Canadian delegation overwhelmed by First World War battlefields [Video]

It’s been a trip to cherish for a group of Canadians visiting Belgium this week to honour the legacy of Indigenous soldiers.

A delegation of close to 20 people from coast-to-coast have visited battlefields and cemeteries and attended ceremonies for ancestors who fought and died in the First World War.

On Saturday, the first stop was a memorial at Passcehdaele near Ypres, Belgium, where 4,000 Canadians were killed and close to 12,000 more were wounded in the fall of 1917.

Over 66,000 Canadians were killed in the Great War which took place from 1914 to 1918.

Many of them buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Zonnebeke, Belgium.

Denise John from the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax said one of the things that impacted her the most was the amount of unmarked graves she saw at the Commonwealth cemeteries.

Wreaths are laid at the Tyne Cot Cemetery in Zonnebeke, Belgium. …