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On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
This Remembrance Day marks the 100th anniversary of the poppy, as Canadians honour and remember all those who once served, and continue to serve for their country.
In Saskatoon, it marks the second consecutive year the ceremony has gone virtual. This year, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 63 gathered together to watch the ceremony online.
While it’s not thousands of people at SaskTel Centre, Second World War veteran Ruth Bond-Martinson is just thrilled to be back in an in-person setting.
“This is the first Remembrance Day in two years that we’ve been able to openly get together,” said Bond-Martinson. “It’s great, this is my home unit and I know a lot of people here.”
Bond-Martinson is 96 years old and has so many different stories to reflect on throughout her years serving with the Navy. The main memory that stands alone happens to be D-Day.
“Memories of people that I worked with and learned to know in wartime during D-Day. I was in Halifax on D-Day, and it was so exciting with the ships coming into the harbour, blowing the horns. Crowds and crowds of people.”
For 97-year-old World War Two Veteran Bob Atkinson, this year is extra special to commemorate the poppy anniversary. Atkinson spent several years working on the poppy campaign and says he always loves seeing the younger generation wearing one on their chest.
“It was always nice to see how many young people stopped for a poppy,” Atkinson said. “I’ll always remember some of the Indigenous mothers would bring their kids, and all of those kids always wanted to stop for a poppy. They wanted to do something, and it did your heart good.”
The shift from honouring veterans from past world wars, to keeping the same consistency for recent and present members is one of the biggest focuses now for Canadians.
Captain Rodney Dignean has made many presentations in schools and continues to deliver this message.
“I emphasize the younger generation, the newer veterans. A lot of Canadian veterans since World War Two leading up to today, in my view, are the forgotten ones,” Dignean stated.
“We focus on World War One and World War Two, but I think we need to focus on the veterans since then. It’s more important even now to recognize the effects on veterans that have been deployed and served. They suffer the same today as veterans in the past.”
