HALIFAX — A historic Halifax-based military unit is returning to the city’s Common for the first time in decades with a parade to mark Remembrance Day.
Now a Canadian Armed Forces Reserve armoured unit, the Halifax Rifles are a former infantry regiment whose origin dates back to 1860.
Lt.-Col. Mike Rogers said the parade is a symbolic return to the unit’s former headquarters and home at the Halifax Armoury, located in central Halifax across from the large public parkland known as the Common. The armoury, which was constructed between 1895 and 1899, has been under renovation since 2017, and the Rifles currently serve out of Windsor Park in the city’s north end. The unit is to return to the armoury once its restoration is complete.
“We certainly see this as the start of a new tradition for ourselves,” Rogers said in an interview. “I think it’s a very significant opportunity for us to return to that location, pay homage and really get back to our roots.”
He said the last time a similar regimental parade was held would have been in the 1960s, just before the unit was virtually disbanded in 1965. The Rifles were reactivated in 2009.
Rogers said the decision to mount the parade ceremony was made soon after it was announced that Halifax’s main Remembrance Day ceremony would be moved from the Grand Parade in front of City Hall to Sullivan’s Pond across the harbour in Dartmouth. The Royal Canadian Legion has said it decided to move the ceremony out of respect for people who are staying in a tent encampment around the Grand Parade.
“There are certainly ceremonies happening throughout Halifax, but this is another location in a prominent spot with lots of room for observers,” Rogers said of his regiment’s parade.
He said the significance of returning to the Common is that the unit used to parade and train at the location in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was also used as a preparation area for sending soldiers overseas during the two world wars.
The Halifax Rifles began as one of six independent volunteer rifle companies that formed the Halifax Volunteer Battalion in 1860. Over time the battalion’s name went through five iterations before finally settling on the Halifax Rifles in 1958.
The unit has battle honours dating back to the Fenian Raids in 1866 and the Northwest Rebellion in 1885. Members also took part in the South African War of 1899-1902.
During the First and Second World Wars, the regiment served as security protection for Halifax and its harbour, while sending members overseas as reinforcements for other military units.
More than 100 members who served in the First World War are buried in Europe, while 58 members lost their lives in the Second World War. Unit members also served with the Canadian military in Afghanistan.
Saturday’s parade is set for the skating Oval on the Common at 10:30 a.m.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2023.
Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press
