Downtown Chatham safety concerns loom over returning Remembrance Day vigil

Christ Church in Chatham is organizing the return of an honour guard vigil at the downtown cenotaph ahead of Remembrance Day next month.

Community groups and volunteer residents will stand guard for one-hour shifts beginning on November 10 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then again on Remembrance Day between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m.

"We're not going through the night for safety’s sake," explained Reverend John Maroney, who noted the scaled back vigil will be the first at the cenotaph since before the COVID-19 pandemic in November 2019.

According to Maroney, there's concern for personal safety in the downtown core during the overnight hours.

"We don't want anybody standing vigil during the night," Maroney said. "Just people coming up and harassing those who are standing vigil during the night. And, I mean, it happens everywhere, so it's just a matter of safety, and that's all."

The first vigil held by Christ Church in 2017 took place night and day for 150 hours in honour of Canada’s 150th year leading up to that year's Remembrance Day service.

Volunteers from the local Legion won't be taking part due to the same perceived safety concerns in Chatham’s downtown core. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

"We do this honour guard because we've always said, 'Lest we forget', and 40 years ago it was a little fresher in our minds. But now we're in 2024, we've become, I think, a little bit soft in our society," Maroney told CTV News.

"The notion of service is kind of disappearing in our society. The fellows and the women who went to war and paid the ultimate sacrifice, they knew what service is,” he reminisced. “So, we kind of want to let the generation know that we will not forget and that service is paramount to a society that has something to say."

"We are the spiritual home of the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment," Maroney continued. "There is a connection to the military here at Christ Church, and we're not here to glorify war. We're here to remind people that war is hell. Yet these people went. They left community. They left family. They left everything they had ever known before. So we can do what we're doing right now."

Christ Church in Chatham is organizing the return of an honour guard vigil at the downtown cenotaph ahead of Remembrance Day next month. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

Maroney noted if more volunteers wished to take part, the hour-long shifts could be split in half.

Meant time, volunteers from the local Legion won't be taking part due to the same perceived safety concerns in Chatham’s downtown core.

Royal Canadian Legion Chatham Branch 642 President Len Maynard said that a lack of manpower and a number of safety concerns prompted the branch to hold off on participating in the cenotaph vigil, noting they will be there for the Remembrance Day service.

"It's been a problem. We've had a lot of issues during nights and so forth with the people around, and we can't provide protection for our people enough."

"It's a shame, but it's true." Maynard said. "And then same time you had some good people come up, bringing them coffee and stuff like that. But it's the worse end of the stick that makes it hard for people to move forward. And Chatham-Kent, especially the police service, they're doing all they can. But, you know, you can never be there 24/7, right?"

He said, "It's good to see another public organization, especially a church like that, take that mantle on,"

Maynard noted that the Legion's poppy campaign begins with a flag raising ceremony on Friday at the Chatham-Kent Civic Centre.

"I'm sorry to hear that they won't be participating, but I completely appreciate their perspective," said Chatham-Kent Counicllor Alysson Storey. "You have to feel safe in what you're doing and the Legion does so many wonderful things in our community throughout the year that if they don't feel like they have the person power right now or the if they're not feeling safe, I respect their decision entirely."

Storey added, "And I do really respect the folks at Christ Church who have stepped forward to play that role. But I do think that those types of concerns are ones that I have been hearing fairly often as a councillor for Chatham. So obviously downtown Chatham is in my ward, and that's something that is being addressed - but changes to that don't happen overnight."

Volunteers from the local Legion won't be taking part due to the same perceived safety concerns in Chatham’s downtown core. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

Storey said Chatham is not unique in terms of the issues the downtown area is facing including an increase in the number of people living outdoors with mental health and addictions issues.

"I need to be optimistic that we're working on this and that we're doing our best to turn this around, but it's a problem that's bigger than Chatham. We can certainly use our limited resources to always look for ways to improve and to help our citizens feel safe, but it's certainly an issue that has been raised to me as a councillor repeatedly throughout this term. It's something that is not lost on me that we need to continue to review how we're looking at our downtowns."