I have seen the best and worst of humanity. I’ve seen countries that no longer exist. I have seen war, ethnic cleansing, and real revolution. I have seen the death and destruction that it brings. I have seen children left behind to live and deal with t…

It’s become a personal tradition. I get Remembrance Day off at work, so for the past five years I have used the day as it was intended. I, along with so many others in my community, make my way down to our local cenotaph. There is an eerie silence…

As a Mail and Empire headline put it when word spread that the First World War was over, the “city celebrated in orgy of joy.”

2:50 a.m., November 11, 1918, the office of the Telegram newspaper on Melinda Street. An early morning full of anticipation as workers there and at Toronto’s five other daily newspapers waited for word sometime during the day that an armistice ending the First World War would be signed. The news during the night had indicated [...]

Here is the lovable lunch my daughter brought to school. She really wanted a Poppy (or a Coquelicot as she says in French) for Remembrance Day. This simple lunch consisted of: Uncrustable sandwich broccoli cherry tomatoes grapes raspberries mini whole …

One day last week at the trial of the Shafia family in Kingston, Ont., as court was hearing a relative describe the small freedoms the teenage girls in that family so hungered for – Canadian friends, makeup and clothes, the company of boys — I found there were tears streaming down my face. They had …

By Michael J.W. StickingsToday is a day to remember those who served, those who fought, those who gave their lives. But it is also — and we must not lose sight of this — a day to remember the horror of war. While many of those who served did so nobly…

This is an address I gave at Queen’s University on Nov. 11, 2010. It remains the truest thing I can say about how to take progressive meaning and anti-war value out of a holiday remembering those who serve in national militaries. I’d be grateful if you…

It’s a big man who can start a national column with an admission that he got it wrong.This little corner’s been relatively silent on the whole Occupy thing, but now that it’s gotten the Masters of the Universe sufficiently rattled, they’re cranking up …

The United States might be drowning in debt but it’s spending enough on its military-security complex to fix the crisis and save us all from economic Armageddon. There are priorities, after all.read more

I belong to a family, and a clan, with a 300-year military tradition. I have attended more Remembrance Day ceremonies than I can count. And hated them all.I shudder at the sounds of the guns. But the children’s choir always makes me weep. As it did aga…

On this day I sometimes thumb through my dog-eared copy of Barry Broadfoot’s “Six War Years, Memories of Cahadians at Home and Abroad (1974).”   Broadfoot used the same technique as he did for his earlier Depression-era work, “Ten Lost Years.” &nb…

The darkness crumbles away.It is the same old druid Time as ever,Only a live thing leaps my hand, A queer sardonic ratAs I pull the parapet’s poppyTo stick behind my ear.Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knewYour cosmopolitan sympathies.Now you h…

As we honour today the men and women who have fought and died in uniform, it is important that our remembrance of them not be taken as an endorsement of war or a celebration of all things military. For many people, soldiers in uniform do not inspire fe…

Liberal leader Bob Rae’s statement on the occasion of Remembrance Day.
Today we honour…

The poppy serves as a symbol of remembrance for those who died defending their country or in the name of peace.

 In Flanders Fields

 In Flanders fields the poppies blow
 Between the crosses, row on row,
 That mark our place;…

The leader of the official opposition’s statement on Remembrance Day.
Today, tomorrow and all…

…and remember those who breathe no more. Those who do dare to forget doom us to repeat past mistakes. So take that moment or two today. To. Remember. Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario

The Governor General’s message on the occasion of Remembrance Day.
The terrible price that…

As the First World War drew to a close, Torontonians raised millions of dollars in financial relief for the war effort.

War is costly. In addition to the horrifying human toll, conflicts rack up a financial bill that needs to be paid one way or another. As the First World War neared its end in the fall of 1918, Torontonians and fellow Canadians were urged to perform their patriotic duty during Canada’s second Victory Loan campaign [...]