Canada Day/Memorial Day

In Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Day is also Memorial Day. On the morning of 1 July 1916, the Newfoundland Regiment made its tragic advance on Beaumont-Hamel, as part of the Somme offensive. 1 July 2016 was the 100th anniversary of this horrible event and was marked by Princess Anne’s visit and the world premiere of Ours, an opera about Beaumont-Hamel by librettist Robert Chafe and composer John Estacio. The next year, Canada’s 150th anniversary, was marked by a morning of mourning for the regiment and then joining the rest of Canada in birthday celebrations and the opening of Dedication, a play by Ed Riche about the establishment of the war memorial in St. John’s. Throughout all, 1 July remains a day of death and a day of birth.