Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and most of the Commonwealth. Traditionally this is the day we remember the War Dead -- all those young men and women who left their regular lives to go to foreign lands and fight for their country.

The idea of war evokes many opinions. The lives lost can be considered as "sacrificed lives" or "wasted lives". And of course, there are much more casualties on the other side, as well as civilian lives. These losses are no less important.

My own grandfather, Fernando Lagman Silva [1901-1978], was a veteran of the USAFFE in World War II. He endured the Bataan Death March after the Japanese captured the Philippine Islands and the Americans retreated to Australia. Fortunately, he lived to tell his kids and grandkids the horrors of war and to tell us to think twice whenever it is glorified.

The photograph above was taken this summer on Queen West, in front of the Old City Hall, Near the War Dead Memorial. The bagpiper is Devin Yuke.