Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to our witnesses and to our colleagues from the House of Commons. I think most of us are here.
Certainly, for those of you who are not aware of the Halifax explosion, at the time it was—and still is—the second largest man-made explosion ever occurring anywhere on earth. It was a tremendous explosion caused by the collision of two ships in the Halifax harbour, the Imo and the Mont Blanc, both loaded with munitions for World War I.
If you have the opportunity while you're here, you really should go down to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and look at their display, because it really is quite significant.
Of course, out of all tragedies, some good things happen, and a number of good things happened after the Halifax explosion. The Halifax School for the Blind was set up for the first time here in Halifax. Unfortunately, during the explosion, many school children were looking out the windows at the two ships burning in the harbour, and when they exploded, the windows blew in on them and of course caused a lot of blindness.
The other terrible thing that happened that evening was that an extreme northeast snowstorm blew in, which slowed down the rescue operations.
The other thing I believe you really need to know about it is the ongoing relationship between Nova Scotia and the City of Boston, because the City of Boston immediately sent a relief train to Halifax, which was the first relief train to actually reach us. Of course, it was loaded with medical supplies and blankets and food. For that, the Province of Nova Scotia has given the holiday Christmas tree to Boston on an annual basis in recognition of the help received when Halifax was in dire straits.
Mike or Alexa may want to add to that.