Freedom of the City Parade

Before Ryan left for Afghanistan on July 6th, he led a squadron in the Freedom of the City Parade in downtown Edmonton.

The Freedom of the City has its origins in ancient Rome and British military history when it was a capital offence for the military to enter a city in formation or with weapons without permission. However, legions and regiments that had given heroic service or whose honour was beyond question might be granted Freedom of the City. These groups would not have to break ranks or disarm. This was an extremely rare honour because of the risk involved to the city.

The granting of the Freedom of the City today remains the highest honour a municipality can bestow on a military unit. The honour, therefore, of marching through a city or town with “drums beating, colours flying, and bayonets fixed” continues to represent a mark of extreme trust and respect between a community and the military unit so honoured.

The 1 Combat Engineer Regiment (1 CER) formed up, Thursday, May 26th, just before noon, north of Churchill Square to be granted this massive honour from Mayor Stephen Mandel. This was quite a moving ceremony, complete with a knock on the door of City Hall, the request to enter the City, the agreement of the Mayor followed by the Mayor's inspection of the squadrons, all 200 of them. Fortunately, the day was bright, sunny but a bit on the cool side.
Following the Ceremony, there was a reception for 1 CER. We felt very privileged to have witnessed this parade; to top if off, it was Bill's 65th birthday, a mile marker for sure.
Members of 1 CER are serving right now in Afghanistan and more are set to deploy there this summer. They have been involved in every troop rotation since 2006. Their focus now is to return all the equipment and materials from Kandahar to Canada or to storage facilities in Europe. Home for Christmas, hopefully!