Mr. Speaker, in coal mining communities across Cape Breton Island today, schools and businesses are closed and the streets are quiet.
Today is Davis Day commemorating the miner shot by coal company police during the strike in 1925.
Today Cape Bretoners remember when their island was the engine for the Dominion, when their blood and sweat fed the war machine of the British Empire. Today working people remember how they fought and died for things we now take for granted. Living wages, pensions, protection from bosses who would rather shoot to kill than bargain in good faith.
On Davis Day we remember our history. Cape Bretoners have reason to be proud and Canadians have reason to be thankful.