Mr. Speaker, on this the 70th anniversary of D-Day, all Canadians remember the enormous sacrifice of those who fought and died to defeat the embodiment of evil. We honour the profound courage of those Canadians who landed on Juno Beach under heavy fire to establish a crucial foothold for the liberation of Europe.
My Dad landed through Juno Beach five days after the initial wave, and went on to help hold the bridge at Nijmegen in Holland. Dad rarely spoke of the war, but he said that he hoped our sons—that no one's sons—would have to face the horrors of war.
Peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of social justice.
We have much more work to do to honour those who fought for peace and those who in uniform continue to put their lives in harm's way to protect us.