Remembrance Day is not a national holiday in Canada though banks and government offices are closed. It is a commemoration of all the country’s war dead, and more generally of all who have served, or serve, in the armed forces, past and present. In Ottawa the event at the National War Memorial is organized, not too impressively, by the Royal Canadian Legion.
On 11-11-11 the Governor General brought dignity to the scene along with the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers, along with the year’s Silver Cross Mother. Various chaplains added more solemnity (and some atrocious French accents), a female trumpeter in blue uniform tried not to flub last post and reveille, while a minute of silence at 11 a.m. was ended by the boom of ceremonial cannon. A children’s choir cheerfully and bilingually sang the royal and national anthems accompanied by a miscellaneous military band. Token soldiers stood at attention, outnumbered by militia and busloads of cadets. RCMP and Royal Military College cadets in scarlet added some typical colour to a Canadian public occasion of minimal pomp and circumstance.
The day’s numbers felt a bit mystic: 11-11-11
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