Vancouver Remembrance Day ceremony held at Victory Square
The rain held off for a grey and sombre Remembrance Day ceremony at Vancouver’s Victory Square on Thursday.
Folks were asked to stay home and watch it online again this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the crowd that did show up was small, watching from behind the gates that surrounded the cenotaph.
Vancouver’s flag flew at half mast to mark Remembrance Day and the 76th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
At Victory Square, James Stanton, the new master of ceremonies, first acknowledged the loss of Cam Cathcart, a longtime organizer and master of ceremonies for the ceremony at Victory Square. Cathart died earlier this year at age 83.
Mikah Nanson read a poem called “The Forgotten Algonquin” to honour the First Nations people who fought for Canada. Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart then presented Nanson with an award for his poem and then a choir sang the White Cliffs of Dover.
Stanton said the number of World War veterans is diminishing in Canada. He told the crowd that at one point there were more than a million veterans, but now there are fewer than 40,000 still alive, and the average age of those veterans is 94.
Two minutes of silence was observed at 11 a.m. followed by the sombre Lament on the bagpipes. The Aurora aircraft flew overhead and a masked choir sang as dignitaries placed wreaths on the cenotaph. Among them was Paul DeLorme, a World War Two veteran.
