Remembrance

Remembrance Day, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month

Remembrance Day is observed throughout Canada and much of the western world each November 11th, the day that marked the end of the Great War in 1918.  Branch 295 of the Royal Canadian Legion conducts memorial services at Evergreen Hall and at the All Sappers' Memorial Park and our comrades from the Stó:lō nation also conduct special remembrance ceremonies.

Holidays Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-5

November 11, being the day in the year 1918 on which the Great War was triumphantly concluded by an armistice, is a legal holiday and shall be kept and observed as such throughout Canada under the name of “Remembrance Day”.

Vimy Ridge Day April 9th

By an act of parliament in 2003, Vimy Ridge Day was proclaimed into law. The Royal Canadian Legion in Chilliwack conducts a public ceremony at All Sappers' Memorial Park at 10:30 am each April 9th

Vimy Ridge Day

1 This Act may be cited as the Vimy Ridge Day Act. 

Vimy Ridge Day

2 Throughout Canada, in each and every year, the ninth day of April shall be known as “Vimy Ridge Day”.

Canadian flag at half-mast

3 In each and every year, on the ninth day of April, the Canadian flag on the Peace Tower shall be lowered at half-mast.

Not a legal holiday

4 For greater certainty, Vimy Ridge Day will not be considered a legal holiday or a non-juridical day.


D-Day Commemoration June 6th

The Royal Canadian Legion in Chilliwack conducts a public commemoration ceremony usually at All Sappers Memorial Park, Vedder Road  at 10:30 am each June 6th. Our last known D-Day veterans in Chilliwack have passed away, but we continue to honour their service to Canada.  While Canadians were sleeping at home, the first wave of over 14,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on Juno Beach in Normandy, France at 07:30 hrs. Hundreds of Royal Canadian Navy sailors and Royal Canadian Air Force airmen participated in the supporting naval and air actions.

National Peacekeepers’ Day August 9th

1 This Act may be cited as the National Peacekeepers’ Day Act

National Peacekeepers’ Day

2 Throughout Canada, in each and every year, the ninth day of August shall be known as “National Peacekeepers’ Day”.

Not a legal holiday

3 For greater certainty, National Peacekeepers’ Day is not a legal holiday or a non-juridical day.


National Peacekeepers' Day is a Canadian day of commemoration.  Over 125,000 Canadians have served in United Nations Peacekeeping and Observer missions since 1950.  120 died and thousands of others suffer physical or mental injury as a direct cause of their service to peace.

Canadian officers have been deployed as United Nations Observers since 1948, but it was not until 1956 that the concept of an armed peacekeeping force was conceived in response to the Suez Crisis that resulted in an armed attack on Egypt by France, Great Britain, and Israel.

In early 1957 Corporal (acting troop sergeant) Bernard McNicholl, and Lance Corporal Rollie Keith  of the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) in Calgary were attached to 56 Reconnaisance Squadron and deployed with the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) on the first United Nations Peacekeeping mission in March.  Bernard McNicholl, CD, a former wartime RCAF WOII airgunner, retired from the army in the early 1970's with the rank of Sergeant. Captain (Retired) Rollie Keith, CD was commissioned in 1962. Both retired in Chilliwack and are active members of Branch 295.