Close to a thousand people came out to Vernon’s Kal Tire Place to pay their respects to the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
The rink was filled with people wearing bright red poppies, who rose to their feet for the singing of O Canada and the playing of The Last Post and the Rouse.
Friday marked the first time the Remembrance Day ceremony was held at the arena since 2019.
“I think it’s fantastic,” retired Major Jake Flanders said of the packed house. “It’s awesome because it’s the first time we’ve had a ceremony at Kal Tire Place since COVID, and I’m actually impressed right now at the overall number of people that are here. It’s nice to have this many citizens from Vernon coming here to pay respects to the fallen.”
The Vernon Community Band provided live music for the event, and the Kalamalka Highlanders pipe and drum band also played and took part in the parade.
Among the participants in the parade that winded through the arena floor was the B.C. Dragoons, the Vernon branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, members of the army, navy and air force, the RCMP and Vernon Fire Rescue Services.
Mayor Victor Cumming and Vernon-Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu were among the many who laid a wreath down at the foot of a cross erected on the south end of the arena floor.
Senior Fulton Secondary student Sydney Byles read Lt.-Col. John McCrae’s famous First World War poem, In Flanders Fields.
For this year’s ceremony, Flanders put an emphasis on Canada’s many peacekeeping missions over the decades since the Second World War.
“Many of you are probably unaware that Canadian peace keepers died in fighting in the Congo in the 1960s,” he said.
“You may also be not aware of the heroic actions of the second battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, who fought … in Yugoslavia in 1993. These were all performed as peace keepers under the United Nations mandate but still carried out by tough-as-nails Canadian service men and women.
“130 Canadians have paid the ultimate price on peacekeeping missions … today we gather to remember them.”
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