Multimedia by Cameron Wheeler
Video by Soofia Omari
By Kadija Osman
A 2019 Historica Canada poll has shown that 90 per cent of Canadians support the idea of Remembrance Day becoming a statutory holiday.
All provinces and territories, except Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, recognize Nov. 11 as a statutory holiday.
Most employees are required by law to take the day off on statutory holidays.
Toronto resident, Sarbjit Sandhu, thinks it should be a public holiday. “It should be a holiday so that families could attend memorials together and reflect on the sacrifices of those who fought for our freedom.”
Others aren’t so keen on the idea
However, there are critics that say that making Remembrance Day a public holiday could do more harm than good.
Jonathan Vance, a history professor at Western University, says that if Ontario were to recognize it as a holiday that people would forget the day’s meaning, looking just as an opportunity to take a day off.
“Who remembers what Victoria Day commemorates these days? Probably no one except historians. It would be more meaningful to have an observance on a normal day.”
Vance went on to explain that in the 1920s, during the two minutes of silence on the 11th at 11 a.m., everything and everyone would stop doing what they were doing and just reflect.
“Cars stopped in the streets, trains and streetcars stopped and pedestrians stopped on sidewalks. Some cities even turned off the main electricity supply for 2 minutes. The image of a large city going silent as a remembrance of the war dead must have been enormously powerful.”
Below is a short history of Remembrance Day and its origins.
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