Padre reflects on Canada’s ‘incredible role’ in WW2 at solemn Remembrance Day service (13 photos)

‘It’s important for everybody to remember and support our troops. We definitely need all the support we can get,’ says RCAF technician

A chill hung in the air Tuesday morning as light snow drifted over the Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital cenotaph.

Hundreds of people stood in silence, their breath visible in the cold air, poppies pinned tightly to their coats. The sound of the Last Post carried softly through the stillness.

Padre Terry Bennett, leading the crowd in prayer, reminded those gathered that Canada’s contribution to the Second World War was far greater than its size might suggest.

“My parents were veterans of World War 2,” he said, “but many of you knew people who were involved in that great conflict.”

He shared the story of a Polish officer he once met in Bracebridge, a man captured by Soviet forces when Germany invaded from the west and the Soviets from the east, crushing Poland in 1939. After escaping to England and eventually immigrating to Canada, the officer had told him something that never left his mind.

“He took me aside to say, ‘Do you know that Canada played the incredible role of the most challenged and most productive nation in all of World War 2?’” Bennett recalled. “This little nation of less than 12 million people produced so much that, at the end of the war, Canada had the third-largest navy in the world and the fourth-largest air force.”

It was an out-sized effort.

“More than 1.1 million Canadians put on uniforms. They fought for freedom, and for the people of Europe,” Bennett continued. “Not only were there soldiers, sailors, and air force people, but also the men and women who worked in the factories, who built the airplanes, who conducted the Commonwealth Air Training Program, who did all the things that were necessary.”

Among those listening in the crowd was 37-year-old Andrew Ciesielski, an active member of the Canadian Army’s 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Gagetown, N.B.

“I was born and raised here,” said Ciesielski, a Park Street Collegiate Institute graduate who joined the military in 2022.

He joined, he said, because he wanted something more meaningful than “serving the stock market.”

“I just had the need to serve my country instead of working an everyday job,” he said.

As wreaths were laid at the cenotaph and the moment of silence was observed, Ciesielski’s thoughts turned to those who never returned.

“You remember the ones that didn’t come home and you just try to keep them close to your memories,” he said.

“You always need to remember those who came before to give you the things you needed, the freedoms you have today. When you forget the history, you’re doomed to make the same mistakes.”

Standing only a few paces away, 83-year-old Rick Crouch wore his own memories just as proudly. The retired radar ground technician served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1962 to 1967, stationed at remote northern bases in Moosonee and Pagwa River.

“Joining the service was one of the best things that I did,” he said. “It gave me the training I needed, the camaraderie. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

His father served in the Second World War, a connection that deepens each year when the Last Post sounds.

“I think of the people you served with, and my parents who were in the actual war,” Crouch said. “I think about my dad.”

Looking around at the growing crowd of young faces, Crouch said the community’s continued presence means everything.

“It’s important for everybody to remember and support our troops,” he said. “We definitely need all the support we can get.”