Chief justice to stand in for Gov. Gen. Mary Simon on Remembrance Day due to illness

By Canadian Press on November 10, 2025.

OTTAWA — Gov. Gen. Mary Simon is recovering in hospital from a respiratory virus, leaving her unable to preside over the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa on Tuesday, Rideau Hall said Monday.

Chief Justice Richard Wagner will fill in for the King’s representative in Canada at the National War Memorial.

It’s rare that the governor general would not preside over the national ceremony, but routine that the chief justice would stand in for her, since he also serves as deputy governor general.

Rideau Hall did not specify the virus or say how long Simon, 78, has been in hospital.

“The Governor General is doing well and is recovering in hospital,” said Marilyne Guèvremont, a spokesperson for Rideau Hall.

“We appreciate your understanding and respect for her privacy at this time. We will not be commenting further on that.”

Instead, Wagner will join this year’s National Silver Cross Mother, Nancy Payne, as she lays a wreath on behalf of Canadian mothers who lost their children due to military service.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan, Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight and other dignitaries will also attend the ceremony at the cenotaph.

Simon, known as a longtime advocate for Inuit rights, has been governor general since July 2021, when she was appointed to the role following a toxic workplace scandal that led to the resignation of her predecessor, former astronaut Julie Payette.

This Remembrance Day comes 80 years after the end of the Second World War, which ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, and in the Pacific on Aug. 15 that year.

This year also marks 25 years since the entombment of Canada’s Unknown Soldier, a tribute to a fallen First World War soldier who remains unidentified.

Despite a recent flurry of snowy weather, the Department of National Defence said Monday that its regular flypasts still have the green light to go ahead.

CF-18 fighter jets will soar above the National War Memorial and Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, with a variety of others scheduled across the country involving different aircraft, from CC-295 Kingfisher search-and-rescue aircraft over cities throughout British Columbia to a CH-148 Cyclone chopper flypast over Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press