Brandt Centre won’t host Remembrance Day ceremony: Legion president

Regina’s only official Remembrance Day ceremony will be held outside this year.

Ron Hitchcock, the president of the Regina branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, said the province’s COVID-19 guidelines make holding the annual ceremony inside the Brandt Centre impossible in 2020.

According to the guidelines, a maximum of 150 people can attend indoors Remembrance Day events in the province.

“There’s nothing happening at the Brandt Centre on Remembrance Day,” Hitchcock said.

“There’s no sense organizing it when there’s only 150 people (allowed) and that includes spectators. Then (cleaning crews) have got to sanitize the place before and afterwards. It’s just not worth it.”

As a result, Regina’s one Remembrance Day ceremony will be held at the cenotaph in Victoria Park.

Attendance at that service also is limited to 150 people under the COVID guidelines and all of those people will be invited guests from areas like the military, the RCMP and various levels of government.

However, Hitchcock noted members of the public can be in the park on Nov. 11 when the ceremony is on “because it’s a free country. But if they get close, Jim (Balfour, the Legion’s padre and the organizer of the event) will be yelling at them.”

Hitchcock said Access Communications is to carry the ceremony at the Cenotaph live, just as it has done previously for the service inside the Brandt Centre.

“One of the sad things about Remembrance Day itself is that we have seven groups of cadets in the city and they pass around helmets at the Brandt Centre and at the cenotaph,” Hitchcock said. “Last year, by doing that, they brought in $25,000 for us.

“What that money goes for is the care of the two fields of honour, the two cemeteries in the city, and the cenotaph in Victoria Park. We’re going to be missing that this year.”

The Regina branch of the Legion has had to deal with financial issues due to COVID. Hitchcock noted it has a building lease of $10 a year, but monthly operating costs of $4,000.

The cafe and bar in the building don’t earn enough money to cover those costs, so the branch has had to use other options — grants, a loan, a GoFundMe page, a radiothon or anonymous donations — to pay the bills.

This year, the Legion is running a truck raffle and Hitchcock hopes all 2,000 of the $100 tickets will sell to fill up the bank account.

“If we’re successful with this truck raffle, then we don’t have to touch any of the money from the poppy fund,” Hitchcock said. “It can all go towards veterans.”

The poppy campaign also will look different this year due to COVID-19. Hitchcock said that, instead of buying poppies from cadets at malls or businesses, people will be urged to donate online and pick up poppies at designated locations.