Veterans’ parade returns to national Remembrance Day after two-year hiatus | Canada News Media
Connect with us

News

Veterans’ parade returns to national Remembrance Day after two-year hiatus

Published

 on

OTTAWA — The Royal Canadian Legion is welcoming back one of the most iconic aspects of Canada’s national Remembrance Day ceremony following a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: the veterans’ parade.

Involving veterans of all ages and backgrounds, the parade is one of the most tangible ways for those who have served in uniform to honour fallen comrades ⁠ — and for Canadians to express appreciation for their service.

Those participating gather about an hour before the ceremony begins, then march through the streets of Ottawa to the National War Memorial for its start. They then march off with the rest of the official delegation after the ceremony.

“This allows people to see in person or by television, our veterans, see their faces, thank them, and remember them for their service and their sacrifices,” Legion spokeswoman Nujma Bond said. “It is really an important element of the national Remembrance Day ceremony.”

The parade was officially cancelled the past two years due to health concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those affecting older veterans. The veterans’ absence was noticeable during the official ceremony.

With most provincial and federal pandemic-related restrictions now lifted, however, the Legion is bringing the parade back.

“We will be able to have a full, grand veterans’ parade,” Bond said. “And that means we will have veterans gathering and marching in at the beginning of the Remembrance Day ceremony. And they will also be part of a march off at the end of the ceremony.”

Retired chief petty officer first class Jake McDavid will be leading the parade this year, and says it is an important and poignant event for veterans such as himself to reflect on his military service while honouring those who fell while in uniform.

“I think about all of the persons that I’ve served with,” he said. “I think about the experiences that I had while serving in the Canadian Forces. I think about the hardship that my family endured while I was away. I think about the ones that didn’t come back.”

Many of those who march in the parade each year come from different parts of the country, said McDavid.

He said it hurts to learn when one of the usual participants has died, especially older veterans who served in the Second World War and Korea.

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “It’s hard because you do form some relationships with the persons that are on parade.”

The return of the veterans’ parade won’t be the only noticeable difference between this year’s national Remembrance Day ceremony and recent iterations. The Legion also plans to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth and the 80th anniversary of the raid on Dieppe.

A special wreath dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September at the age of 96 after 70 years on the throne, will be laid at the foot of the National War Memorial before the ceremony begins on Remembrance Day.

“It is a way to remember her and her service because as we know, she also was a veteran,” Bond said. “She served in the Second World War as an Army mechanic and driver. And we also wish to pay her special respects on that day.”

The ceremony will also feature a special Red Ensign flag that was reportedly carried by one of the nearly 5,000 Canadian soldiers who participated in the ill-fated raid on the French port of Dieppe on Aug. 19, 1942 and later donated to the Legion.

This year’s ceremony also follows several demonstrations and rallies at the National War Memorial since the “Freedom Convoy” in February, when thousands of protesters opposed to vaccines, pandemic restrictions and the Liberal government congregated in Ottawa.

Bond said there will be security at the site on Remembrance Day for the ceremony, but referred questions about additional measures to police.

“We are preparing for the ceremony, as we always do, for a special and respectful ceremony,” she said. “Anything pertaining to dissent or any other activity will be handled by security forces on site.”

The Ottawa Police Service, which is responsible for co-ordinating security on Remembrance Day, said it would not comment on operational details.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2022.

News

World on pace for significantly more warming without immediate climate action, report warns

Published

 on

The world is on a path to get 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit) warmer than it is now, but could trim half a degree of that projected future heating if countries do everything they promise to fight climate change, a United Nations report said Thursday.

But it still won’t be near enough to curb warming’s worst impacts such as nastier heat waves, wildfires, storms and droughts, the report said.

Under every scenario but the “most optimistic” with the biggest cuts in fossil fuels burning, the chance of curbing warming so it stays within the internationally agreed-upon limit “would be virtually zero,” the United Nations Environment Programme’s annual Emissions Gap Report said. The goal, set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, is to limit human-caused warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The report said that since the mid-1800s, the world has already heated up by 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit), up from previous estimates of 1.1 or 1.2 degrees because it includes the record heat last year.

Instead the world is on pace to hit 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. But if nations somehow do all of what they promised in targets they submitted to the United Nations that warming could be limited to 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the report said.

In that super-stringent cuts scenario where nations have zero net carbon emissions after mid-century, there’s a 23% chance of keeping warming at or below the 1.5 degrees goal. It’s far more likely that even that optimistic scenario will keep warming to 1.9 degrees above pre-industrial times, the report said.

“The main message is that action right now and right here before 2030 is critical if we want to lower the temperature,” said report main editor Anne Olhoff, an economist and chief climate advisor to the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre. “It is now or never really if we want to keep 1.5 alive.”

Without swift and dramatic emission cuts “on a scale and pace never seen before,” UNEP Director Inger Andersen said “the 1.5 degree C goal will soon be dead and (the less stringent Paris goal of) well below 2 degrees C will take its place in the intensive care unit.”

Olhoff said Earth’s on a trajectory to slam the door on 1.5 sometime in 2029.

“Winning slowly is the same as losing when it comes to climate change,” said author Neil Grant of Climate Analytics. “And so I think we are at risk of a lost decade.”

One of the problems is that even though nations pledged climate action in their targets submitted as part of the Paris Agreement, there’s a big gap between what they said they will do and what they are doing based on their existing policies, report authors said.

The world’s 20 richest countries — which are responsible for 77% of the carbon pollution in the air — are falling short of their stated emission-cutting goals, with only 11 meeting their individual targets, the report said.

Emission cuts strong enough to limit warming to the 1.5 degree goal are more than technically and economically possible, the report found. They just aren’t being proposed or done.

The report ”shows that yet again governments are sleepwalking towards climate chaos,” said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, who wasn’t part of the report.

Another outside scientist, Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said the report confirms his worst concerns: “We are not making progress and are now following a 3.1 degree path, which is, with next to zero uncertainty, a path to disaster.”

Both the 3.1 degree and 2.6 degree calculations are a tenth of a degree Celsius warmer than last year’s version of the UN report, which experts said is within the margin of uncertainty.

Mostly the problem is “there’s one year less time to cut emissions and avoid climate catastrophe,” said MIT’s John Sterman, who models different warming scenarios based on emissions and countries policies. “Catastrophe is a strong word and I don’t use it lightly,” he said, citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report saying 3 degrees of warming would trigger severe and irreversible damage.

The report focuses on what’s called an emissions gap. It calculates a budget of how many billions of tons of greenhouse gases — mostly carbon dioxide and methane — the world can spew and stay under 1.5 degrees, 1.8 degrees and 2 degrees of warming since pre-industrial times. It then figures how much annual emissions have to be slashed by 2030 to keep at those levels.

To keep at or below 1.5 degrees, the world must slash emissions by 42%, and to keep at or below 2 degrees, the cut has to be 28%, the report, named, “No more hot air… please !” said.

In 2023, the world spewed 57.1 billion metric tons (62.9 billion U.S. tons) of greenhouse gases, the report said. That’s 1,810 metric tons (1,995 U.S. tons) of heat-trapping gases a second.

“There is a direct link between increasing emissions and increasingly frequent and intense climate disasters,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video messaged released with the report. “We’re playing with fire, but there can be no more playing for time. We’re out of time.”

__

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

______

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Hamilton Tiger-Cats sign Canadian kicker Liegghio to extension

Published

 on

HAMILTON – The Hamilton Tiger-Cats signed Canadian kicker Marc Liegghio to a two-year contract extension Thursday.

Liegghio, 27, of Woodbridge, Ont., remains under contract with Hamilton through the 2026 season.

Liegghio has made 39-of-44 field goals (88.6 per cent) and 37-of-38 converts (97.4 per cent) this season. The five-foot-seven, 198-pound kicker was named Hamilton’s top 2024 special-teams player Wednesday.

He has appeared in 66 regular-season games over four CFL seasons. He has made 117-of-138 field goals (84.8 per cent) and 125-of-139 converts (89.9 per cent). He began his pro career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2021-22) before joining the Ticats last season.

Liegghio played collegiately at Western Ontario. He was selected in the fifth round, No. 39 overall, by Winnipeg in the 2020 CFL draft.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Rogers Communications reports $526M third-quarter profit, up from loss a year ago

Published

 on

TORONTO – Rogers Communications Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $526 million compared with a loss a year ago.

The company says the profit amounted to 98 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

The result compared with a loss of $99 million or 20 cents per diluted share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter totalled $5.13 billion, up from $5.09 billion a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Rogers says it earned $1.42 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of $1.27 per diluted share a year ago.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.36 per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version