The deafening sound of a 96-gun salute in honour of Queen Elizabeth II rang out around downtown Toronto Tuesday afternoon.
Tribute was paid by the Seventh Toronto Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery ahead of a memorial service for the late queen held by the Anglican Church of Canada in Toronto.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, were scheduled to attend the memorial service.
The province was encouraged to mark the queen’s funeral on Monday. Bells tolled and many took a moment of silence.
Transit services briefly paused as Canada and Ontario declared Monday a Day of Mourning to coincide with the funeral. Ford encouraged people to observe a moment of silence “to reflect on the remarkable life and legacy of service” of the queen.
Tuesday, the day after the queen’s state funeral in London, England, four guns were setup on Wellesley Street West between Queen’s Park and the Ontario legislature for the salute, which lasted roughly 15 minutes.
Organizers said 96 shots were fired — one for every year of Queen Elizabeth II’s life. The queen died on Sept. 8 after serving the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth for 70 years as monarch.
— with files from The Canadian Press