Canadians marked Remembrance Day with ceremonies in Ottawa and other locations nationwide to remember those who served and died defending Canada.
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Canadians across the country gathered Wednesday to mark Remembrance Day and reflect on the legacy of war, including ceremonies at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.
The day’s commemoration in Ottawa included guns, bagpipes and CF-18 Hornets flying overhead as people paused to remember those who served and died defending Canada.
This year’s ceremonies came weeks after a deadly training accident at Canadian Forces Wainwright in Alberta that killed four soldiers and left dozens of others with burn injuries.
The dead were identified as Sgt. Morgan Wong of Edmonton, Pte. Shaun Farrell of Prince Albert, Sask., Pte. Aidan Goulding of North Vancouver and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark of Langley, B.C.
National Defence said that as of Nov. 4, 14 of 39 injured had been released from hospital, while another 25 remained in hospital.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a media statement, “We mourn their loss, stand with those recovering from their injuries, and hold their families and fellow service members in our thoughts.” Gov. Gen. Louise Arbour said Canadians’ thoughts “remain with the soldiers we lost, those who were wounded, as well as the families, friends, comrades and all others affected by this tragic event.”
In Montreal, a prayer for the Wainwright victims was read at the Place du Canada ceremony as cannon fire rang out.
In Toronto, Mayor Olivia Chow said she wished the injured “strength and healing.”
Hundreds gathered for a local ceremony at an arena in Wainwright, Alta., with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre present, whose riding includes the training facility.
South of the border, Rear-Admiral Kristjan Monaghan spoke at the Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., about the soldiers who died at the Alberta training base.
Monaghan said, “The loss experienced there has been felt across the Canadian Forces family, across the nation and beyond,” adding that “sacrifice is not defined solely by geography.”
Canadians also marked the 25th anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan war this year, which lasted more than 12 years and involved about 40,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Veterans Affairs Canada said 158 Canadian Armed Forces members and seven Canadian civilians—including a diplomat, aid workers, a government contractor and a journalist—lost their lives in Afghanistan.
At the Ottawa ceremony, a retired Royal Canadian Navy commander, Ian Moffat, said he was thinking about an armoured soldier he knew who was killed by an improvised explosive device.
Ray McGill of Courtice, Ont., said he came to Ottawa to watch his son march in his first Remembrance Day parade after joining the military last year, and he described the day as “a pretty powerful day” to pay tribute to those who “gave us our tomorrows.”
Kyle Scott, a Canadian Army veteran of the Afghanistan war, said he was thinking of comrades who did not make it home and those who died after returning, adding that “Life after service is often harder than when you are serving.”
World War II veteran Marcel Huot, who was wounded twice in Normandy, said he remembered live fire and being hit by shrapnel, and he spoke of being “lonely sometimes” after his wife died of Alzheimer’s.
Veterans Affairs estimates that the population of living Canadian veterans from the Second World War and the Korean War has dropped to about 4,306 people.
The ceremonies also reflected other milestones, including the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Canadian Legion in 1926 and the 150th anniversary of the Royal Military College, with hundreds of cadets attending celebrations linked to the RMC anniversary.
Dave Edwards, who works with the Connaught Cadet Training Centre in Ottawa, said there are nearly 70,000 cadets across Canada in the organization.
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