In Canada, Remembrance Day is an opportunity to pause and reflect on the sacrifices made for the freedoms we enjoy as Canadians. The ceremony at the Celebration Square of Mississauga commenced at 10:30 AM on November 11.

The ceremony was held at the monument at the upper level of the Celebration Square. The monument consists of 21 candles, representing the 21-Gun-Salute, a sign of peace, honour and remembrance.

Everyone wore a Red Poppy. Please read Why Do We Wear a Poppy Today?

Dignitaries, veterans, soldiers, members of the Fire, Ambulance and Police departments and young cadets laid wreaths to honour the soldiers, veterans those who laid down their lives to make our lives better.

Among the distinguished attendees were Mississauga Mayor Caroline Parish, MPP Deepak Anand, and the heads of the Police, Fire, and Ambulance services. Anand, an engineer from Panjab University with an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2018 and holds a profound respect for soldiers and veterans.

Hundreds of observers looked on as Oh Canada, the national anthem was sung.  It was followed by the piper performing the song Danny Boy, followed by the recital the poem In Flanders Fields. Please Click to read about the poem In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a doctor of the Canadian Army during World War I.

At 11 AM, as the bugler sounded the Last Post, everyone stood up and observed two-minute silence in reverence to the soldiers, veterans and all those who laid down their lives.  The city’s buses and trains stopped their services for two minutes. At the end, Rouse was played by the bugler to mark the end of the ceremony.

Eight decades after the end of the deadliest military conflict in history, Canadians paused for Remembrance Day ceremonies to honour those who put their lives on the line for their country. Veterans Affairs Canada estimates that as of this year, there are 3,691 surviving Canadian veterans of the Second World War — 667 women and 3,024 men. The stories of that war — from the bloody horrors of combat to the aftermath of postwar economic uncertainty — are passing from the realm of living to recorded history as the number of veterans who remember those days grows smaller.

 The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten – Abraham Lincoln