Federal Retirees’ president, Roy Goodall, encourages Canadians to thank veterans and their families for their service, their sacrifice and their ongoing community involvement.
Fellow members,
As Remembrance Day approaches, I look back on those who served our country and sacrificed their lives in the First and Second world wars, Korea, Afghanistan, UN operations, among many other conflicts, rescue missions and peacekeeping operations. I also recall extended family members, colleagues and friends whose lives were either cut short or careers ended due to training accidents, illness or injury.
For me, Remembrance Day is a time to reflect on those who paid the ultimate price for their service, those seriously injured, those who suffer from PTSD and those who still stand willing to help their community and country under any circumstance.
I encourage you to observe Remembrance Day by attending a local cenotaph service or by watching the ceremony at the National War Memorial on TV or online. If you watch the national ceremony, please look for one of our members — Brian Strongman, a retired RCMP officer who led the first Canadian forensic team investigating war crimes in Yugoslavia for the UN war crimes tribunal. Brian is one of our British Columbia & Yukon district directors. He will lay a wreath at the national cenotaph, on behalf of the Federal Retirees community.
I encourage you to thank veterans and their families for their service, their sacrifice and their ongoing community involvement, on behalf of all Canadians. You may want to keep the Ukrainian people and peoples of all war-torn nations in your thoughts or prayers. If you are looking for other ways to remember our veterans, you will find additional information by visiting Veterans Affairs Canada online.
I also encourage you to reflect on the Act of Remembrance, an excerpt from Laurence Binyon's “For the Fallen”:
They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We shall remember them.
Response: We shall remember them
Roy Goodall, CD2
President, National Association of Federal Retirees