Canada’s Remembrance Day ceremonies mark 100-year anniversary of First World War armistice

By Staff The Canadian Press

Posted November 11, 2018 7:44 am

Updated November 11, 2018 12:03 pm

1 min read

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Remembrance Day Poppies, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, War Memorial. Dennis McColeman / Getty Images

Canada’s Remembrance Day ceremonies today will mark 100 years since the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan will be at the national ceremony in Ottawa representing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau is spending Remembrance Day weekend in France and his office says he will attend Armistice Day ceremonies in Paris today, marking the end of the “war to end all wars.”

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Back in Ottawa, Governor General Julie Payette will attend the national ceremony alongside Sajjan, after returning from Belgium where she attended additional commemorative events.

Dominion carillonneur Andrea McCrady will play the bells in Parliament Hill at sunset as part of an initiative organized by the Royal Canadian Legion. Bells will ring out as night falls in one place after another across the country, including at city halls and places of worship, on military bases and ships, and at ceremonies to honour veterans who served during the First World War.

Click to play video: 'French president Emmanuel Macron lays wreath at tomb of Unknown Soldier'

3:22 French president Emmanuel Macron lays wreath at tomb of Unknown Soldier

McCrady will play “The Last Post” on the Peace Tower carillon, followed by striking the largest bell 100 times, at five-second intervals, which represents the moment in 1918 when bells across Europe tolled as the war came to an end.

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