Monday Monuments and Memorials – Peace Tower, Parliament Hill, Ottawa

On November 11th at eleven in the morning the bells of London rang out their joyous peals, for the armistice had been signed and the war was over. There was wild rejoicing in the city and the crowds went crazy with delight. But it seemed to me that behind the ringing of those peals of joy there was the tolling of spectral bells for those who would return no more. The monstrous futility of war as a test of national greatness, the wound in the world’s heart, the empty homes, those were the thoughts which in me overmastered all feelings of rejoicing.

Frederick George Scott, The Great War As I Saw It, Ch XXXV. Victory. November 11th, 1918.

Armistice Day, 1918 … Remembrance Day, 2018

Peace Tower, Ottawa (no, there is not this much snow in Ottawa on 11 November)

At the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month, when the guns of the Great War at last fell silent, the fury of conflict was replaced by a deafening silence. In that fragile gap between the sounds of dying and the cries of relief, we were faced with all we had done, all we had lost, all we had sacrificed.

In that silence, we met a truth so obvious and so terrifying we swore we would never take up arms again.

“One owes respect to the living,” said Voltaire. “To the dead, one owes only the truth.”

We vowed never to forget.

Governor General David Johnston, 11 November 2014