Veterans were led by the sound of drums and bagpipes as they made their way to the National War Memorial, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon marked Remembrance Day and thanked fallen soldiers for protecting Canada’s freedoms.
Gov. Gen. Simon, who’s officially the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said Remembrance Day is a time to “honour the extraordinary contributions of those who sacrificed their lives to protect our freedoms and values.”
“To those who have fallen, Canada remembers,” Simon said in a statement.
“We stand today, free and at peace, because of them,” Trudeau said in a Nov. 11 statement noting the service of Canadian soldiers in the first two world wars and in Afghanistan.
He said veterans and members of the military have kept Canadians safe “throughout every chapter of our history.”
The prime minister said some soldiers never returned home from the battlefield, whereas others returned “never truly the same.”
Trudeau and Simon were joined this year by Silver Cross Mother Maureen Anderson, who lost her two sons to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after serving in Afghanistan. Sgt. Ron Anderson, a father of four, took his own life at age 39 in 2014. Sgt. Ryan Anderson, a father of two, died at age 38 in 2017.
Also in attendance at the ceremony were Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Assistant Deputy House Speaker and NDP MP Carol Hughes.
Following the ceremony, Trudeau shook hands with foreign dignitaries, including U.S. Ambassador David Cohen, with whom he exchanged a few words.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre noted the day by writing about the poem “In Flanders Field” by World War I Canadian veteran John McCrae.
“His words speak to who we are as Canadians.“ Poilievre said in a statement. ”We are a nation of warriors, the victors of Normandy and Vimy Ridge, but we are also a peaceful and peace-loving people who understand the terrible cost of armed conflict.”
McCrae’s poem describing poppies growing amid the crosses in a cemetery for war dead in Belgium inspired the British commonwealth to adopt the flower as a symbol of remembrance.
The last stanza of the poem reads:
