205 Collishaw air cadets Sophia Ledingham, Edmond He, Isaac Waksdale and John Paradis stand at guard at the Dallas Square Park cenotaph in Nanaimo on Saturday. (GREG SAKAKI/The News Bulletin)

205 Collishaw air cadets Sophia Ledingham, Edmond He, Isaac Waksdale and John Paradis stand at guard at the Dallas Square Park cenotaph in Nanaimo on Saturday. (GREG SAKAKI/The News Bulletin)

Cadets begin 24-hour honour guard at Nanaimo cenotaph

Remembrance Day ceremony to be held Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. at Dallas Square

Downtown Nanaimo’s cenotaph is being closely guarded leading up to Monday’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

Air and army cadets began a 24-hour honour guard at 11 a.m. Sunday around the Dallas Square cenotaph on Church Street. The city’s Remembrance Day ceremonies will be Monday at 11 a.m. at the cenotaph following a parade up Commercial Street.

Lt. David Ruel with the 205 Collishaw air cadets said an honour guard hasn’t happened in Nanaimo, at least not in recent years.

“I think it’s a good way of honouring those that have fought to give us our freedom in past and in present and those that have died in the process,” Ruel said.

The cadets held a ceremony Sunday in which they recited In Flanders Fields and the Ode of Remembrance while lowering the Union Jack and the Canadian flag to half-mast.

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Nanaimo News Bulletin