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Toronto and Ottawa: A tale of two cities in mourning

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LIEM VU AND LES WHITTINGTON
STAFF REPORTERS

Thu Aug 25 2011
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Jack Layton’s journey home ended Thursday night at Toronto City Hall to the sound of bicycle bells and mass applause.

Hundreds of mourners filled Nathan Phillips Square with candles to pay their respects to the late former NDP leader as his wife, Olivia Chow, and son Mike Layton shook hands with dozens, thanking them for the support.

Olga Sandolowich, wearing an orange silk scarf, fought back tears when she embraced Chow.

“I told her (Jack) gave us strength and that we will move forward. Jack will always be with us,” she said.

Around 9:30 p.m., the motorcade arrived and eight Toronto police pallbearers carried Layton’s casket into City Hall.

Some applauded while others yelled out, “Thank you, Jack.”

Hours earlier, hundreds of mourners looked on and a 15-gun salute reverberated across Parliament Hill as Layton left the House of Commons, where he spent so much of the past seven years.

Layton’s flag-draped coffin was formally carried out of the Centre Block below the Peace Tower, accompanied by a piper, at 2 p.m. after a two-day lying-in-state ceremony in Ottawa that drew over 10,000 mourners.

“O Canada” and the John Lennon tune, “Imagine,” rang out on the bells of the Peace Tower. His stricken-looking wife, Olivia Chow, and Layton’s family watched as the casket was lifted by eight Mounties into the hearse at the doors to Parliament.

Earlier, Chow, Layton’s son Mike, daughter Sarah and granddaughter Beatrice strolled through the crowd thanking people for coming out. They paused before a makeshift memorial of flowers, cards and “Orange Crush” cans that sprang up beside the Centennial Flame.

Chow opened some of the cards and smiled as she read the messages. She picked up a ball of orange modelling clay and rolled it in her palm, saying she would give it to Beatrice who by then was snoozing on her father’s shoulder.

The motorcade transporting the casket headed south on Hwy. 416 and then west along Hwy. 401 — the Highway of Heroes — to Toronto, where dozens of mourners gathered on overpasses in the city’s east end with signs and flags.

Andrea Moffat, an NDP candidate for Pickering-Scarborough East in the last federal election, stood on an overpass at Port Union Rd. with 50 others.

The mourners held orange signs, Canadian flags, and candles.

“Jack is our hero and we wanted to welcome him home,” said Moffat.

Addressing the media in Yellowknife earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he wasn’t surprised by the public tribute to Layton in the past few days.

“Part of the reason I declared this to be a state funeral was my belief that Mr. Layton is an important political figure — obviously very well known and liked, widely liked, by the Canadian people, including by people who did not vote for him,” he said. “That’s been my view all along.”

Harper cut short his trip to the North so he and his wife Laureen can be in Toronto for Layton’s funeral.

Before leaving the Ottawa area, the hearse carrying Layton’s casket crossed the river to nearby Gatineau, Que., where it passed slowly in front of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Several hundred well-wishers and mourners, many with tears in their eyes, turned out to see the funeral procession pass. One supporter released 61 white doves — one for each year of Layton’s life — into the air.

A native of Quebec who worked for years to expand his party’s appeal in the province, Layton had asked for the motorcade to make a brief, symbolic stop among Quebecers. Largely on the basis of Layton’s personal magnetism, the NDP won 59 of 75 Commons seats from Quebec in the election, vaulting the party into the role of official Opposition for the first time.

“It was another example of how deeply rooted Jack Layton was in Quebec,” NDP MP Françoise Boivin (Gatineau) said after the hearse went by. “This was Jack’s way of saying thank you to his fellow Quebecers.”

On Thursday morning in Ottawa, the line of supporters and mourners waiting to view the casket stretched along a curving driveway leading up to the Parliament building.

Inside, the foyer near the entrance to the House of Commons was hushed as mourners, singly or in pairs, stepped forward to view the casket wrapped in the Canadian flag. Some bowed, some made the sign of the cross, many fought back tears. As he moved away, one man glanced quickly back over his shoulder for a last look.

“Canada has lost such an important person that we needed so much at this time in our history,” said Carleton University professor Colleen Lundy, wiping her eyes after leaving. “He was an unbelievably warm person — down-to-earth and accessible — so rare in a politician.”

One of those who visited the casket was Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen who was detained and tortured in Syria. Afterward, he noted that Layton and other NDP MPs “have spoken on my behalf when I was in Syria.

“I will always remember that, I will never forget,” Arar said.

With files from Canadian Press


VIDEO - Layton leaves Ottawa
Jack Layton's coffin is on its way to Toronto after the flag-draped casket was carried out of Centre Block by Mounties, followed by Olivia Chow and Layton's children.

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