An Afghanistan veteran from LaSalle is hoping to see a big crowd for this year's Remembrance Day ceremony.
Mike Akpata, Deputy mayor-elect of LaSalle, did a tour of duty in Kandahar City, Afghanistan in 2007 with the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment.
Akpata says he's hoping that lots of people attend the ceremony because there's nothing better for a veteran then seeing a crowd of people.
"There's times in every solider's deployment, I speak for myself, where you wonder 'does anybody know I'm here? Does anybody care?' Remembrance Day is the day you look out and see what the Canadian population feels for its veterans," he says.
22 Canadians were killed during his tour and Akpata says every time he sees the Canadian flag, every time he hears O'Canada or anything about service to Canada, he thinks of them.
He calls Remembrance Day a celebration of those who didn't make it back.
"I will look at their faces, I will remember their names, I will choke up.....and I will stop and pause, and remember," he says "The freedoms that we have were given to us by other people. The irony my life is that I've met some of those who didn't make it back."
Mike Akpata of LaSalle poses with fellow Canadian soldiers during his tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2007. (Image courtesy of Mike Akpata)
As part of this year's ceremony in LaSalle, the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment will step off a Veterans' March at 10:40 a.m.
They will start from the Zehrs parking lot and walk along Malden Road to Normandy Street, and into Cenotaph Park.
In addition to a moment of silence, there will be a wreath-laying ceremony with the ceremony concluding with a Veterans' march past at 11:40 a.m.
The ceremony will be located at LaSalle Cenotaph Park, 5950 Malden Rd.
Temporary road closures on Malden Road and Normandy Street will be in place during the Veterans’ March.
For those planning to attend in-person, please arrive early.
This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid.
On Aug. 19, 1942, almost 5,000 Canadians came ashore on the heavily defended French coast, alongside British and American allies, as part of Operation Jubilee.
The Essex Scottish had embarked with 553 officers and soldiers but only 51 would return to England, some wounded, leaving the remainder in France, who had been either killed, wounded, were missing or had been taken prisoner by Nazi Germany.
With files from Rob Hindi