PARLIAMENT HILL On Saturday, 27 May 2000, I trembled and wept in Centre Blocks Hall of Honour as I paid my unbounded respect and gratitude to Canadas Unknown Soldier. He lay in state after a long - and long-awaited - travel from Vimy, France, where he had spent 83 years in French soil after falling on 9 April 1917 in WW1. In the Centre Block, the rotunda and Hall of Honour were arrestingly decorated with Victorian-black drapes hanging off elaborately engraved woodwork. At the far end of the hall, away from the rotunda, a majestic silver maple coffin was draped with the current Canadian flag. I was in a long line of equally humbled Canadians awaiting our moment to honour our brother Canadian. Four sentinels stood at each corner of the coffin, heads bowed. A member of the clergy rested on his knees in front of the coffin in a round-the-clock prayer shift. In my moment before the coffin, I had a mind to whisper my thanks to the sentinels keeping vigil after paying my respects, but my lip was quivering too much to actually speak. The next day, Sunday, 28 May, the tears restarted as I watched the Unknown Soldier’s noble interment at the National War Memorial in Confederation Square. It had been a long time coming. Today, I weep for another fallen Canadian, reservist Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a “known” soldier from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada. He was a proud sentinel today at the National War Memorial in Confederation Square. I am crushed. Bless you Nathan my brother. The House of Commons is yours, Canadians. Keep it so. We must continue to defeat tyranny, without hysteria, as we have for 100 years. PHOTO 1: 39 years before the interment of the Unknown Soldier in Confederation Square, John F. Kennedy paid his respects, laying a wreath to Canada’s war dead on Wed, 17 May 1961, during his only visit to Canada as President. (LAC e010783109, photographer unattributed) PHOTO 2: Confederation Square, featuring the National War Memorial, 39 years before the return of the Unknown Soldier. In this photo John F. Kennedy has just laid a wreath to Canada’s war dead and is returning to the official party on the red carpet. The Chateau Laurier is the French Gothic building on the right. Note the Canadian flag in 1961 is the Canadian red ensign. (LAC e010783100, photographer unattributed)
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:39:04 +0000
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