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Scanning this morning’s to-do list, I see a long list of things to remember – remember to do this, remember to get that, remember to call someone, remember your appointments… and somewhere, buried in that long list is one small bullet point:

~ Remembrance Day, 11 AM ***

It’s there, lest I forget.

Remembering the extraordinary sacrifices and tragedies that occurred in times of war is incredibly important to us here at Career Edge Organization, and not just as a Canadian not-for-profit that promotes diversity but as a genuinely diverse team with people who represent a wide range of cultures and ethnicities. Each of us here have a different understanding of what war means – what it has meant to us, our families and our ancestors.

At 11 AM we will be taking a few moments in silence to reflect upon these things and each of us, in our own way that is relevant to us, will pay our respects.

But there are those that feel this is not enough, and that in the busyness of our day, Remembrance Day will be nothing more than an afterthought, spliced into our to-do lists somewhere between points 6 and 7. Furthermore as WWII veterans age there is a growing concern that the memories will be lost with them and eventually forgotten (despite the best efforts of Mr. Spielberg and others).

In Canada, Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec are the only provinces that don’t observe Remembrance Day as a statutory holiday, although many organizations such as banks and government do take the day off.

Every year the same debate arises – this year, an Ontario Conservative MPP is introducing a bill to have Remembrance Day replace February’s 3 year-old “Family Day” as a stat holiday. The debate has even taken to Facebook and other forums.

Others argue that the holiday is best observed by children when they are at school and by adults when they are at work – putting people in environments where there is a formal structure around recognizing the holiday. Their concern is that without this people would spend the days at home watching day-time television and the issues won’t even be talked about or in some cases, even acknowledged.

There are definitely two considerable sides to this debate – what do you think?