Padres at Remembrance Day ceremonies in Halifax and St. John’s opened their speeches Wednesday by remembering the four soldiers killed in last month’s fire at CFB Wainwright, bringing the recent training tragedy into the annual observances of military sacrifice.

According to reporting by The Canadian Press published by Global News, Padre Stephen Courtney at the National War Memorial in St. John’s honoured those killed and the dozens injured at the Alberta base.

“We remember those who died, the injured, especially those who remain in hospital at this time,” Courtney told a quiet crowd of hundreds. “We remember the families.”

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., died when strong winds drove a nearby grass fire across the training area. Thirty-nine others were injured, and many remain in hospital recovering, the report said.

In Halifax, Padre Steven Cochrane also reflected on Wainwright while honouring Canadian Armed Forces members and the sacrifices made during training. Hundreds gathered at the downtown Grand Parade to bow their heads and remember those lost in battle.

Rain and cold did not keep people away from the St. John’s ceremony. Crowds filled the streets on either side of the National War Memorial and the stairs between them, with red poppies visible against dark winter jackets.

Among those laying wreaths were Leo Knox and several generations of his family. They were honouring his father, Leo F. Knox, a Second World War gunner with the 166th Royal Newfoundland Field Artillery Regiment who died about five years ago at 93.

Knox said the family had promised his father they would place a wreath at the memorial every year.

“It’s the one day of the year that I really like to do nothing except reflect on not only my dad, but all the other veterans,” he said.

The observance also came in the 110th anniversary year of the First World War’s Battle of Beaumont-Hamel, where hundreds of Royal Newfoundland Regiment soldiers were cut down by German fire.

Sources