WARMINGTON: Toronto's Remembrance Day service puts focus where it should be this time around

· Toronto Sun

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This was a Remembrance Day ceremony that will be remembered for the right reasons.

Remembrance Day was never supposed to be about the politicians presiding over Nov. 11 services, but about those who served and fell under the Canadian flag in wartime.

But sometimes, the politicians have found a way to make it about themselves or use it to draw an equivalence between Canada’s soldiers and their past enemies.

Not this year in Toronto. This was how it should be.

Mayor Thomas Langton Church, Mayor Thomas Foster, Mayor Robert Hood Saunders and Mayor Olivia Chow.

There are 106 years of Toronto history among those four names. And when it comes to how to conduct a Remembrance Day ceremony, Chow can now rightfully stand beside those three giants of the past.

Church was the mayor for Toronto’s first Armistice Day ceremony in 1920. Foster was mayor at the first one at the cenotaph at Old City Hall in 1925, while Saunders let the city through remembrance after the Second World War in 1945.

Mayor Chow handled it well this year

Toronto’s Remembrance Day service at Old City Hall on Wednesday was a throwback to the city’s past greatness, which, up until recent years, didn’t exist with the inclusion of the term ‘woke,’ let alone swim in it, as in recent years.

Chow hit the right tone this time.

“To the veterans and serving members here today, thank you,” she said. “You carry forward the legacy of those who served before you. A hundred years ago, veterans made a promise to look after one another.”

Mayor Chow added that “today, let us make that promise our own — to remember those who gave everything, to care for those who came home, and to keep working for a more peaceful and just world. Lest we forget.”

She also paid tribute to the four fallen last month in Wainwright, Alta., as a reminder of the cost that serving one’s country can include. Chow said “Sgt. Morgan Wong, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Aidan Goulding and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark were young, with their whole lives ahead of them.” She also praised “their fellow soldiers who ran towards danger to help others, and 39 others who were injured. We wish them strength and healing. We hold the families, loved ones, and fellow service members of all those affected in our hearts.”

Mayor deserves credit on this day

Give them credit. This was far better than last year when, on the same podium, there were speeches that seemingly — and insultingly — prioritized land acknowledgements .

That was bad. The way they acknowledged everybody’s contribution this year was good.

Special pat on the back for Aretha Phillip

Special kudos also must go to city of Toronto’s Chief of Protocol Aretha Phillip for learning from the past and correcting previous mistakes made. If she is going to receive heat and criticism for how things went in previous years, she deserves to get a pat on the back for how perfect it was this year.

“The whole thing was fantastic,” said Emily Cathcart, who comes down every year with a framed picture of her grandfather Lloyd Simpson, who served in the Second World War. “I loved it.”

It was fantastic because it was about the veterans — and people focused on remembering them.

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