Governor General hospitalized with virus, will not attend Remembrance Day ceremony

OTTAWA — Governor General Mary Simon will not be attending the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa on Tuesday due to a respiratory virus.

A statement sent by Rideau Hall said that Simon, who is the commander-in-chief of the country, is “doing well” and is currently recovering in the hospital. The Supreme Court chief justice, Richard Wagner, will be attending the ceremony on her behalf.

Wagner will be joined by this year’s National Silver Cross Mother, Nancy Payne, of Lansdowne, Ontario, who represents all Canadian mothers who have lost a child in military service in Canada. Her son, Randy, was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2006.

Prime Minister Mark Carney will also be attending this year’s ceremony in Ottawa with his wife, Diana Fox Carney.

The annual event, hosted by the Royal Canadian Legion, usually starts around 10:45 a.m. each year with the arrival of dignitaries. It is followed by the national anthem, two minutes of silence, a wreath-laying ceremony, and a rousing fly-past, weather permitting.

Carney and Payne are each expected to lay wreaths at the National War Memorial.

At the end of the ceremony, attendees are invited to remove their red poppies — a symbol of remembrance for those who have died in war — from their outerwear and place them on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It will be covered in poppies by the end of the day.

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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