Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I might say that it is because of the very sombre event of December 6 that I am substituting today for Thomas Mulcair, who is in his city of Montreal, where the horrors of the École Polytechnique murders are being commemorated.
Just by way of reference to the other event, I will say that I, as a member of Parliament and, I am sure, Haligonians, appreciate your opening with this commemoration, and with the relationship between Boston and Halifax, which has always been very, very strong. As it happens, my grandfather had closed his medical practice in Boston to move to Truro to start up the first hospital in Colchester County when the Halifax explosion occurred, and the opening of the hospital turned out to be very fortuitous. He took the train to Bedford, and, like everyone else, he walked into the inner city because it was inaccessible in any other way, and many patients were taken to hospital in Colchester County.
From both of these very sombre events, which we properly commemorate, we hope to learn lessons. That's why we have a great deal of public attention on the horror of the December 6 École Polytechnique murders, and hopefully are learning lessons in public policy from them.
Here in Halifax there are a great many people who hope that one of the lessons learned from the Halifax explosion is that we should make our harbour a nuclear-weapons-free zone. That's an ongoing struggle that many people are very much engaged in, not just in Halifax, but worldwide. So it's an appropriate time to commemorate those events.
Thank you.