An 18-year-old Concordia student explains the importance of wearing Remembrance Day poppies

As we remember those who sacrificed so much, one former air cadet is appealing to the younger generation not to forget. 18-year-old Dominic Corbett is a student at Concordia University. He wrote a moving opinion piece in the Concordia newspaper about the importance of wearing a poppy and remembering. Thank you for being here today. Thanks so much for having me. I want to ask you right off the bat, what inspired you to write this? Well, the military has been a really large part of my family. Growing up, I remember Remembrance Day. My dad would bring out my great-grandfather's poppy and his medals. He served in the British Army. And then learning from my mother about all of my relatives, like my great-grandfather, all of his brothers all signed up to the local regiment during World War II. And then I joined the air cadet program at age 12. And that even like that deepened my appreciation for everything that our Canadian forces do for us and all that they have done for us. And when I come here, And I just saw there wasn't as many people wearing a poppy as I would have liked to have seen. Thank I was walking through the Concordia metro station and I met Mike Gross, this lovely gentleman here. He's a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. He was selling his poppies. Thank And I watched and he noticed as well over the past couple of years that there's been a decline in people wearing the poppy. And I thought, well, if I can spread awareness on, you know, you. you remembrance isn't just something that's in the past. It's something that's ongoing today. With what happened in Wainwright, very it made me feel even more compelled to write this piece. Yeah, and you are from Alberta, here in Montreal for the last year, much. and you were mentioning also in your article that the student body didn't seem to really recognize the importance of the poppy as well. You saw very few there. So what would you say to them? What do you say to young people today who may not know the history, just know that it's sort of like the Great World Wars, But yet today... We lost service members in Wainwright for soldiers, in fact. Exactly. Exactly. Growing up, Remembrance Day is always the black and white pictures, the films you see in school. But what I want to get across is that remembrance is still a thing very much today. Wainwright, we've got Canadian Armed Forces members in Latvia, all across the world, supporting us during wildfires. You don't need to know someone. who died in the war, you don't need to know how someone who served, you don't need to need to know of someone who served, you just need to be able to recognize that your freedoms that you enjoy today, and the life you lead are in thanks part to those Canadian forces members that have protected us over the past years, and will continue to protect us in the future. And even today, like Operation Lentus, we're protecting us on wildfires, multinational brigade in Latvia, protecting our allies in NATO, seeing that the bravest among us still don the uniform to protect us. It's just something I think everyone should be conscious of as we're able to lead our lives that we lead now, many parts in thanks to those members. And the poppy itself, what does it symbolize to you? Some people it symbolizes something, and maybe for you something else. Well, some people may say the poppy, it glorifies war and violence. I'd say... The poppy is just a symbol of the human toll of these wars, you know, over 118,000 Canadians killed in service of our country so that we can lead these lives. The poppy is just a manifestation of our thankfulness, of our opinions and our appreciation of those members. It may be a plastic flower, but because we have that, it's a symbol that yes, I'm aware and yes, I'm thankful to those members for what they've done for me. I must say, I was really moved by your article. Thank you for coming in and talking about it and for writing the piece itself. Thanks so much for having me.