I was honoured to once again provide photographic services to the Royal Canadian Legion – Dominion Command for the National Remembrance Day Ceremony at the National War Memorial. Because the national ceremony is their story to tell, I will not do so here but rather just show a few pictures from before and after the actual ceremony and add a few comments.
As usual, the weather for November 11th can be mercurial and I found this day to be that. It was forecast to be -10 C with the wind chill and the esplanade of the National War Memorial usually has the wind whistling around without any large buildings to block it. Snow flurries were in the forecast but only made a momentary showing. However, I found the day to be good, despite the gray overcast, without much wind and, although cool, the temperature was such that I never did up my jacket and just after the ceremony, the sun tried, and finally did, make an appearance. All in all, a lovely day that could have been worse.
It is my opinion that the crowds were not as large as in the previous couple of years and this could have been because of the weather forecast. I base this solely on my experience of what happens when the barriers are removed after the ceremony and the public are allowed on the site to place their poppies on the Tomb. This year, this initial burst of people seemed to be over much sooner and the number of people coming later in the day also fewer in number. I usually get my best pictures of poppy placement on the Tomb after 1430 hrs. but this year, it pretty much seemed all done by 1400 hrs. As well, it did not seem that there were as large a number of poppies on the Tomb as in previous years.
The day allowed me to take two very different pictures of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In the first instance in the morning, I was able to place poppies from Australia (from ANZAC Day) the UK and Canada along with “Lest We Forget” wrist bands on the Tomb which had been brushed to take most of the snow away. The gray clouds added a gray-blue tinge to the monument and with the remaining snow presented a certain starkness or perhaps a feeling of forlorn. Later in the afternoon, with the sun out and peoples’ poppy and flower tributes on the Tomb, the sun backlighting the bronze relief made the red of the poppies and flowers deep and rich and presented an entirely different emotional response. Still one of sadness at the loss of these soldiers, but also one of appreciation for the sacrifice.
As usual, there were tributes other than poppies and flowers and I’ve captured a few of those as well. They are mostly pictures of ancestors from WWI and WWII but a few other artworks as well. And what would Remembrance Day without a couple of service dog pictures.
The only disturbance during the day came about 1330 hrs. when a gentleman wearing placards started walking around the monument shouting about his cause which was “Goazicoin”. Now, from the little I know, Goazicoin is a person, real name Feng Goa, who has developed a system of political representation that is based on a system called “Blockclerk” where each city block has a representative decided by lottery. It should be noted that Feng Goa is homeless, schizophrenic, anti-Covid-19 vaccine, and supported the 2022 Convoy Protest where he was arrested. This protest in itself is not unusual although inappropriate in this venue.
However, although this man appeared like he could use a little mental health support, rather than ignore or belittle the man, one individual actually went up and engaged him in a dialogue. When his friends asked him why, he simply stated that the man had an opinion and just wanted someone to listen and you can’t change anything unless you talk to the other people, especially when their opinions are contrary to your own. Anyway, this individual took his time, was very respectful, and I think did more good than harm as Feng calmly walked away from the area afterwards. He could give Trump a couple of lessons on inter-personal relationships.
Anyway, that was my day on the 11th. I took about 2100 pictures of which the Legion gets 469. If you’re interested in seeing the pictures, you should head over the Legion Instagram site and have a look. https://www.instagram.com/royalcanadianlegion/
And here are just a couple more pictures.
