About Us
Our Mission
Honouring the Canadian Armed Forces and its members past and present.
Our Story
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) of Regina is a Regina-based non-profit organization and one of many independent United Services Institutes in the world. At inception a century ago RUSI Regina was for the study of military science, understanding of Canadian defense policy, and supportive gathering of military veterans. Today RUSI welcomes civilians as well as current and ex-service personnel, and its primary public activity is captured in its mission statement: honouring the Canadian Armed Forces and its members past and present. RUSI holds many public commemorative events and has a multi-year program that creates public memorials of various kinds, including online. RUSI also holds social events to encourage awareness. The organization collaborates with the University of Regina on historical research to support the recognition of Canadian service and sacrifice.
We launched a series of commemorative projects promoting the education of what our Veterans have accomplished and the terrible cost of their sacrifices. We annually commemorate one of Saskatchewan’s 15 Victoria Cross recipients and have created a Wall of Honour in the Legislature where there is a shadow box for each of those soldiers. At the Cenotaph in Regina’s Victoria Park we have placed educational pedestals that tell the stories of Canada’s wars, battles and conflicts. There are also pedestals honouring the ships and units related to Saskatchewan. To promote remembrance among our youth we have arranged school visits to the pedestals.
In 2022, we launched the Decoration Day Sentries project where at the Regina Cenotaph on Decoration Day we hold a military Changing of the Guard Ceremony where civilian sentries join the military sentries to “stand for those who served”.
The other aspect of our operation is the social component for our members. Weekly we hold our Thank Goodness it’s Thursday (TGIT) in the Regina Garrison Senior Ranks Mess where our members come to relax and enjoy the company of each other and military members of the garrison. We hold two formal dinners each year, the Armistice Dinner on the 10th of November marking the end of the fighting in the First World War and the Victory Dinner held in late April or early May to mark the end of the fighting in Europe in the Second World War.
