Montreal students honour thousands of veterans ahead of Remembrance Day

A group of Montreal EMSB students and staff from St. Raphael school visited the Last Post Fund – National Field of Honour on Friday morning, to pay homage to the over 17,000 veterans who are laid to rest there.

It was part of the annual “No Stone Left Alone” event in the lead-up to next week’s Remembrance Day.

“Very nice,” said grade six student, Mavin Charlemagne. “I know a lot of people worked hard you know just being in the military.”

The youths lay wreaths, read reflections and placed poppies on the stones to ensure the veterans are not forgotten.

“I think it’s very important,” said Charlemagne. “Because when you get older you know nobody really teaches you about these things anymore so it’s very easy to forget.”

“But when you’re younger,” he added. “And you’re learning it in school it becomes like a habit.”

And that’s the goal of the initiative – to remember our nation’s heroes.

“They’re really excited to meet some of the heroes,” said Rocco Speranza, Quebec Coordinator, No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation. “Because when we speak about them in class, they did the research, but actually see and hear their story from somebody else.”

“Mr. Rocco he’s the one that made a plan their activity for us to come here,” said Charlemagne. “He gave us the names of the people we were visiting.”

What they also learned – that Indigenous Veterans Day is recognized annually on Nov. 8.

Acknowledging their contributions and sacrifices to Canada’s war efforts and peacekeeping reputation – 18 are buried here.

For almost 100 years, the cemetery has been operated by the Last Post Fund–whose mission is to ensure that no veteran is denied a dignified funeral, burial, and military gravestone, due to insufficient funds at the time of their death

But the national non-profit organization has been in a deficit, they say – struggling to keep these gates open. 

“Fewer and fewer veterans are being buried in veteran cemeteries,” said Edouard Pahud, Executive Director of the Last Post Fund. “The newer what we call the modern day veterans have a preference to be buried with their families, where they come from in other cities.”

“So we’ve requested, it’s been a long project, we started over four years ago,” he added. “Suggesting or requesting that the cemetery be transferred to the government of Canada, the Department of Veterans Affairs Canada.”

But the Last Post Fund looks forward to keep welcoming more students like these – eager to learn, and have “No Stone Left Alone.”

“Good you know especially when you’re doing it like as a group not by yourself,” said Charlemagne. “It’s a very good learning experience.”