HMCS Griffon opens its doors for the annual New Year's Day levee

At HMCS Griffon, the annual New Year’s Day levee is a time-honoured tradition, one Lt.-Cmdr. Michelle Tessier hopes continues indefinitely.

“It is an opportunity for a military unit to get together to toast the Queen, the reigning sovereign,” Tessier said on Thursday.

“As commissioned officers we are the Queen’s representatives here in Canada, so it’s a toast to the Queen and a toast to the new year as a unit together to welcome 2015.”

The afternoon event, which included an annual performance by the MacGillivray Pipe Band, included current and former members of the military, and was also open to the public.

“The levee is also an opportunity for us to welcome the public in and toast the new year with them,” Tessier said.

“I think it’s just important that the public understands what we do. They get an opportunity to talk to military people, understand what we’re doing on behalf of Canada. We are their navy.”

MPP Michael Gravelle (Lib., Thunder Bay-Superior North), has been coming to the levee most of his life and said the tradition goes back to his childhood.

“My father, who was a Second World War veteran, was also the commanding officer of the armoury when I was a little boy. So I’ve got a longstanding respect and connection with the military and peacekeeping and all that matters to us here,” Gravelle said. “Perhaps even more so as we enter 2015.”

Levees date back to colonial New France, when the governor gathered his advisors to toast the king. The tradition has grown since there.

Thursday’s afternoon soiree wasn’t without a dose of real-world reality.

Visitors were asked to sign in and produce a piece of identification, a direct result of the recent attack on Parliament Hill that led to the death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. Two days earlier Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was killed in St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., run down by a Canadian linked to Islamic extremists.

“That’s just increased force-protection measures,” Tessier said, explaining the heightened security.

“As we know, back in the fall there were some incidents that caused us to have a look at how we’re conducting business. That’s just to ensure we know who is here.”