate will be the invited guests, which will include some of our local veterans and a few other Legion members,” said Crashley. “The biggest issue is to try to get the public to stay away from the cenotaph and surrounding area between 9 am and 12 noon.”

A limited number of wreaths will be placed at the cenotaph prior to the service.

“We laid 47 wreaths last year; this year we are only doing eight,” said Crashley.

“We’re not allowing anyone to go lay them; we will do that before the ceremony.”

Organizers of an upcoming Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in Townsite are asking residents of the Powell River area to refrain from attending this year due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.PEAK ARCHIVE PHOTO

A special block will be available for people to deposit a poppy, after the ceremony, as a remembrance of those who have served their country and community.

“Anybody can drop by after the barriers are gone and pay their respects,” said Crashley, who has been

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Ceremony at cenotaph by invitation only; public asked to keep surrounding streets clear

working on a safety plan to send to Vancouver Coastal Health.

“We need to make sure they can trace back if necessary, and we have to keep our list of attendees for 30 days,” she added. “The thing with having more people at a gathering than allowed is we could be fined $10,000, if we allow people to stand up in the street and all over the place, because there are no names, no phone numbers for contact tracing.”

People who want to recognize Remembrance Day at home, with a program similar to the one taking place at the cenotaph, can sing O Canada at 11 am, search for versions of the Last Post and The Rouse to play afterward, take two minutes of silence, then sing God Save the Queen.

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Veterans’ Week 2020: annual event goes virtual Veterans’ Week, which runs from November 5 to 11, is an opportunity for Canadians to pay tribute to the extraordinary sacrifices made by our nation’s soldiers. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Veterans’ Week is taking place online. As a result, more people will have the chance to participate in the events.

#CANADAREMEMBERS #ENDOFSWW

A shared message The National Veterans’ Week Speakers Program has asked current members of the Canadian Armed Forces to deliver segments of this year’s Veterans’ Week speech. The resulting video collage will be played in schools and community organizations across the country during Veterans’ Week.

1. The First World War officially ended on November 11, 1918, with the signing of an armistice agreement. This occurred at precisely 11 a.m. — that is, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

2. Every year, Canadians observe two minutes of silence on Remembrance Day. This is to honour the more than 2.3 million Canadians who served and the more than 118,000 who lost their lives since the start of the First World War.

4. Remembrance Day is celebrated by a number of other Commonwealth member states, including the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as other countries such as France, Belgium and Poland. international conflict that had lasted six years.

Do you want to join the conversation about the anniversary of this historic event? Use the hashtags #CanadaRemembers, #VJDay75 and #EndofSWW on social media.

To learn more about Canadian veterans and Veterans’ Week, visit veterans.gc.ca.

5. Canada’s National Remembrance Day Ceremony is held in Ottawa at the National War Memorial. In non-COVID years, the event is presided over by the Governor General and is attended by the prime minister, veterans’ organizations and the general public.

For more information legion.ca/remembrance.

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On November 11, Remembrance Day ceremonies are held across the country to honour the courage of Canadians who fought to defend our way of life. Here are five facts to help you better understand this important occasion.

3. Remembrance Day is a statutory holiday for federal government employees. Six provinces and the three territories have also designated November 11 a statutory holiday.

A common history Every year, Veterans Affairs Canada highlights a significant exploit in Canadian military history. In 2020, the event being commemorated is Victory over Japan (V-J) Day, when Japan surrendered to the Allies, effectively ending the Second World War. This year is the 75th anniversary of V-J Day, which occurred on August 15, 1945. On that day, crowds gathered in the streets in Canada and allied nations to celebrate the end of the war in the Pacific and an

Five facts about Remembrance Day

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EDITORIAL »

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During the Battle of Ypres in 1915, Canadian lieutenant-colonel John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields when he saw poppies growing beside a grave of a close friend who died in battle. The poem triggered the adoption of the poppy as the flower of remembrance in Canada, Britain, France, the United States and Commonwealth countries.

Poppies are now a visual pledge to never forget Canadians who have fallen in war and military operations, and a symbol of remembrance.

Residents of the Powell River area have been wearing poppies leading up to Remembrance Day as a way to honour those responsible for the freedom they enjoy every day.

COVID-19 has resulted in many cancellations of Remembrance Day celebrations, including at the cenotaph in Townsite. People are being asked to stay away from Veteran’s Memorial Park on November 11, and the streets surrounding it. A scaled down local ceremony is by invite only in order to ensure provincial guidelines for gatherings are followed.

When the clock strikes 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month, everyone can still take a pause and reflect on people who sacrificed their lives to afford us the freedom we know today; they just have to do it in their own space.

Whoever does that honours the memory of those who paid the ulti-

mate sacrifice to ensure the future freedom of their family, friends and compatriots. Attending events can enhance feelings of gratitude and respect for veterans, but a quiet moment alone or as part of a small group, at home or at a favourite outdoor location, also suffices to honour and remember former and current military members.

We all share a responsibility to remember the fallen, the wounded, the families, veterans and the serving.

alive and continuing to honour those who served their countries are the best ways to avoid war in the future, and eliminate war as a way to solve conflict and injustice.

For two minutes on November 11, stop thinking about coronavirus, stop thinking about the aftermath of the election south of the border, stop thinking about the hustle and bustle of everyday life. They’ll still be around to contemplate later.

Ceremonies and vigils for fallen soldiers are important for healing the wounds of war while Attending events can enhance generations of families still deal with unfathomable loss. feelings of gratitude and However, Remembrance respect for veterans, but a Day should also be about quiet moment alone or as part recognizing and supporting recent veterans and current of a small group, at home soldiers who are still here, or at a favourite outdoor and ensuring they receive location, also suffices to honour the help they need.

Think about soldiers and and remember former and the sacrifice they and their current military members. families made in World War I, World War II, the Korean Showing gratitude is a way to honour War, Afghanistan, and during peaceveterans who fought for us; it is not keeping missions and other conflicts. necessary to be among a crowd to do Think about veterans still living among so. us; we still have the chance to properly November is an important month for thank and honour them. veterans. Donations from the distribuRemembrance Day has been observed tion of millions of replica poppies lead- since 1919, just a year after the end of ing up to Remembrance Day provide World War I. 2020 is a different year in funds for the Royal Canadian Legion many ways, but not when it comes to that go toward helping veterans in our Remembrance Day. community.

Support veterans, wear a poppy, Remembering veterans serves more think, remember, reflect. than one purpose. Keeping memories Lest we forget.

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Why we need to remember We, as humans, are uniquely placed in the natural world with how we remember past events to inform our present and influence the future. Our brains encode, store, then retrieve information to help us navigate events toward the best possible outcome.

From a mental health perspective, the trauma attached to conflict, especially armed conflict between groups or nations, is immeasurably damaging to our goals of mental wellness generally. Trauma causes adrenaline to rush through our body and chisel negative memories into our amygdala, which is part of the limbic system in our brains.

Too often, the result of trauma is post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) where intense, disturbing thoughts last long after the traumatic situation.

PTSD has been around

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By Robert Skender

since trauma has been around, which is, well, always. Societally, open conversation around mental health issues is a fairly recent development.

PTSD and related trauma are natural reactions to witnessing the horrors of war.

War is our darkest and most violent instincts and urges on ugly display. Any sane person will be damaged to different degrees by the experience. The more we learn

on the subject, the more that truth is exposed.

An evolutionary anthropologist might suggest war is residual tribal behaviour that we just cannot shake from our DNA after millennia of human experience.

From the first stick carved to a sharp point to our current stockpile of nuclear bombs, which could end humanity a thousand times over, war is hyper-aggressive, violent group behaviour seared into our long-term memory.

Every point has a counterpoint and every idea is debatable. Everything is always changing.

In World War 1, which began in the summer of 1914, PTSD was known as shellshock and not really part of any medical conversations of the time.

The trauma experienced by soldiers was often thought of as cowardice or a flaw in character. Nonetheless,

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Lest we forget

since the American Civil War, which lasted between 1861 and 1865, physicians have been observing behaviour we now call PTSD. On November 11, 1918, at 11 am, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, World War 1 ended. Today we remember those who were affected by the trauma of that war, and subsequently, all wars.

Societally and individually, from a mental wellness point of view, we need to acknowledge the day peace was made over 100 years ago.

Why do we need to remember?

As time marches on, everything changes. As the saying goes: “The only constant is change.”

Our ideas change and evolve just as the physical landscape which surrounds us continuously morphs into something different.

We build on our past mistakes and our successes and, in many ways, advance to a better reality.

Although the American Psychiatric Association first officially diagnosed PTSD as a mental disorder in 1980, it has taken decades for the stigma of mental disorders to be dismantled and the topic brought into the light of day.

I have seen the idea and practice of Remembrance Day start to change since I wore a poppy on my coat when I was a kid in the 1970s.

I remember Remembrance Day having little to do with the mental fitness of veterans in the past. Ceremonies and rituals on November 11 did not address the disproportionality higher rates of suicide or substance abuse in veterans. It was tradition that the ceremonies and rituals mainly focused on militarism and patriotic sentiments.

Over the decades, technology has increased our understanding of how our mental state influences and interacts with our physical being. Those changes bring a new awareness and have had a ripple effect on how we do almost everything, including Remembrance Day. We can promise never to forget the sacrifices and losses of our veterans. At the same time, we can use the same thoughts of love to acknowledge and remember not to repeat the actions which caused the almost irreparable hurt.

Remembrance Day, like everything in life, is always changing. We can honour and love by remembering past events, and influence a better future with peace and prosperity.

Robert Skender is a Powell River freelance writer and health commentator.

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REFLECTION »

Remembering friends, family and veterans

This following is a collaboration from veterans and members of Royal Canadian Legion, who were asked to share their thoughts on Remembrance Day.

As long as I can remember, me and my brother and sisters watched our father march to the cenotaph along with other veterans on November 11. It did not matter whether it was cold, it did not matter if it was raining and it did not matter if it was snowing, the veterans stood there remembering the fallen; the brave young men who never came home.

My father was a RCNVR signalman; he did six Newfie Derry crossings. I asked him one year (I was 12 at the time) why he stood there on those cold wet days. His response, I still hear it echoing in my head some 54 years later: “Son, I will never be as cold as I was crossing the North Atlantic during a winter storm during the war. I stand, because some of my friends cannot, as they did not return home as I did, so you, your brother and sisters can have the life that they will never have.”

Every year since, I have stood there as a teen, as a member in uniform for 36-plus years, as a retired member and now as a member of

the Royal Canadian Legion, paying my respect to the fallen.

A few years ago, here in Powell River, I did a Remembrance Day talk at one of the schools, talked about Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge, Dieppe and Juno Beach, and how convoys crossing the North Atlantic were so vital to the war effort. A few days later, I was standing outside the mall on Poppy Day and a young student recognized me and said hello. As she walked by she said to her mother: “I do not understand...”

The door closed behind them; it was a cold and wet breezy day.

About 20 minutes later they came out and the mom put some money in the poppy box. I asked the student what she did not understand.

She responded: “I do not know why you are standing outside in the cold, when you could be standing inside where it is warm and dry.”

I asked her mother if I could pin the poppy on her jacket. As I pinned the poppy, I asked if she remembered the talk I gave at her school; she nodded yes. Then I explained: “I will never be as cold as those young lads who were fighting in the trenches at Passchendaele and I will never be as cold as those young sailors who crossed the North Atlantic bringing those vital

Thank you to all who served and sacrificed for our country

supplies to England.”

She smiled at me, gave me the biggest hug she could and said thank you for my service.

November 11, Remembrance Day, is the day we honour the brave men and women who have served and continue to serve our country in times of war, conflict and in peace.

As Canadians, it is our duty to honour our veterans and never forget the service and sacrifices they made on our behalf. I wear my poppy as a visual pledge to never forget those who sacrificed for our freedom.

I grew up in Powell River during World War II. During those years I recall the army commandos, who were training in Comox for D-Day, coming ashore in landing craft and engaging in mock combat with local militia soldiers, and us school kids whipping around trying to pick up the empty shell casings before the soldiers did. This was long before TV and the only way we could see what was happening was to attend the movie theatre and see black and white Movietone News clips of actual battles.

On Victory In Europe Day, when I heard the news on the radio, I decorated my bicycle with crêpe

My concept of Remembrance Day is very simple. It is the day we all remember those who gave their lives, those and their dependents who are still with us, and those who are still serving. Our veterans!

As Legionnaires, remembrance is the reason we are here and sayings like “lest we forget” and “we will remember them” are in our rituals. The monies we raise through our annual poppy campaigns stay in the areas they are raised and are used to support our veterans and their dependents who are in need.

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 164 delivered small trays, poppies and tins to various businesses in the Powell River area at the end of October. The annual poppy drive continues until November 11.

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My first Remembrance Day ceremony was on the quarterdeck of the HMCS Stettler while we were on exercise off of Panama. While in the military, I attended services from coast to coast to coast in Canada. Upon retirement from Canadian Armed Forces, I joined the Legion and the Naval Reserves and when working for the Workers’ Compensation Board of BC, managed to attend many more services throughout BC. After almost 30 years in the navy and 40 years in the Legion and the Naval Reserves, I proudly remember all my many friends and comrades who I have served with and who have passed away in the service of Canada, and also those who have supported veterans and their dependants through their service to the Legion.

I also remember and give thanks for my grandfather, who fought in the Boer War, and his son and my uncle who lost his life in battle in Italy in World War II.

I also say a prayer for my one cousin and uncle who flew for the RCAF in World War II and came home to live long and full lives.

I, along with millions of Canadians, will lay their poppies at a gravesite or cenotaph or even just in front of a picture, then pause for a few moments to honour those who died or were wounded in the service of their country.

Let us take the time to think of those who have died for us on the field of honour, so that we can live in peace

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Lest we forget Let us admire the courage and generosity of our soldiers, who risk their lives to defend democracy

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All Quality Foods stores are closed November 11, to allow all of our people the opportunity to observe Remembrance Day with their familiy, friends and neighbours.