Victory Square draws hundreds for Vancouver Remembrance Day

Hundreds of people gathered at Victory Square in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday for the city’s Remembrance Day ceremony, which included a parade, a 21-gun salute, a military flypast and a wreath laid by new Mayor Pete Fry.

Grandparents, parents and children lined the streets around the square under overcast skies, The Canadian Press reported. Volunteers signed up at the site to serve in the First World War more than 110 years ago. The Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs sang, including a musical setting of “In Flanders Fields,” and B.C. Lt.-Gov. Wendy Coccia attended.

It was the first Remembrance Day ceremony for Fry since he was elected mayor in October.

RCMP Sgt. Nathan Olson, who laid a wreath, said he has lost people he trained and has a family member who was killed at Juno Beach. “It just means a lot to me to be able to come and just remember every year,” he said.

Dr. Margaret Budzianowska-Kwiatkowski held a pillow bearing a photo of her late father, Lt. Mieczyslaw Budzianowski, a Polish veteran of the Second World War who spent the last 20 years of his life in Vancouver and died at 97. “I’m coming to keep his presence here,” she said.

Voytek Lenartowicz of the Polish Veterans Association in B.C. said young people who may not know a veteran need to learn about their service. “If we forget about our history, we become a very poor society,” he said.

The ceremony came less than four weeks after a fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta killed four soldiers, including Pte. Aidan Goulding of North Vancouver and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark of Langley. TransLink has let veterans and serving members ride free on Remembrance Day in recent years, as our guide to free transit for veterans explains.

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