Thousands line Ottawa streets for national Remembrance Day

Thousands of people lined the streets near Parliament Hill on Wednesday as Gov. Gen. Louise Arbour led her first national Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial in Ottawa as commander-in-chief.

Arbour, in military uniform, laid the first wreath on behalf of “the people of Canada,” followed by Virginia Hicks of Frankford, Ont., this year’s National Silver Cross Mother, who laid a wreath on behalf of all mothers who have lost children in military service, The Canadian Press reported. Hicks’s daughter, Sapper Mariebeth Short, was killed in a training exercise in Petawawa, Ont., in 2002.

Prime Minister Mark Carney then laid a wreath for the federal government. Guns boomed and CF-18 Hornets flew over the memorial during the two minutes of silence and the ceremony that followed, CP reported.

The ceremony came less than four weeks after a grass fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta killed Sgt. Morgan Wong, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Aidan Goulding and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark and injured 39 others. Carney read their names in a statement earlier in the day. National Defence said 25 of the injured were still in hospital as of Nov. 4.

Rabbi Idan Scher, who gave the benediction, said the people of Wainwright showed the spirit of service by asking “how can I help?” after the fire, as Canadians lined up to donate blood and opened their homes to the injured.

This year also marks 25 years since the start of the war in Afghanistan, in which about 40,000 Canadians served and 158 Canadian Armed Forces members and seven Canadian civilians died, Veterans Affairs Canada said. Retired navy commander Ian Moffat told CP he was thinking of a young soldier killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, whose ramp ceremony he attended.

Royal Military College cadets and veterans marched in the parade, and people placed poppies on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the service. For what was closed in Ottawa and across the country, see our Remembrance Day guide, and read our earlier reporting on the injured Wainwright soldiers.

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