Canada to honour 75th anniversary of D-Day with ceremonies across country

Thestar.com
June 6, 2019
The Canadian Press

Canadians will mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in ceremonies across the country today --with the aged veterans who are the last living link to the largest seaborne invasion in history as the venerated guests of honour.

On June 6, 1944, an Allied force of 150,000 troops stormed France’s Normandy coast in a momentous turning point in the Second World War.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders gather in Normandy, Canadians across the country will turn out for wreath laying ceremonies, lectures and displays, with the main ceremony at Willow Park Armoury in Halifax. The location was switched from the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site due to weather concerns.

One of the earliest events will take place in Toronto, where Mayor John Tory and city councillors will attend a public ceremony beginning at 7:30 a.m. at the Old City Hall Cenotaph.

Capt. Martin Maxwell of the Glider Pilot Regiment, British 6th Airborne Division, is to share his story in Toronto about being among the first to land in Normandy the night before the invasion.

The Halifax commemoration ceremony will feature an act of remembrance and two minutes of silence.

Several veterans are expected to be introduced, with scheduled remarks by historian Don Julien, who will speak about Mi’kmaq soldiers, and Richard Tilley, who will speak about his father Harold Tilley, who is featured on the Veterans Affairs Canada D-Day poster.

Veterans expected to take part in the Halifax ceremony include Havelyn Chiasson, 98, who landed with the first wave of troops on Juno Beach as a 23-year-old with the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment.

About 14,000 Canadians were involved in the D-Day assault, code-named Operation Overlord. Canada also contributed some 110 ships and 15 fighter and bomber squadrons. On D-Day, 359 Canadians died and another 715 were wounded or captured.

The ferocious fighting in Normandy would continue for another two months at a cost of more than 5,000 Canadian lives.

Canadian War Museum historian Tim Cook said the recognition of the 75th anniversary is especially significant because the number of surviving veterans is steadily dwindling, with most in their mid-90s or older.

“We’re on the razor’s edge, I think of lived memory passing into history,” said Cook. “And that will change how we think about this war when we’ve lost our last eyewitnesses to it.”

He said estimates place the number of veterans who are still alive at about 30,000, from the 1.1 million who served.

“They were ordinary men and women who were pressed into service in extraordinary times and that is perhaps how we should see them as we move toward this period where we will soon lose them all,” Cook said.

Among the official ceremonies planned elsewhere Thursday include a wreath laying at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, and wreath layings in Lethbridge and Nordegg, Alta., and in Yellowknife.

In Joggins, N.S., a cenotaph re-dedication will honour 13 young men from the community whose names will be added to the memorial, and a candlelight ceremony will be held at dusk in Gore Park in Hamilton, Ont.

Commemorative D-Day ceremonies are also planned for Saturday in Winnipeg and Calgary.