Mr. Speaker, on November 6, 1993 I had the privilege of announcing the Canada Remembers program. There have been literally hundreds of events commemorating events that led to the end of the second world war.
I had the privilege of leading a number of pilgrimages through Italy, France, Belgium and Holland. Indeed they were very touching events.
I remember standing outside Belgium with a number of Canadian veterans and marching into the city. In the city the people were singing "O Canada" and their greatest desire was to touch a Canadian veteran.
In Vlissingen, the Netherlands over 100,000 people came to say thank you to the allied veterans.
The most touching event for Canadian veterans was in Apledoorn where between 300,000 and 500,000 people came to say thank you to the Canadian veterans.
Now I have the privilege of leading a delegation to the far east, to Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. In 1941 about 2,000 Canadians of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles left Vancouver for Hong Kong. More than one-quarter of these veterans died either on the battlefield or in prison camps.
About 10,000 Canadians served in the far east during the second world war, and over 1,000 paid the supreme sacrifice. We will be visiting a number of those graves in commemoration of these people. We will also be visiting memorials in Rangoon, Singapore and Yokohama. These memorials bear the name of the Canadian veteran who has no known grave.
In 1995 when we are looking ahead it is so important to look back to 1945 and really understand what price was paid for freedom and democracy. This pilgrimage is the last event for the Canada Remembers program. There have been so many events throughout this country from the largest provincial organization to the smallest community organization, all of which did nothing but add to the knowledge and the great respect we have for our Canadian veterans. These people can be justly proud and I thank them very much.