In a salute to Canada's veterans and war dead, thousands of Londoners gathered for the city's Remembrance Day ceremony downtown.
Veterans, Canadian Forces personnel, police officers, and cadets marched up Wellington St. to the Cenotaph in Victoria Park on Friday. They were met with cheers and applause from a sea of people of all ages. Second World War veterans, no longer able to march, sat nearest the monument with family.
Michael Sydorko, 93, served in the Second World War with the Lake Superior Fourth Regiment Armoured Division. He took in the service with his wife.
"I appreciate the people coming out today," said Sydorko. "The average person, who hasn't had to go to war, that doesn't know what shell fire is may not understand it was living hell. I hope no one else ever has to go through it. You could have been killed a thousand times a day from any direction. But I was lucky, just happened to be in the right place at the right time."
Proudly wearing his French Legion of Honour medal, which has only been awarded to roughly 40 Canadians, Sydorko recalled a close call while patrolling the Leopold Canal in Belgium.
"I relieved another solider so he could go and get something to eat. After he took off I sat down where he was sitting, he had dug a trench there. I wasn't there two minutes when some German fired what we use to call a 'moaning minnie', it was a mortar bomb and when it's in the air it makes a hell of a whistle," said Sydorko. "I'm sitting there when all of the sudden I hear the words 'get out of here now.' Who said it I still don't know. Then I felt something lifting me and I jumped up and ran about ten yards away before falling flat on my face. That bomb hit right where I had been sitting."
Gordon Compton, 91, who suffered a leg injury during the Second World War, was part of the Perth Regiment that repaired homes in Holland destroyed in the war. It was in the town of Sneek where he met his wife Atty.
"After the war was over we went up to the dance hall there and I had a dance with Atty. That was the first of it and it has just kept on going. We've been married for 70 years," said Compton. "It will be 71 years on May 9 of next year."
Compton remembers the warm reception his regiment received in every town it visited.
"When we went through towns over there, everybody was so happy to see us," said Compton. "The tears came to your eyes knowing everyone was so happy to be free again."
The crowd in Victoria park was quick to join the Catholic Central Chamber Choir in the singing of O'Canada. The national anthem was followed with Last Post and two minutes of silence.
Silver Cross Mother Carolyn Wilson was the first to lay one of dozens of wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph. Her son, Trooper Mark Wilson, was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2006. Mayor Matt Brown, London Police Chief John Pare, MPs Irene Mathyssen, Peter Fragiskatos, and Kate Young, MPPs Deb Matthews, Teresa Armstrong, and Peggy Sattler also laid wreaths during the ceremony.
A private ceremony was held at Parkwood Hospital for the veterans unable to attend the service in Victoria Park.
Similar Remembrance Day ceremonies were held all throughout Canada, including the biggest one at the National War memorial in Ottawa. Both Governor General David Johnston and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among those in attendance.
Colleen Fitzpatrick was picked as this year's Silver Cross Mother. Her son, Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2010. She placed a wreath on behalf of all Canadian mothers.
