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Remembrance Day Virtual Ceremony
November 11, 2020
10:30 am
Online & TELUS Optik channel 710

Due to COVID-19 safety measures there will be no public gathering for Remembrance Day in New Westminster for 2020.

In partnership with the New Westminster Royal Canadian Legion, The Royal Westminster Regiment and other community organizations, Remembrance Day for 2020 has been re-imagined to meet COVID-19 safety requirements and to provide the community with a safe way of honouring our veterans and their sacrifices.

The ceremony will be live-streamed in the following locations:

Virtual Ceremony

The community is encouraged to pay tribute to our veterans from home. Join us on Wednesday, November 11 for a virtual ceremony live-streamed online starting at 10:30 am.

Though there is no public gathering this year, the virtual ceremony continues an important tradition of honouring our veterans and the sacrifices made. The broadcast will feature poetry readings, a memorial address, two minutes of silence and wreath ceremony. Music will be provided by the Royal Westminster Regiment Band, the Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band and Elizabeth Irving.

Contribute a Wreath to the Ceremony

Anyone wishing to buy a wreath for the virtual ceremony may contact the Royal Canadian Legion 604-524-1151 or .

A Time to Remember

There are other ways that you can honour Remembrance Day from your home or within your social bubble. You can wear a poppy or simply pause for two minutes of silence at 11:00 am on November 11 no matter where you are to reflect, learn and remember. Have a look at a few other options below.
 

WWI New Self-Guided Veterans Walking Tour

Presented by the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society with support from the New Westminster Museum and Archives.

Figure 1: Paul Okamura photo 1916 (IFP0043)
Back Row: Errol C. Briggs, Corporal Thomas Albert Briggs.
Front Row: Captain Stanley K. Briggs, Major John A. Briggs
302 Royal Avenue – Irving House

While it’s not possible for us to gather in remembrance, there are other ways to come together and commemorate with those close to you. New Westminster Museum has compiled a map showing the family homes of 19 New Westminster veterans.  Interpretive posters telling their stories were created by New Westminster’s Heritage Preservation Society and researched and written by local historian Jim Wolf. Museum staff will place these posters along the street outside each of the homes listed on the map for people to explore at their own pace.

Where: Queen’s Park Neighbourhood

When: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm, November 11

VIEW WALKING TOUR MAP
 

New Westminster Heritage Videos

The following resources have been developed by the City of New Westminster Museum and Archives as a way of honouring those who hailed from New Westminster and died for our country in times of war:

World War I in New Westminster

World War II Years in New Westminster

World War II in New Westminster

Oral Histories of New Westminster Veterans

This project has been made possible thanks to the support of the New Westminster Royal Canadian Legion, Royal Westminster Regiment, Royal City Literary Arts Society, the Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band, the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society, New Westminster Youth Ambassador Society and Urban Academy School.

 

Remembrance During a Pandemic 

We need our dead, those that never came back 
 
the body parts of our boys, not quite men
we left on the beaches at Dieppe, Normandy, 
 
the never to be lived dreams of the perpetually young
 
that were left out to wither, disappear 
in the deep-set lanes, arthritic hedgerows of the 
Italian interior, sun shot Ortona back lanes. 
 
You would have thought we had asked enough of them. 
 
But no, we cannot let them rest. 
 
We come back again, then again, 
to ask how we must be, what courage is 
how we would recognize it, know it for our own 
 
how to be resilient, compassionate, face aging, illness
those things that they will never have to face 
because of what we took from them, insist they give. 
 
The dead, those changed by war
will never let us down, never have 
 
when we come to them, insist they tell us how 
to live.
 

Written by: Alan Hill, President of the Royal City Literary Arts Society and Outgoing Poet 

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For more information, contact .

Details

Date:
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Time:
10:30 am
Organizer:
City of New Westminster
Cost:
FREE

Location

Online & TELUS Optik channel 710