Thousands of people gathered in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday to observe a solemn Remembrance Day ceremony honouring those who served and died in the Canadian Armed Forces. This year marked the city’s 102nd consecutive Remembrance Day event at the Victory Square cenotaph, while dozens of other events were held in communities across the province and the country. This Remembrance Day comes just three weeks since four soldiers were killed and dozens of others injured in a training accident at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta. Among those killed were Pte. Aidan Goulding, 23, of North Vancouver and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark, 19, of Langley, B.C. Vancouver’s Remembrance Day ceremony has been observed at Victory Square since 1924, making it the longest-running annual ceremony in the city. This year’s ceremony was held 81 since the end of the Second World War. Veterans Affairs Canada estimates there are 4,306 Canadian veterans of the Second World War and Korean War alive today. A Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora patrol plane conducted a flypast of the Vancouver ceremony under cloudy skies. Vancouver Mayor Pete Fry offered brief remarks and awarded the Cam Cathcart Youth Poem of Remembrance Award to a student, who read her original composition before two minutes of silence were observed. City officials estimate upwards of 15,000 people attend the official ceremony at the cenotaph each Nov. 11.
