For Elizabeth Olive, remembrances of war are sometimes few and far between. “My grandfather was a prisoner of war,” she said, noting his experience in Asia during the Second World War. “He died many years before I was born – I never met him – but I learned of his story through my mum and I knew that I needed to follow that up.”

As they have for the past three years, on Remembrance Day, the students at Westwood Middle School in East York will read aloud the names of soldiers who attended the school in the past and who died in the Canadian armed forces. And while Principal Marc Sprack reminds the students of the need for peace in the world, he recognizes the opposite still exists. “Peace is part of war,” he said. “(But) we can’t just talk about peace without offering the dichotomy.”

It’s rush hour. Amid the buzz of conversation and crush of passersby at Scarborough Town Centre, Sarah MacIntosh sits at a table adorned with red poppies. “My father belonged to the army. He was… in World War II and I just carry on his legacy,” she said.

On one of the last pages of his father’s old pilot’s logbook, Dave Ward Jr. saw his own name written down. Dave Sr. often took Dave Jr. up for casual flights at the Brampton Flying Club well after his time in the armed services. “I never knew that he had kept track of all of our flights together,” Ward Jr. said. “That’s pretty cool.” During the Korean War, Flying Officer David Ward logged over 1,148 hours teaching pilot recruits of the Royal Canadian Air Force how to survive in the sky.

Six months, was what they told him. Sitting in the back of a truck, he was being driven to a place unknown. All he knew was his destination was in another province up north. He was among 450 fellow officials and soldiers. Each minute that passed was a kilometre farther away from his loved ones. Little did he know, those six months would become eight years. Colonel Khamtanh Thirakul, who served in the Royal Lao Army, found himself at a prisoner-of-war camp in 1976. In a fenced-off area in the middle of a forest, the men were instructed to build a tent to live in, from scratch. Each tent would house up to 35 men. It did not take long for the men to realize that this will not be a short stay. “That’s the way they lie to you,” Khamprasith Thirakul, son of Khamtanh Thirakul, said. The camp became a prison.

Remembrance Day is one of the few days each year that we take time out of our busy lives and appreciate the past. Here in the GTA, there are many different memorials that serve as a permanent reminders to those who paid the ultimate price.

Expressions of remembrance united students at Glen Ames Senior Public School in a solemn Nov. 11 ceremony Tuesday. A book titled “Memorial,” gave the students context for the ceremony.

He shouldn't have come home alive. But then he shouldn't have enlisted in the first place. At least not when he did. At only 16 years old and underage, Don Stewart tricked his mother into signing a paper that would allow him to join the navy.

Moera Hunter wears the uniform of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets to help her understand the significance of Nov. 11. "It brings honour," she said. Moera, 12, joined the Air Cadets two months ago. During the lead-up to Remembrance Day, she’s been selling poppies for the first time on Pape Avenue in East York even in freezing temperatures and chilling winds. "I think everyday people … every race, culture, generation, religion, all of them should remember … (those) who have given them all that they have today - the freedom, the ability to walk onto the street," she said.

As veterans’ names were read, the roar of military planes flying past was heard and felt throughout the school. It was enough to move some to tears at last year’s Remembrance Day ceremony at Westwood Middle School on Carlaw Avenue.

Despite a cold November rain people gathered for the Remembrance Day memorial in front...

This week, Joanne Barden stood at the entrance of the newly opened Target store on Danforth Avenue. She had a box of poppies slung around her neck. “Two young men... they took poppies and made a donation … and they told me they respected our veterans very much, and they respected the military, and I found that extremely rewarding,” Barden said.