If you are looking for some alternatives because of the cancellation of many Remembrance Day ceremonies because of COVID-19, the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa has some suggestions.
It begins on Sunday for National Aboriginal Veterans Day, which falls each year on November 8th.
Museum spokesperson, Kathryn Lyons, says there will be a webinar at 1pm Saskatchewan time featuring Indigenous veteran Tim O’Loan. He will talk about his ten years experience in the Canadian Armed Forces, including both the highs of military service and community, and the lows of enduring racism in the military and in everyday life.
The Canadian War Museum website also has resources for any group or classroom that wants to learn more or to organize their own ceremony. On Remembrance Day, there will be what Lyons describes as a touching, silent online event. The former headstone that marked Canada’s Unknown Soldier’s grave near Vimy Ridge sits alone in a stark room with one window, positioned so that at exactly 11 a.m. on Remembrance Day the sun will shine through and highlight the headstone. Because we are an hour behind, that web event will begin around 9:40 in Saskatchewan. Lyons says for her, it really puts Remembrance Day into sharp focus. The sun shining through and the two minutes of silence cuts away the clutter of our everyday lives and calls our attention to the loss, sacrifice and service of so many who served our country.
It will be on the Canadian War Museum’s website and Facebook page, and a recording of it will be available through the 15th.















