Soldier Patrice Vincent remembered at solemn ceremony one year after death

A solemn ceremony was held Tuesday for Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, who was killed in a politically motivated hit-and-run attack in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, one year ago today.

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The event, organized by the Royal Canadian Legion of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, celebrated the memory of the Canadian Services officer killed in a parking lot by jihadist Martin Couture-Rouleau.

A chorus of children are seen singing at a ceremony in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu to mark the first anniversary of the death of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent. (Tanya Birkbeck/CBC)

As part of the ceremony, a banner with Vincent's likeness and the words, "we remember you," was unfurled above the boulevard at the spot where Vincent was attacked.

The local Legion posthumously gave Vincent the Hal Rogers Fellow Award to commemorate his sacrifice, while a calligrapher signed Vincent's name in the Book of Remembrance on Parliament Hill.

MP Steven Blaney, a former Minister for Veterans' Affairs and current Conservative MP for Bellechasse-Les Etchemins-Lévis, attended the ceremony, as did Vincent's mother and three sisters.

A banner was unfurled in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu Tuesday to commemorate Warrant officer Patrice Vincent, killed one year ago by a lone-wolf terrorist. (Tanya Birkbeck/CBC)

Others on hand included members of the Armed Forces, the Legion, firefighters and police.

The ceremony, which included music, prayers and the laying of a wreath, aimed at creating closure, a friend of Vincent's told CBC.