Canadian dignitaries gathered at Ottawa’s Christ Church Cathedral on Monday for a solemn send-off to Queen Elizabeth, the country’s longest-serving monarch.
Canada, a favoured member of the Commonwealth, was the only realm to hold its own national commemorative ceremony following the late Queen’s state funeral in the U.K. — a testament to the close relations between Canada and its former sovereign.
Throughout her reign, the Queen routinely referred to Canada as “home.”
Queen Elizabeth was eulogized by former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who had a positive working relationship with the monarch during his nearly nine years as head of government.
Mulroney said the Queen felt “a special, very deep love for Canada — its diversity, its geography and its history,” a genuine affinity for a country she regarded as “the greatest one in her realm.”
The Quebec-born former prime minister said he thinks Canada is as successful as it is now because of the stability of our Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, where the constitutional monarch is central.
While some other countries are beset by war, violence and political coups, Canada stands as a beacon of peace and strength, Mulroney said.
“We are largely unaffected by the major spasms of social and political discontent that have destroyed so many countries around the world. This didn’t happen by accident. The system of government chosen by our founders had much to do with it,” he said.
“Today, our system might appear anachronistic to some — I understand that — but to others, who constitute, in my judgment, the overwhelming majority of Canadians, the role of the monarchy and in particular the irreplaceable role played by Her Majesty for 70 years was absolutely indispensable,” he said.
WATCH | Brian Mulroney gives eulogy at ceremony for the Queen in Ottawa:
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney gives eulogy at ceremony for Queen in Ottawa
7 hours ago
Duration 5:18
Looking back on his time as prime minister, Brian Mulroney recalls working closely with Queen Elizabeth and her special relationship with Canada.
Mulroney also pointed to the role the Queen played in helping to end apartheid in South Africa.
He said that triumph “would never have taken place in the Commonwealth had it not been for Her Majesty’s discreet, brilliant and generous guidance and unerring instinct for the victory we all sought.”
Former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, who served as the Queen’s representative between 1999 and 2005, said Canada came of age during her 70-year reign, becoming a freer and fairer country on her watch.
Former governor general Adrienne Clarkson speaks during commemorative ceremonies for Queen Elizabeth at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa on Monday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
“The Queen, as the representative of the Crown, was the symbol of democratic legitimacy,” Clarkson said.
Recalling the Queen signing the Constitution Act in 1982, Clarkson said the monarch “signed over to us what is rightfully ours — our human rights, our human freedom.”
Clarkson recounts 2002 meeting with Queen
Clarkson recounted a meeting with the Queen during the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002. “Suddenly focusing on me, she said, ‘I shall never abdicate…. It is not our tradition. Although, I suppose if I became completely gaga, one would have to do something,'” Clarkson said to chuckles from the congregation.
This moment, Clarkson said, was a reflection of her unwavering dedication to public service.
“She held the course to the end — focused, dutiful, calm, the essence of equanimity. Like her remarkable mother and her heroic father, her life was guided by intention,” Clarkson said.
WATCH | Adrienne Clarkson speaks at ceremony for the Queen in Ottawa:
Former governor general Adrienne Clarkson speaks at ceremony for Queen in Ottawa
7 hours ago
Duration 5:44
Clarkson remembers several interactions with the late Queen Elizabeth throughout her career as Canada’s Governor General.
Christ Church Cathedral, an Anglican church in Ottawa’s downtown core, was chosen as the site for this service because of the Queen’s formal position as “defender of the faith” and the head of the Church of England, the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The cathedral’s choristers sang Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd …”), which is often read or sung at funeral services because the content is comforting to many Christians during times of grief, and Donald Booth, the Canadian secretary to the King, read a passage from the Bible, Philippians 4:4-9.
Brig.-Gen. Guy Bélisle, the chaplain general of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), praised the late monarch for promoting “religious diversity and interfaith harmony.”
WATCH | Queen’s funeral felt like ‘the turning of the page into a new era,’ says former PM Campbell:
Queen’s funeral felt like ‘the turning of the page into a new era,’ says former Prime Minister Campbell
3 hours ago
Duration 10:46
Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell was part of the Canadian delegation attending the Queen’s state funeral in London. She reflects on the Queen’s legacy and what she calls a sense of ‘the turning of a page into a new era’.
The Queen, a devout Christian, routinely celebrated other faith traditions during her annual Christmas messages — one of the few times Commonwealth subjects heard directly from the monarch.
“We pray for the leaders of the world, may they continue to work towards the vision of Elizabeth II, devoting their lives also to the common good. Remembering Elizabeth II’s service and her dedication to the cause of peace,” Bélisle said.
The day began with a memorial parade through the streets of downtown Ottawa led by members of the CAF and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, two services that were also well represented at the funeral in London and Windsor, England.
Her Majesty’s Personal Canadian Flag, wrapped in plastic to protect it from the rain, is carried by a member of the guard of honour as the Memorial Parade for Queen Elizabeth arrives at Christ Church Cathedral for a commemorative ceremony, in Ottawa on Monday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
Members of air force, army, navy and special forces were accompanied by the Canadian Armed Forces Central Band as they marched past the war memorial and Parliament Buildings in Ottawa en route to the cathedral.
At LeBreton Flats, across from the Canadian War Museum, a 96-salvo salute — one shot for each year of Her Majesty’s life — was fired while the parade marched the city core.
While Ottawa faced inclement weather and rain throughout most of the morning, thousands of onlookers lined Wellington Street, the road that runs in front of Parliament Hill, to pay tribute to the Queen and her remarkable seven-decade reign.
The crowds grew after British ceremonies concluded, as locals flocked from their TVs to the streets to take part in the commemorative ceremony.
WATCH | Singh encourages King Charles to make ‘amends’ for colonization:
Singh encourages King Charles to make ‘amends’ for colonization
3 hours ago
Duration 3:21
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh reflects on Queen Elizabeth’s legacy and his hopes for the reign of King Charles.
Sandra Tisch and her husband, Rob Semancik, drove eight hours from Oldcastle, Ont., near Windsor, to take in the event.
“It’s been an emotional 10 days,” said Tisch, who brought flowers to drop at the British High Commission and a statue of Queen Elizabeth.
“She gave her life to her country, and I think she did a lot of good.”
Tisch also got up early to watch the televised funeral service in London.
Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police take part in a parade to honour Queen Elizabeth as it makes its way through the downtown core of Ottawa on Monday. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
Alexandra McLean, the descendant of a British war bride who married a Canadian soldier, said she came out to commemorate the work of the Queen and what it symbolizes to those who took up arms in her service.
“We’re mourning our grandmothers as well,” she said.
“We are respecting the head of state, constitutional democracy [and] the woman who served us very well, and we’re honouring the people who loved her, who saw in her service their own service and what gave them strength for that service.”
The late Queen, as Canada’s head of state, served as commander-in-chief of the CAF and is revered in military circles.
Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada’s top soldier, said Monday the Queen was a “role model” for military personnel and a “real sterling example of service above self, humility, determination, and she led an incredible life of giving to others.”
More than 600 people were on hand for the ceremony officiated by the Very Reverend Elizabeth J. Bretzlaff, dean of Christ Church Cathedral, and the Right Reverend Shane A. D. Parker, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.
Most members of the federal cabinet, MPs, senators, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and members of the diplomatic corps were in attendance as Albert Dumont, the cathedral’s Algonquin spiritual adviser, paid tribute to the Queen with a poem. Musicians played at gaps in the religious service.
Dumont ceremoniously ushered Queen Elizabeth into the arms of her husband, Prince Philip, who died 17 months earlier.
“In the land of the red Maple Leaf, the sorrow of many citizens fills the skies,” he said. “The tears, the prayers of her admirers take flight, like the geese of spring and autumn, making their way to the Queen Mother, who waits to hold her daughter close to her bosom once again.”
Violinist David Baik; playwright, producer and director Tomson Highway; Cree vocalist Patricia Cano; and saxophonist Marcus Ali were among those who played the musical interludes.
Baik played Nimrod, from Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which is usually associated with solemn occasions. It was performed at Westminster Abbey in 1953, just prior to Her Majesty’s coronation service, and has since also been commonly affiliated with the Queen.
WATCH | Ottawa’s English poet laureate discusses memorial to Queen:
Ottawa poet laureate wrestled with Crown’s role in colonialism while writing tribute to the Queen
1 day ago
Duration 6:33
Ottawa’s English poet laureate Albert Dumont, who is also an Algonquin spiritual adviser, joins Rosemary Barton Live to talk about the memorial service being held in Ottawa on Monday to honour the Queen. He offers an early glimpse of his tribute to Her late Majesty.
Author, singer-songwriter and actor Ginette Reno and singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright each performed a song to honour the Queen.
Reno performed Ceux qui s’en vont, and Wainwright, who has performed for the Queen before, sang Hallelujah.
After the ceremony, the bells tolled as the parishioners filtered out.
There was to be a flypast by CF18s in the “missing person” formation, but poor weather forced the military to call that down shortly before the ceremony was to begin.
The Vintage Wings of Canada, composed of Second World War Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft, were also scheduled to fly over Parliament Hill and the cathedral, but that was cancelled because of low cloud cover.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
___
Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
