Canadians gathered with heads bowed for sombre Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country on Saturday at a time when wars rage in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip and peace seems far off for many.
Processions and wreath-layings in Atlantic Canada kicked off the country’s events in the morning, with veterans, officials and politicians of all stripes gathering in cities including St. John’s and Fredericton to honour those who served in the Armed Forces.
In Ottawa, thousands flocked to the National War Memorial near Parliament Hill to pay tribute.
Dignitaries including Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre joined soldiers and veterans, pipers and drummers.
Retired sergeant Aubrey St. Peter, 90, braved the November chill to take in the events with his adult granddaughter. He said Canadians should remember that losses are still mounting.
“It’s tremendous, the amount of people who’ve passed away, not only during the war but when they’re retired and hanging around, like me,” he said.
In Fredricton, meanwhile, 92-year-old Rev. Bob Jones stopped by the city’s cenotaph to hear the names of fallen soldiers read aloud.
Jones was a chaplain with the military for 20 years. The Second World War ended when he was 14, but his military career took him to Israel for six months.
“When I was there it was relatively peaceful, although the thing was, you never knew what would happen,” Jones said, adding that he regretted not visiting the Gaza War Cemetery while he was there.
“If I had known what we know now, maybe I should have made a special effort to have gotten there.”
Remembrance Day in Canada began with news that doctors at Gaza’s largest hospital said five patients died after the facility’s last generator ran out of fuel.
More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, including more than 4,500 children. An estimated 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks by the militant group Hamas — which Canada classifies as a terrorist organization — that set off the current conflict.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians are bracing for another winter of war as Russia’s invasion continues.
Gilles Thibeault served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 35 years and said he was honoured to attend the national ceremony in Ottawa, where he reflected both on the Canadians lost in past conflicts and the state of the world today.
“This is bad, this is really, really bad. All the destruction and all of the lives that are being lost for I don’t know what reason,” he said.
In a Remembrance Day statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encouraged Canadians to wear a poppy and take two minutes of silence to honour those who have fought, as well as troops who have taken part in peacekeeping missions and those who are training Ukrainian soldiers.
“Remembrance Day is an opportunity to recognize members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have courageously answered the call of duty. When it was needed most, they left behind their families and homes,” Trudeau said. “Many returned with severe trauma — or didn’t return at all. Their sacrifice is a debt that we can never repay.”
The prime minister greeted veterans and people in the crowd along Ottawa’s Wellington Street after the national ceremony ended.
But mention of the ongoing wars in Ukraine and in Gaza were absent from the official program. Last year, in contrast, politicians and speakers all over the country asked Canadians to take note of the Ukraine war.
“We need to remember that our security can be greatly impacted by events many places in the world,” Eyre said in an interview ahead of this year’s ceremony. “So with war in Europe, war in the Middle East, high tensions in Asia-Pacific, climate change — all stressors on our security environment — we have to be prepared.”
Back at the Fredericton cenotaph, where snowflakes speckled the grey skies, Michele Doran paid her respects. Her late father-in-law fought in the Korean War in the 1950s, and she brought her two-year-old grandson, Max, to the ceremony to teach him to honour veterans.
“I think it’s really important even for young children to be here,” Doran said in an interview. “We wouldn’t be here today without all these veterans.”
In Toronto, hundreds attended a ceremony outside Old City Hall, where Mayor Olivia Chow spoke to the crowd.
For retired corporal Alan Roy, a third-generation Canadian military member, it was an emotional morning.
“I don’t know how I managed to be this lucky,” Roy said.
“Knowing how many of my family have served before me, it’s an absolute incredible opportunity for me to be here.”
Roy served for just under 10 years, following in the footsteps of his father who served in the Second World War with the Royal Canadian Air Force. His grandfather served in both world wars. On Saturday he proudly wore a kilt representing Canada’s tartan.
“If you turn around and look at the leaves, I’m camouflaged today,” he said, referring to the autumnal colours in his kilt.
Melanie Stephens rode her vintage bike, fitted with two baskets, to Old City Hall. Now in her 70s, she doesn’t attend every year anymore but felt she needed to be there on Saturday.
Several of her relatives served in the First and Second World Wars, including an uncle who was a bomber.
“He never spoke of the war, like so many,” Stephens said. “They blocked it out. They went on with their lives or were damaged in some way, psychologically or emotionally, they suffered.”
Stephens said she wants people to also remember those who stayed home and took care of their families.
“The wives, the mothers, the daughters who kept the home fires burning, who sacrificed themselves and worked two jobs … They pulled their weight and more. We don’t talk about the women.”
Elsewhere, flocks of pigeons took flight from Montreal’s Place du Canada as the first cannon rang out during a 21-gun salute.
The event attracted hundreds of onlookers, the poppies on their coats forming a sea of red flowers around the downtown square.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and federal immigration minister Marc Miller were among those who placed wreaths at the base of the towering cenotaph at the centre of the square amid the solemn fanfare of trumpets, drums and bagpipes.
Among those watching beneath the square’s brass-coloured tree canopy was Paul Hebert, a 56-year-old veteran who served for 33 years in the Armed Forces, first for the Canadian Grenadier Guards and then for the military police. He said he plans to attend Remembrance Day events every year for as long as he can.
“This is an annual event that should be done for forever in time where … we remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, those who served our country since 1867 to today,” Hebert said.
“This is why I’m here and I’ll be here every year for the rest of my time.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2023.
With files from Hina Alam in Fredericton, Nairah Ahmed in Toronto, Thomas MacDonald in Montreal and The Associated Press
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
