For the past decade, the responsibility of planning and coordinating an on-campus Remembrance Day ceremony has fallen to Laurier’s History Students’ Association (HSA).
Not only has the student club organized the event, but they were usually required to fund the ceremony themselves with minimal to no assistance from the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union or the university itself.
Given this complicated legacy combined with Remembrance Day falling on a Sunday this year, it was decided Laurier would not observe Canada’s day of memoriam with an official ceremony.
Laurier, being an academic institution that essentially operates only on weekdays, would definitely lack student and staff presence at campus on a Sunday morning. The University of Waterloo, for example, attempted to combat this by holding their ceremony on Friday Nov. 9th.
While it is understandable that a ceremony on a Sunday would be difficult for students to attend, it is disappointing that the university didn’t feel the need to hold any memorial event.
Instead, Laurier’s website posted an alternative variety of Remembrance Day ceremonies in Toronto, Brantford and Kitchener-Waterloo.
It was especially disappointing to see the lack of recognition on campus because Laurier is celebrated for its specialization in military history. Surely out of any campus sector, they would see the necessity for appreciating our veterans that are fewer and fewer each year.
While the logistics of organizing an on-campus ceremony may be difficult, it is important that we and the generations that follow us do not forget the sacrifice and struggles our veterans faced.
These traditions should be upheld by Laurier and not delegated to a student group. It is the responsibility of everyone to ensure we continue to remember, regardless of the day of the week.
—The Cord Editorial Board