Vancouver Remembrance Day ceremony reflects on D-Day anniversary

Thousands of people gathered in downtown Vancouver Monday to observe the 100th Remembrance day ceremony at the Victory Square cenotaph, paying their respects to the Canadian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

This year’s somber service reflected on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, in the largest seaborne invasion in history.

Some 21,000 Canadian soldiers were involved in the initial attack, and 381 were killed in action that day.

“For most of those young Canadians, it was their first time in battle,” said Jim Stanton, co-director of ceremonies. “We will not forget those volunteer citizen soldiers who fought bravely for peace.”

By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Canadian death toll exceeded 5,000.

Vancouver’s Remembrance Day ceremony has been observed at Victory Square since 1924, without interruption, making it the oldest annual ceremony in the city.

Officials estimate upwards of 15,000 people attend each year, rain or shine.

Co-director Doug Poitras noted that veterans of the Second World War and Korean War were among those in attendance Monday, including 101-year-old Percy J. Smith, who served in the British Merchant Navy from 1942 to 1946.

Fewer than 5,000 of the approximately one million Canadians who served in those two wars are still with us, Poitras said.

“We proudly wear our poppies to keep their memory alive,” said Poitras. “Thanks for all you have done.”

This year’s ceremony also recognized the 10th anniversary of the Oct. 22, 2014 shooting on Parliament Hill, which killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a soldier and reservist on ceremonial sentry duty, and injured three others.

The service featured several performances, including by Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs and the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services band.

The sorrowful sound of bugle call The Last Post was followed by a two-minute silence and 21-gun salute at 11 a.m.

“We can all reflect on the loss of loved ones and friends – in battle or at home from injury – and hope for peace in the future,” Stanton said.

Kari Wang, a Grade 6 student from H.T. Thrift Elementary, was this year’s winner of the Cam Cathcart Youth Poem of Remembrance award, and performed her original poem, “The Colour of Remembrance”:

If remembrance was a colour,

It would be red and white.

The colour of the Canadian flag.

If remembrance was a sound,

It would be people’s heartbeats,

The worried heartbeats of the soldiers

and the families that are waiting

for them to come home.

If remembrance was a smell,

It would be a comforting smell from home.

The cozy place that was always

welcoming to you.

If remembrance was a feeling,

It would be hopeful.

The hope of warm hugs and good friends

when you return.

If remembrance was a taste,

It would be bitter,

The bitterness of coffee without cream,

Like a family that has been split apart.

If remembrance was a place,

It would be a cenotaph.

Where names of long-ago heroes are written

on the stone for people to remember.

If remembrance has a purpose,

It is to recognize and remember all

the people that have participated in wars.

So that we could have peace and freedom.

The poetry award was created by its namesake – who served as Vancouver’s director of ceremonies for 18 years before his death in 2021 – to engage young people in Remembrance Day.