OTTAWA – The Royal Canadian Legion is adopting an unprecedented resolution to deter Canadians from attending Remembrance Day ceremonies this year, as COVID-19 disrupts classic tactics of honoring those who have sacrificed their lives for Canada.
Legion affiliates across the country are scrambling to plan lighter versions of the dark annual ceremonies on November 11, as many local governments come together on a large scale due to the growing number of new instances of COVID-19.
This includes in Ottawa, where no fewer than 30,000 Canadians meet with loads of veterans and service members a year to mark Remembrance Day at the National War Memorial.
This year’s national rite will come with many classic elements like reading Last Post and lamenting, doing a song at Flanders Fields, as well as the arms boom, prayers and an army overpass, Legion Communications Director Nujma Bond said.
But some adjustments due to COVID-19 will be undeniable, with the resolution to cancel the parade of senior veterans, service members and school-age cadets that has long been an integral part of the event.
The Department of National Defense doesn’t have to invite cadets to attend Remembrance Day events across Canada, spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said. The participation of the Canadian Armed Forces workers’ corps is also limited, he added, with decisions made on a case-by-case basis. -Case base.
The resolve to cancel the annual Veterans Parade in Ottawa is astonishing given the d’ageing number of Canadians still alive who served in World War II and Korea. age exposes them to a great threat of COVID-19.
Instead, only a handful of others will be available in The Cenotaphile, as the Legion asks Canadians to adhere to local fitness rules and watch the rite on television or online than in person.
“For the first time in history, we will deter viewers from going to the National War Memorial,” Bond said. “It is a disgrace this year that we all have to paint within the limits that this pandemic has created. “
Approximately another 30,000 people attend the national rite each year, Bond said.
The same reluctant request is made through legions in other parts of the country, even when organizers clarify the main points in the context of converting public fitness guidelines.
One is branch five of the Legion in Thunder Bay, Ontario, whose annual open-air rite and parade amounts to up to fifteen veterans, military, cadets and volunteers, and is attended by approximately five00 people.
“Obviously, with the restrictions imposed on us across the province and the local fitness office, we went down to a hundred because we were outside,” said the segment’s president, Lester Newman. “We still don’t know if it has been absolutely reduced again, which would almost prevent it. “
“The Rite of Ottawa has city permission for up to a hundred other people because of the nature of the commemoration,” Bond said, “though everything can obviously until then. “)
Newman, who served for 42 years as a naval reservist before retiring as a lieutenant commander, said he had attended Remembrance Day ceremonies for decades and “was of my composition. “
The occasion organized through Legion Branch Five is vital for the three Thunder Bay infantrymen who died in Afghanistan, said Newman, Colonel Anthony Boneca, Captain Robert Costall and Captain Josh Klukie were killed in separate incidents in 2006.
Despite restrictions in Ottawa and Canada, Bond said ceremonies would remain unchanged in their respect for Canadian veterans and some of the family elements.
“And we have a lot of hope and invite others to participate in other ways,” he added. “This is a key moment for the Legion every year, it’s a key moment for veterans and many Canadians. “
The ways to participate are not only to watch on TV or online, but also to dress up in poppies once you have them later this month and detect two minutes of silence at 11 a. m. November 11, no matter where other people are.
Still, “it’s unhappy that we have to restrict the numbers,” said Bob Underhill, vice president of legion operations in British Columbia and Yukon and head of the organizing committee for the rite in Vancouver’s Victory Square.
The Victory Square rite is thought to be the largest moment in Canada after Ottawa, with approximately another 20,000 people attending each year, but this year, Underhill said the number remained below the local high of 50.
“We’re looking for our bands and soloists to make their component virtually, not attract others to Victory Square,” Underhill said.
“We’re going to have our official crown deposit on site, but we’re going to check to minimize what we’re doing on the site so as not to get attention and gather other people because we’re below the maximum of 50 friends. It’s going to be very different. “
This Canadian Press report was first published on October 10, 2020.