Hundreds of people gathered at the University of Alberta’s Butterdome on Sunday morning to pay tribute to Canadians who have lost their lives in military conflicts.
The Butterdome event is Edmonton’s largest Remembrance Day event.
Sunday’s Remembrance Day ceremony at the university saw the continuation of annual traditions, like the lighting of the peace torch, the playing of The Last Post, two minutes of silence for the fallen and a reading of the poem “In Flanders Fields.”
Watch below: Some videos from Sunday’s Remembrance Day event at the Butterdome.
But Sunday’s ceremony also came on the 100th anniversary of the armistice that brought an end to the First World War, something acknowledged by Alberta Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell in her speech.
Mitchell reminded the crowd that one in 10 of the 650,000 Canadians who served in that war never made it home, while another 172,000 were injured.
“Although a century has passed since the armistice brought a great war to an end, their absences continue to be felt and honoured in our communities like we are doing today,” she said. “The same can be said for every Canadian in uniform who sacrificed their life in the ongoing struggle to ensure a more peaceful, a just and a tolerant world for all people.”
READ MORE: Canadians travel to Mons, Belgium to honour relatives who served in First World War
Mitchell told the crowd that she was “going to do something a little different” at this year’s ceremony, and asked all military veterans as well as current members of the Canadian Armed Forces to stand so “we can recognize your service.”
Mitchell also thanked the crowd “for your commitment to honouring our heroes in uniform.”
Other Remembrance Day services were also held in Alberta’s capital on Sunday, including at the Beverly Memorial Cenotaph and at the Alberta legislature.
View photos from Edmonton’s 2018 Remebrance Day ceremonies in the gallery below.
Premier Rachel Notley issued a statement on Sunday acknowledging the “thousands of Albertans, among tens of thousands of Canadians, who paid for our freedoms with their lives.”
“We honour the soldiers, nurses and others who came home wounded in body and scarred in spirit — and those who did not come home at all,” the statement said. “Our debt to those who served a century ago is great. Though we can never repay that debt, nor mend what has been irreparably torn, we can remember those who risked and gave their lives for our protection.
“Today, and always, we will remember them.”
WATCH: Hundreds of people gathered at the Alberta Legislature on Sunday to honour the memory of those who lost their lives in the First World War. As Albert Delitala tells us, there was a historic instrument at the event that played a huge part in the marking of the armistice in 1918.
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