Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to join my colleagues on behalf of the New Democratic Party in remembering those who died and suffered during the past great wars. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the last great war, both in Europe and Southeast Asia.
It is also a personal gratitude that I have the great honour to express today in the House to the Parliament of Canada. Coming from Holland, where many of my relatives had part in the
resistance against the fascism that swept through Europe, on their behalf and on behalf of my former countrymen in the Netherlands I wish to express our great gratitude and appreciation to those young Canadian men and women who liberated us from the shadow of fascism.
Having been born in the Dutch East Indies and a few months after my birth being incarcerated in a Japanese prisoner of war camp with my mother and my older brother, and my father eventually being taken a prisoner of war and incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in Japan, I wish to express my personal gratitude to those men and women of the allied forces who liberated us. If it were not for them I would not be alive today. It is a very personal matter for me to stand in the House and express our deepest gratitude to those men and women who sacrificed their lives to save others.
As we remember them, let us also remember why the young Canadian men and women went forward in their great act of sacrifice. It was to preserve democracy and freedom as we know them. It was to fight against the intolerance that had swept through Europe and Asia at the time. As we remember their deeds, it is important for us to also reaffirm ourselves to the ideals of democracy, freedom and tolerance. Without tolerance, democracy and freedom cannot exist.
As we live through today's age of rapid social and technological changes, which create psychological insecurities, the ugly head of intolerance rises now and then. As we remember the dead, let us also remember the great purpose of freedom, democracy and tolerance.
On behalf of my colleagues, myself, my family and the people of the Netherlands, I thank those great Canadian men and women who did so much.