When the Olympic cauldron was ablaze in February, Pte. Benjamin Chau was in a faraway land, serving his country.
But Thursday, as part of Vancouver’s Remembrance Day ceremonies, he was standing in front of the burning flames to receive the Canadian flag from an older war veteran, symbolizing John McCrae’s immortal words: “To you from failing hands we throw the torch.”
“It’s quite the experience,” said the 20-year-old Chau, who returned this year after a seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan mentoring its budding army.
“I’m representing a lot of people by taking this flag,” he said. “It means a lot.”
Handing Chau the flag was Commander Bill Paull, who served in the navy for 37 years and helped keep the peace during the Cold War.
“I was serving from a previous era while we were still the Royal Canadian Navy,” said Paull, who recalls being in an anti-submarine frigate off the Pacific Coast when the Cuban missile crisis broke out.
“Now we are handing the torch on to another generation and to another era.”
At Victory Square hundreds of people, blood-red poppies pinned to their coats, braved the November cold to bow their heads to Canada’s war dead and its returning veterans.
“We remember each Canadian who has made the ultimate sacrifice serving in emergencies and armed conflicts past and present, and civilians lost or bereaved through conflicts,” said Rev. Paul Beckingham in the opening prayer.
The sombre ceremony honoured the more than 100,000 fallen Canadians who fought in two world wars, the Korean War, and various U.N. missions, including Afghanistan – Canada’s longest-running conflict, which has taken the lives of 152 soldiers and created a new generation of veterans.
Just before 11 a.m., the solo strains of a bugler playing The Last Post heralded a two-minute silence, which was broken by the distant booms of a 21-gun salute from Portside Park and the bugle call of Reveille.
The mournful wail of the bagpipes playing Scottish Lament accompanied Lt.-Gov. Stephen Point, Premier Gordon Campbell, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and dozens of local dignitaries and groups who laid wreaths at the cenotaph.
The second of the wreath-layers was Sian Jones Lesueur, honoured as the Silver Cross mother representing the grieving families who have lost loved ones to conflict.
“I know the pain they’ve gone through, and the suffering, and what it does to the family after,” said Lesueur, silver cross pinned on her coat, just above her heart.
“It’s very heart-wrenching and exhausting, but I’m so honoured.”
Lesueur’s son Pte. Garrett Chidley, 21, was one of five Canadians killed last December when a homemade bomb blasted a Canadian Forced armoured vehicle off a muddy road outside of Kandahar City, killing four soldiers along with Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang of Vancouver.
Lesueur, whose ex-husband was in Ottawa for the national Remembrance Day ceremony, said she was touched by the huge turnout in Vancouver.
“I’m honoured they are here for the people who have died and served, and people who are over there right now,” she said.
“It’s an amazing thing soldiers do for us, and I’m honoured to be here for them.”
Margaret Panton brought her four godchildren, ranging in age from four to 11, from Surrey to the ceremony because she wanted them to learn the lessons of war and peace.
“I want to teach them the whole vast concept of war, of remembering, so there is an appreciation of the importance of preventing wars,” she said.
The best offering we have today, she added, is to teach our children how to do it differently in the future:
“Our remembering should motivate us to peace.”
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