A5

By Yvon Gauvin
Time & Transcript staff

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FREDERICTON - Remembering and honouring the sacrifice made by Canadian soldiers during the First World War, including many New Brunswickers, is the premise behind Vigile 1914-1918 Vigil: A Project of Remembrance.

A total of 68,000 Canadians lost their lives in the First World War, including more than 2,400 out of 27,000 from New Brunswick.

Many more Canadians were severely injured and psychologically scarred as a result of the world conflict.

From Nov. 4 to 11, the names of the 68,000 Canadians will be projected onto the Memorial Wall in the Alumni Memorial Building at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

Other viewing sites include Canada House in London, England, Ottawa, St. John's, Halifax, Toronto, Regina and Edmonton.

The New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission is facilitating the event at UNB in partnership with the provincial government, university, Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, Veterans Affairs Canada and National History Society of Canada.

The project is the initiative of actor and director R. H. Thomson, Martin Conboy and the national society.

"For those who were left behind, the vigil is a way to bring them home," said Lee Ellen Pottie, executive director of the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission. "For all New Brunswick's war dead, the Vigil is a means to remember them, to honour them, and to contemplate their sacrifice and the sacrifice of their families."

The memorial at UNB was built in 1955 to honour the university's students, faculty, and alumni who died during both world wars. The Memorial Hall was built in 1924 in honour of the 35 UNB alumni who died in the First World War.

Last October, the Capital Commission saw the designation of the Provincial Cenotaph in Fredericton, the only one in Canada.