...In Canada, ceremonies are being held across the country, with the signature event taking place in the nation's capital.
Veterans groups, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and other dignitaries all gathered at the National War Memorial, steps away from Parliament Hill. A large crowd of people filled the streets around the granite monument in downtown Ottawa to watch the ceremony.
A bugler sounded the plaintive notes of the Last Post, then at 11 a.m. the bells of the Peace Tower rang out and a gun sounded, marking exactly 90 years since the armistice was signed to end what was supposed to have been the war to end all wars.
After two minutes of silence, a second gun was fired and CF-18s flew overhead and a 21-gun salute sounded.
Tuesday's event also featured a passing of the torch ceremony. Canada's only living WWI veteran, 108-year-old John Babcok appeared by video from his home in Spokane, Wash., holding a torch and said, "We must never forget our fallen comrades. I pass this torch of remembrance to my comrades, hold it high."...
Full article: In Afghanistan and across Canada, war dead are honoured
Stumble It!
By KATHLEEN HARRIS (SunMedia)
Canada's last man to fall Private George Lawrence Price died minutes before the end of WW1, waving to a pretty face
OTTAWA -- He was the last man to fall in what was supposed to be the "War to End All Wars."
Across Europe, civilians were already rejoicing a ceasefire to the bloody conflict as Allied soldiers still stuck in the trenches kept on the heels of retreating enemy troops. Canadian Pte. George Lawrence Price was positioned firmly on the front line as moments counted down toward precious peace.
According to one historian, he rose just briefly to greet the wave of a woman he spotted above. And at 10:58 a.m. -- just two minutes before Armistice was officially signed at 11 a.m., Nov. 11, 1918 -- the 25-year-old farm labourer was shot in the right chest by a German sniper near the Belgian city of Mons.
At that moment, Price earned the "grim distinction" as the last known Canadian -- and likely the last Allied soldier -- to die in combat in the First World War.
"He epitomized the sadness, the waste of the Great War and certainly the casualties," says Tim Cook, an author and World War One historian at the Canadian War Museum.
Cook said word had already gone out that Armistice would come in to effect at 11 a.m., but it took some time to reach front-line units like the one Price was in.
"He had been told stay down and for whatever reason -- was he looking to steal a first kiss or a last kiss, or to time it with the Armistice to have a story to tell his grandkids? Who knows," he said. "And then, the war ends."