General Chat

Remembering Canada's WW I veterans
The sacrifices, valour that helped define a nation

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/24/f-canada-first-world-war.html

The CBC is showing the ceremony today live on line and I think it should be acessible overseas.

10:30 a.m. my time -- which is two hours after the timestamp on this message, wherever you are. ;)

Story:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/02/ceremony-first-world-war.html

National ceremony to honour WW I vets

The federal government will hold a national commemorative ceremony in April to honour Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served during the First World War, Veteran Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn announced on Tuesday.

Newfoundland, then a separate dominion before it became a Canadian province, sent thousands of troops to fight in the war. More than 1,200 of them died.

The ceremony, to be held April 9 on Vimy Ridge Day at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, follows the death of Canada's last known First World War veteran.

Babcock's death marked the end of an era, Blackburn told CBC-TV's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon.

"When Mr. Babcock died … we thought it was important to take the opportunity of this occasion to remind Canadians what those 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders have done for [us] in this great war," he said.

"And we should realize 68,000 of those Canadians have lost their lives. They have done the great sacrifice for us to have a better life. And also 170,000 Canadians in the first war came back with injuries."

Other ceremonies will take place across Canada, along with events at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France and the Canada Memorial at Green Park, in London, England.

The government is also providing "books of reflection" for the public to sign to pay their respects. An online version will also be available at the Veterans Affairs Canada website.



I thought some here might be interested. I'm sure the program will be available at the CBC site for later viewing too.

I have to work this morning and probably can't get the CBC video thingy to work still, so I'm videotaping it. ;)

So 3.30pm our time then.

That's it. ;) I wasn't quite sure when I was typing, what it would come out as. We go on daylight savings time at different points -- we've been on it for a while now, and I see you've caught up!

Five hours difference between us (between the UK and central Canada), except during that daylight savings blip. ;)

I always find it confusing especially when we have travelled to the states and then Canada, all time changes. The worst was when we did the canyons I think it is Lake Powell where half the town is in one time zone and the other half in another, we were staying in one and eating in the other.

And then there's Newfoundland ... a half hour ahead of the Atlantic provinces. CBC program announcements always say things like "coming up at 8 pm, 8:30 in Newfoundland".





The world will end at 6:00 ....







... 6:30 in Newfoundland.




Btw, in 1914, Newfoundland was still a British colony; joined Canada in 1949, after much acrimony, to put it mildly. That's why the CBC piece above says "Canadians and Newfoundlanders".