OTTAWA –
Canadians will collect at cenotaphs and monuments across the country immediately to recollect and pay their respects to those that fought and died in service of Canada.
This 12 months will mark a full return to normalcy, together with at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, after COVID-19 compelled numerous modifications to remembrance ceremonies over the previous two years.
Masks and social distancing are not required, and the conventional veterans’ parade will return to the nationwide ceremony, which begins at round 10:30 a.m. jap time and can run about an hour.
Dignitaries at the nationwide ceremony will embrace Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who’s Canada’s commander-in-chief, however Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shall be absent as he flies to a global summit in Cambodia.
The authorities will as an alternative be represented in Ottawa by Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay.
The return of the veterans’ parade and Trudeau’s absence will not be the solely noticeable distinction between this 12 months’s nationwide Remembrance Day ceremony and up to date iterations.
The Legion additionally plans to mark the loss of life of Queen Elizabeth and the eightieth anniversary of the raid on Dieppe.
A particular wreath devoted to Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September at the age of 96 after 70 years on the throne, shall be laid at the foot of the National War Memorial earlier than the ceremony begins.
The ceremony may also characteristic a particular Red Ensign flag that was reportedly carried by one in every of the almost 5,000 Canadian troopers who participated in the ill-fated raid on the French port of Dieppe on Aug. 19, 1942. The flag was later donated to the Royal Canadian Legion.
This 12 months’s ceremony follows a number of demonstrations and rallies at the National War Memorial since the “Freedom Convoy” in February, when hundreds of protesters against vaccines, pandemic restrictions and the Liberal authorities congregated in Ottawa.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Nov. 11, 2022.