AL AZHAR
LEGION OF HONOR

Act of Remembrance



November 11 in Canada is Remembrance Day. It commemorates the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month - the time that the guns fell silent in World War I. Thus, at 11:00 am, on that day each year we are silent in tribute to our fallen heroes, those soldiers, sailors and airmen who gave their all for us, their countrymen, in the cause of peace and freedom.

November 11, 1999, had special significance as we looked back over the last 100 years.
we have seen Canada's soldiers on the battlefields of
The Boer War
World War I
World War II
and Korea
and through the years as peacekeepers under the banner of The United Nations.
They have faced conflict and danger. Many have served in the Armed Forces of
our country: many have fallen. Let us dedicate ourselves, anew, to the cause of freedom
and justice. Let us remember those who made the supreme sacrifice.

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 will remember them.

-LAURENCE BINYON: For the Fallen (Sept 1915)

The Poppy


For us in Canada the Poppy of Flanders has a special significance. It was on
May 3, 1915 that Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a surgeon with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, wrote this poem, as he looked out at some 6,036 crosses that marked the hastily dug graves of his colleagues who had died fighting for freedom in the Belgian city of Ypres.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our pace; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

--JOHN McCRAE: In Flanders Fields



Let us ever remember the cost of freedom, the price that has been paid.


We will remember them




The Royal Canadian Legion asked Canadians across the country to hold a
two-minute wave of silence across the country to mark the last Remembrance Day
of the 1900s. Canadian Pacific Railways stopped all its trains in Canada
and the United States for a full two minutes. Transit companies across the
country requested their drivers to pull over and observe this silence
where it could be done safely.



My fellow veterans, even as we remember those who are no longer with us, join me in saluting those who have served or are serving their country in an effort to make this world a better place.

The Webmaster




The War on Terrorism

    The Battle of Afghanistan



"Fallen Soldiers" comes to us from Afghanistan.

Photo by Silvia Pecota of Toronto
-- used by permission--
It is worth more than a thousand words and is a graphic reminder of the cost, the sacrifice, and the tragedy.

Once again we are reminded of the cost of freedom and the price that is being paid.


Four soldiers of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry died in this land so far from home.

Sergeant Marc Leger
Corporal Ainsworth Dyer
Private Richard Green
Private Nathan Smith



We Will Remember Them!



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