The white poppy commemorates both the civilian and military victims of war on all sides of conflict. On Remembrance Day several hundred people took part in the annual Peace Poppy event at Seaforth Park in Vancouver (where forty years ago 80,000 people left to walk for Peace across the Burrard Bridge).
The keynote speaker was Fazineh Keita, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, now working with the Innocence Lost Foundation.
The Solidarity Labour Choir, two powerful songs by Roger and Kathy (Cousins and You Will Know Where I Stand) and a beautiful, tragic poem by E.D. Blodget, a veteran, provided music and images.
Eleven wreaths were laid, commemorating: Children killed, injured or orphaned by war; civilian and military PTSD sufferers; indigenous victims of genocide and cultural destruction; Child soldiers; medical aid workers; women raped and victimized in wartime, refugees, environmental devastation, and more. Survivors of war in community organizations laid nine wreaths: in memory of victims of the ongoing Syrian war; the Holocaust; Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Vietnam; the plight of Palestinians, Iraq, and more.
Local organizers: peacepoppies.ca
info@peacepoppies.ca
An excellent video by Devin Gillan of this beautiful, inspiring event is posted on YouTube:
Let Peace Be Their Memorial.
Stop-weather-war 