Vancouver cenotaph watches over Remembrance Day for 100th year

For the 100th year, Vancouver events honouring soldiers who have fought for Canada are being held under the shadow of the Victory Square Cenotaph.

Erected in 1924, the monument at the corner of Hastings and Cambie streets has seen generations of people honour Canadian military members in a growing number of ways every November.

The granite column has stood in place as dignitaries have laid wreaths, marching bands have played and Indigenous drummers and singers have performed ceremonies to honour those who have served and those who have died.

For the past four years, Remembrance Day ceremonies at the cenotaph have been emceed by James Stanton, a former broadcaster and an airborne infantryman who served from 1957 to 1984. He's also a member of the City of Vancouver Remembrance Day Committee.

"I think it's about sacrifice and it's about ordinary people doing extraordinary things," Stanton said when asked what the cenotaph means to him. "It's really important for us to maintain that commitment to our veterans and their families and their memory."

Over the last 100 years, the faces of those who have taken part in ceremonies at the pillar have changed. Veterans of older wars are no longer there and younger veterans have taken their place.

And along with changing faces, the cenotaph has seen changes in how Vancouver remembers service members.

Built in wake of WW I

The cenotaph site, and Victory Square as a whole, was formerly the location of Vancouver's courthouse.

As documented by history writer Murray Maisey, the building "wasn't loved" and by the early 20th century, there were a number of ideas floated about what to do with the land.

The idea of a memorial came into sharp focus following the carnage of the First World War, which claimed the lives of 66,000 Canadian and Newfoundland soldiers. 

"During the war, there wasn't the same focus on the 'war dead' that would become more current after the war," Maisey wrote in an email to CBC News.

"Once the business of waging war was finished, we could look back on the battles like the Somme and Vimy Ridge and many others, and reflect on the huge sacrifices made."

The land was made a park, renamed Victory Square, and marked with a cenotaph, after numerous other ideas for a physical monument , such as a large chapel with a tower and a bell, were considered. 

"There were very, very few families in Canada who were not, one way or another, directly affected by the loss, by the maiming, by the shell shock of these people who went to war," said Michael Kluckner, a history writer and president of the Vancouver Historical Society.

"I think it's extremely important that … people think beyond their immediate lives and just think about the world that created the war, that caused this incredible cenotaph, and to just pause. Just to pause and just think."

Changing place of remembrance

In more recent decades, the cenotaph has also been the site of National Indigenous Veterans Day ceremonies in Vancouver.

On Friday, dozens of those veterans, and their families and supporters laid wreaths at the site, while drummers and singers performed ceremonies to honour the members' sacrifices  — sacrifices some say have taken too long to acknowledge.

"Today, when you look at the cenotaph, it represents pretty well all veterans that served," said Mark Matthews, an Algonquin veteran who served in Canada's peacekeeping efforts in the Golan Heights.

"Back years ago, it was a different thing for Indigenous veterans…. They lost their status as Indigenous people. When they came back, they weren't eligible for benefits that every other veteran was: housing, education, et cetera.

"It's a different story nowadays. There's a little more common respect, especially ever since the [notion] of reconciliation."

Tom Adams, a Métis navy veteran, agrees there is now a better recognition of Indigenous veterans and how unfairly they were treated by the country they served. He said he feels the cenotaph "signifies that we're finally being recognized as veterans."

"My great-grandfather was an engineer in World War I and he came home to nothing … in fact, land was taken away from him in Manitoba," Adams added.

He said he would like to see a cenotaph built specifically to mark the sacrifices of Indigenous veterans, similar to the National Métis Veterans' Memorial Monument in Batoche, Sask.

Stanton, who emcees Vancouver's Remembrance Day ceremonies, agrees that in decades past Indigenous veterans have not been treated fairly or equally.

"That was wrong and should have been addressed then. But it wasn't," he said.

He said the city's Remembrance Day committee welcomes all veterans to participate in ceremonies and that more inclusive memorial proceedings at the cenotaph on Nov. 11 are a priority as the monument enters its second century.