Mr. Speaker, today I rise to congratulate all the Canadian athletes who took part in the 1998 Paralympic Games in Nagano last week. After 10 days of action-packed competition, the games wrapped up this past Saturday.
Robin Lagacé, who lives in my riding of Scarborough Centre, competed as a member of the Canadian Men's Ice Sledge Hockey team. Going into the games Canada was ranked third out of seven competing countries. After a surprising win over the tournament favourite, Sweden, Canada went on to the gold medal game against Norway.
Today I am proud to say that the Canadian Men's Ice Sledge Hockey team will be bringing home the silver medal from Nagano.
The Canadian team's goalkeeper, Pierre Pichette, had the honour of being named top goalkeeper of the tournament.
I say congratulations to the team on its success in Nagano. The team truly captured the spirit of the Olympic games and proved once again that Canada indeed has a wealth of world class athletes. We as Canadians are very proud of them. Good job, Team Canada.