Winter came early and ushered in a beautiful yet sombre ambience at the foot of the now 100-year-old cenotaph at Old City Hall in Toronto to mark Remembrance Day and 80 years since the end of the Second World War.
The 48th Highlanders, dressed in full uniform, rehearsed various musical numbers as dignitaries, soldiers and observers arrived for the day’s reflections. As the 11th hour approached, the crowd gathered beyond the sidewalk and spilled down Bay Street, as onlookers stood side-by-side.
Emily Cathcart stood among the crowd, braving the cold and clutching an old, framed photograph of her grandfather, Lloyd Simpson, a World War II veteran.
“I think we shouldn’t lose sight of what they did for our country,” Cathcart said. “It’s all because of them that we're able to live our lives the way we want to today.”
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow addressed the gathered crowd to acknowledge the sacrifices people made serving Canada and to describe the significance of this Remembrance Day.
“Young Canadians who left their homes, their families and their futures behind to defend the peace and freedoms we too often take for granted,” Chow said. “We mark the centennial of the Toronto Centre, which has stood here as an enduring symbol of the sacrifice and remembrance for 100 years.”
The engravings on the cenotaph tell stories, Chow said.
“Behind every name on the cenotaph is a story of a son who never came home, a daughter whose promise went unfulfilled, a parent's unbearable grief, a spouse left to carry on alone. These were real people with dreams, with families, with everything to live for,” the mayor said.
Chow stated the sobering fact that more than 3,500 Torontonians lost their lives during the Second World War, while also touching on the mental health toll of those who came home.
“Thousands more returned home as prisoners of war, carrying wounds both visible and invisible, injuries that would stay with them for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Andre Fingerly, who makes it a family tradition to visit a cenotaph on Remembrance Day, was at Old City Hall for the first time.
“I think it's an extremely important day to acknowledge that the people that sacrificed their lives for us, that makes all of this possible for us, to be able to have a free, open conversation that we're having right now,” Fingerly said.
Among the people in uniform, Capt. Erika Palakovic of the Royal Canadian Army reflected on how her perspective of Remembrance Day had changed since joining the military 10 years ago.
“What I was remembering prior [to joining the military], was something that belonged in history, in my mind,” she said.
“Today, I see that we need to remember the more modern conflicts as well, and particularly to keep in mind the invisible wounds that people come home with,” Palakovic said.
