MONTREAL — The blast of cannons pierced the air on Sunday as Montrealers gathered at a downtown square to mark the 100-year anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War.
The veterans in the crowd saluted as the band played “O Canada” and dignitaries read prayers and poems as a tribute to those who died in armed conflicts.
Two Royal Canadian Air Force helicopters conducted a low-altitude flyby, as the first of 21 cannon blasts marked the beginning of two minutes of silence.
Retired major general Denis Thompson, whose 39-year career included commanding troops overseas in Cypress, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, said Remembrance Day ceremonies are “important and cathartic” to those who have served.
Thompson said he spends the two minutes of silence remembering the names of the 25 Canadian and dozen American soldiers who died under his command in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009, as well as the 100 that came home wounded.
“I can fill that two minutes of silence up very easily, just by cycling through the names of the men that died under my command,” he said.
The ceremony began at around 10:30 a.m. with a military parade that included representatives from all of Canada’s armed forces.
Later, dignitaries including Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and federal Tourism Minister Melanie Joly were invited to lay ceremonial wreaths a military band played a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
The veterans at the ceremony included 94-year-old Second World War veteran Frederick “Tex” Dawson, who laid a wreath on the cenotaph on behalf of McGill University.
Dawson said he joined the front in the last three months of the conflict, where he served as an artillery soldier in France, Germany and Holland.
“You’re too young to be afraid of anything,” he said of his time in the army.
Dawson’s strongest war memory is manning his gun when the announcement came over the loudspeaker that the conflict had ended.
“I ran in the barn where the fellows were sleeping and I said, ‘The war is over! The war is over!’ and of course they didn’t believe me,” he said at the Montreal ceremony.
The ceremony was one of many that took place across the country to commemorate the physical and mental toll of war on Canadian soldiers and communities.
Premier Francois Legault participated in a ceremony on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, while the French-language group Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste was expected to present medals to eight Quebec war veterans at a ceremony in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery.