Volume 11, No. 3 - December 2008 - John Abbott College

REMEMBRANCE DAY - LEST WE FORGET
John Abbott remembered Canada’s war
veterans in two ways this year.
On November 6, students and staff members
from Macdonald Campus, John Abbott and
Macdonald High School met at the war
memorial at the east end of the football field
with 70 veterans from the Ste-Anne’s Hospital.
Seventy-seven years ago, oak trees were
planted around the perimeter of the football
field. They are in memory of 34 young men
who left their studies at Macdonald College to
take part in World War I, and lost their lives.
The monument remembers these and the other
soldiers who fought for our country. Bagpipers
brought students and staff members from the
three schools to the ceremony and two John
Abbott students from the War Amps, Champs
program laid a wreath by the monument. A
representative from each student government
spoke at the ceremony. Veterans read “In
Flanders Field” and the “Act of Remembrance”,
in both English and French. Speeches were
made by Chandra Madramootoo, Dean of
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences,
Macdonald Campus and James Aitkin,
Principal of Macdonald High School. Keith
Henderson, Director General of John Abbott,
brought the ceremony to an end with some
closing remarks.
On November 11, there was an educational
display of war memorabilia, art, poems,
videos and newspaper clippings in the Agora.
Students and staff members spent time at the
display to learn more about, or remember, the
effect of the wars on Canada and the world.
A bagpiper piped from the cafeteria to the
Agora where the ceremony from Ottawa was
broadcast live on screen. The group in the
Agora observed two minutes of silence at
11:00 am with the crowd on Parliament Hill.
Photographs by Frederic Serre, McGill University.
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