Thursday 10 November 2011

Canada Remembers our Veterans and Heroes on Remembrance Day 11/11

Each year on November 11 Canadians commemorate our veterans, active military, and fallen heroes in thanks for their bravery and sacrifice so that we and millions of people around the world can live in freedom.  We honor this date in memory of the end of the first World War which came at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.  More than 65,000 Canadian soldiers died in WWI in battles that included Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele – battles that changed the course of the war.  Since that time the Canadian military has continued to fight alongside our allies in times of war and acts as a global peacekeeping force defending people still living under oppression and where their basic human rights are being abused around the world. 

The men and women who serve give their bravery, hearts, and all too often their lives in pursuit of the highest belief that every person – man, woman, and child – deserves to live in freedom without fear or suffering.  To the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have fought in the name of freedom and continue to fight today we are grateful beyond words.

Please join me at 11am on Friday November 11th in observing a moment of silence to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers and say a prayer that the thousands of military personal – our sons and daughters – from Canada and the many other countries who fight along side us return home safe.

The Ode of Remembrance:

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

~ with gratitude

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