Small D-Day ceremony in Barrie features local veteran
A small ceremony was held in Barrie Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day.
The event, which usually features a parade with a band, was scaled back due to crowding limits in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A small group featuring dignitaries and legion leaders was joined by World War II veteran William Snow.
"It means, now it means a lot to me, but at that time it was just a scary time for me or anyone else," 98-year-old Snow says to CTV News. "We knew where we were going, and we knew how we had tried; it wasn't the first time, we tried to land in Europe or across the channel, and we knew what happened to the people before us."
Snow admits he doesn't remember the exact timing of his arrival but says it was just days after June 6, 1944.
"It's a day that I can remember always, still very strong," says Snow. "I was telling someone a couple of days ago I would just sit idly below, and I'd think a lot, and I was thinking about a certain time, certain thing happened, and that still made me cry at that time."
The veteran says despite the hardship, he has never regretted his service to his country. He was amongst the first troops to return home in Halifax and remembers that moment fondly.
"That was something that I will never forget. It wasn't all bad, is what I'm trying to say. We had the bad, but then we had the good," says Snow. "Coming back home when you didn't know if you would come or not and lots of times you thought you wouldn't. When you did get back, it was really something, quite the experience."
Barrie's local legion leaders say acknowledging the anniversary is more important now than ever, so our youngest generations don't forget the sacrifice many made.
"What they have today is because of what happened back then," says Fern Taillefer, a veteran services officer. "Everything that they have, their freedom is because of our soldiers who gave them that freedom and a lot of them paid the ultimate sacrifice for it. They need to know it wasn't free. It was earned by the soldiers back then."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.