Canadians on pilgrimage following footsteps of Canadian troopers

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It’s a journey that has been a few years within the making. After a torch-lighting on the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill, a second of silence on the close by Nationwide Warfare Memorial and a send-off at Perley Well being’s veterans’ centre on Monday, it lastly will get underway.

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Dozens of descendants of Canadian troopers who helped liberate the Netherlands in the course of the Second World Warfare will journey to the nation to make a 60-kilometre pilgrimage of remembrance.

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The Camino-inspired pilgrimage was initially deliberate to coincide with the 75^th anniversary of the liberation, within the spring of 2020, stated organizer Karen Hunter, however the COVID-19 pandemic obtained in the best way. As an alternative, it is going to start later this coming week, 75-plus-two-years after the liberation.

Contributors from throughout Canada will head to the Netherlands the place, amongst different occasions, they may stroll 60 kilometres within the footsteps of Canadian troopers. The “In Our Fathers’ Footsteps” pilgrimage will embrace excessive tea with the Netherlands’ Princess Margriet, who was born at Ottawa’s Civic Hospital in 1943.

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Throughout that occasion, at Palace Het Bathroom in Apeldoorn, a duplicate of the remembrance torch that was created for the pilgrimage might be given to the princess.

The torch was created by engineering college students at McMaster College, a few of whom will participate within the journey to the Netherlands, stated Hunter. Will probably be lit throughout a short ceremony at 10 a.m. on Parliament Hill Monday. That flame will later be transferred to a lamp for the journey to the Netherlands the place it will likely be relit — just like the best way the Olympic Video games torch is transported.

Hunter, whose father was with the first Canadian Division in the course of the liberation, stated the occasion, together with the creation of the torch, is all a part of participating extra individuals in remembrance greater than in the future of the yr.

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She stated her father, like many veterans, didn’t speak a lot about his warfare expertise. However after attending 40^th– and Fiftieth-anniversary occasions within the Netherlands, he wrote a memoir about his expertise for his household.

Hunter, who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and walked the Camino pilgrimage in Spain, stated her father’s memoir and people experiences made her start serious about an analogous pilgrimage to mark the warfare sacrifices of Canadian troopers.

She stated the response to the thought was enthusiastic from many people who find themselves descendants of Canadians concerned within the liberation. Ninety individuals from throughout the nation are anticipated to participate.

On the web site inourfathersfootsteps.com, she describes the occasion as “each a reflective pilgrimage and a tribute to freedom, peace, and friendship in honour of those veterans whose descendants carry the remembrance torch on their behalf.”

Hunter stated the charity is concerned in numerous initiatives to assist individuals bear in mind.

“I noticed there was this large want and demand for remembrance in Canada and no alternative past Remembrance Day for most individuals to interact.”