Four police officers from Ontario who lost their life while on the job will be honoured today during the Ontario Police Memorial Foundation’s 24th annual Ceremony of Remembrance.
During the event, which will get underway at 11 a.m. at the Ontario Police Memorial in downtown Toronto, the names of constables Constable Andrew Hong (Toronto Police Service, 2022), Devon Northrup and Morgan Russell (South Simcoe Police Service,2022), and Grzegorz Pierzchala (Ontario Provincial Police Haldimand County Detachment, 2022) will be added to the Wall of Honour.
There will also be one historical addition: Const. Vicki Lynn Wilson from Durham Regional Police Service, who died in 1992. She was identified by the Ontario Police Memorial’s historian following research submissions by Durham police.
Organized by the Ontario Police Memorial Foundation, the Ceremony of Remembrance, which is led by pipe bands and attended by thousands of uniformed police officers from across Canada, the United States, and Europe, pays tribute to Ontario’s fallen police officers who are remembered as “heroes in life, not death.”
Participating officers will be gathering at the Wall of Honour shortly before the ceremony officially begins.
Today’s guests of honour will include Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Premier Doug Ford, and the families of fallen officers.
Those unable to attend in person can watch the ceremony live online starting at 10 a.m. with the reading of the names of all fallen officers on the Memorial Wall.
The Ontario Police Memorial is located in a small park next to Queen’s Park at the corner of Grosvenor Street and Queen’s Park Crescent. The names of all known fallen officers in the province are inscribed on its Wall of Honour.
