MONTREAL – On Remembrance Day, Bruno Plourde said his thoughts were with a comrade he lost while the two were deployed in Afghanistan.
“We have a special place in our heart for him today,” he said Tuesday morning from Montreal’s Place du Canada. “For all the people that lost their lives — or who sometimes came back, but not whole as a person.”
The veteran spent 40 years in the Armed Forces, also deploying in the Congo and Bosnia. He and his comrade were both serving in the same regiment in Afghanistan when he was killed. Canada’s mission to that country lasted between 2001-2014.
When Remembrance Day comes around, Plourde said, it’s easy to remember those who paid the ultimate price; what’s more difficult, he said, is to keep them in mind every other day of the year.
Under heavy snowfall, the first of the season, the ceremony began just after 10:30 a.m. There was a 21-gun salute and a flyover by the 438 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, with dignitaries including mayor-elect Soraya Martinez Ferrada and member of Parliament Marc Miller, who is a former infantry commander. More than 100 people attended the ceremony.
“It’s a lot of emotion for me today,” said Vincent-Gabriel Lamarre, a corporal in the Canadian military who served in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. “I lost maybe all of my friends from Afghanistan.”
His comrades didn’t die in the field, he said. Rather, he lost them gradually after they left the forces and “lost their minds,” he said. Others just disappeared, he said, after he lost track of them.
“This is the time of the year that I remember them,” he said, adding that he didn’t mind being out in the cold, windy weather, saying those who died serving went through so much worse.
He said there are many mental health services available for active and retired members, but that many still don’t feel comfortable asking for help. It took him months before he said he was ready to take that step himself.
Len Kander was among those bundled up watching the ceremony. The former elementary and high school teacher said he’s always made a point to educate his students about the legacy of those who served, adding for him it’s deeply personal. He said his father and many of his uncles served during the Second World War, including some who were severely injured.
“The last town I was (teaching) in, Harrow, Ontario, we were actually part of the parade and the service,” he said, adding he and his partner are visiting Montreal at the moment. “It was a really good thing for the students to see.”
He said he feels students aren’t as educated about the sacrifices that veterans like those in his family have made, saying “a lot of that has been lost over the last few years.”
“In order to move on, we have to see what has happened before, so we don’t make the same mistakes,” he said. “That’s what we need to teach the students, that it’s not just about them, it’s about all of us.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2025.
