OTTAWA — Eight decades on from the end of the deadliest military conflict in history, Canadians paused for Remembrance Day ceremonies Tuesday to honour those who put their lives on the line for their country.

In chilly Ottawa, next to a National War Memorial lightly dusted with snow, Second World War veteran John Preece, 99, told The Canadian Press he still remembers trudging through the muck in poor weather during the war.

“It was muddy and cold and raining and snowing,” he said. “It wasn’t very nice.”

Preece, who served as a private, was wounded when a sniper bullet struck his arm as he was operating a Bren light machine-gun in Holland in April 1945.

He is one of just a few thousand still-living Canadian veterans from that pivotal war. He said he does not personally know any other li

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