Remembrance Day returns to the National War Memorial

No "Freedom Convoy," just thanks

November 11—A return to full Remembrance day services at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

The weather was fine. The crowd was large, quietly clapping the ranks of marchers, respectful.

Four CF-18s did a fly-by. A Hurricane and a Spitfire, emblematic fighter planes from the Second World War crossed the sky. In their wake came a slower Harvard trainer, on which so many Commonwealth pilots learned to fly in Canada during the Second World War. The artillery fired their percussive salutes, smoke curling up from the barrel over Parliament Hill.

One unexpected object in the sky: a drone. It hovered peacefully. The pigeons wheeling around paid it no heed.

The drone a remainder. An eye for a very different scene, only months ago. Then police had to put up fencing to try to protect the War Memorial site from the uncaring, the unknowing. The fencing was torn down by “Freedom Convoy” protesters. There is a law to protect war memorial sites across Canada from “mischief.” A law, like the Emergencies Act, that should never have to be contemplated or used.

Today was a good day. And far away, in a land where people are fighting and losing their lives and their homes for the sake of freedom, a city was regained.