By David F. Rooney
Hundreds of people gathered at the cenotaph under a cold, clear sky to honour Canada’s war dead.
The annual Remembrance Day rituals here are always well attended with crowds of at least 400 people. This year there appeared to be even more people in attendance. An exact number was impossible to obtain but I estimate this year’s crowd at perhaps as high as 600 men, women and children.
The Remembrance Day ceremony is always a poignant one and this year’s was particularly bittersweet due to the declining population of Second World War veterans — their average age is 90 years of age — and the recent attacks in Ontario and Quebec that left Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and WO Patrice Vincent dead. Those two soldiers were the latest additions to the roll of 118,000 Canadian and Newfoundlander soldiers have died serving Canada and the United Kingdom since the start of the First World War in 1914. You can find out more about our war dead and look up the names of specific soldiers at the Virtual War Museum.
Here is a selection of photos taken during our local Remembrance Day ceremony:
