Crowds gathered at Toronto’s Old City Hall and Queen’s Park on Nov. 11 to honour Canada’s veterans and serving military members, with speakers also remembering four soldiers killed in a fire at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta.

At the Old City Hall Cenotaph, retired Canadian Navy lieutenant John Anderson prepared to lay a wreath while reflecting on the people who formed his service “brotherhood,” according to CityNews reporting credited to Patricia D’Cunha and The Canadian Press.

Anderson, a Cambridge, Ont., resident who served in the navy for more than 40 years, said participating in the annual ceremonies was a particular honour.

“It honours the people who served to give us what we have today and the current people that are serving,” he said. “You bring them together, it’s like one big brotherhood.”

Mayor Olivia Chow used her remarks at Old City Hall to commemorate the Legion’s 100th anniversary and its example of mutual support.

“The Legion shows us the city we can be. A city where no one carries the burden alone. A city where we take care of each other and stand up for each other,” Chow said.

About two kilometres away, people assembled outside Queen’s Park, where Premier Doug Ford said this year’s Remembrance Day was “especially poignant” following the Wainwright fire, which killed four soldiers and injured dozens of others.

Ford thanked Ontario health-care workers deployed to support recovery efforts. He also spoke about the meaning of remembrance for those whose relatives or friends served, including people who returned with visible or invisible wounds.

Brig.-Gen. Éric Landry, who served in Afghanistan in a leadership role, thanked Canadian Armed Forces members for choosing to defend the country. He told the Queen’s Park gathering that Canada deployed 40,000 troops to Afghanistan over 15 years and that 158 never returned.

Landry also honoured the four soldiers killed at Wainwright, saying they would never be forgotten.

Other Toronto ceremonies took place at Prospect Cemetery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Fort York National Historic Site and the Toronto Zoo.

Sources