Mr. Speaker, while the hon. member who spoke before me was born before the war, I was born during the war, in 1943. I am a little younger than he is, but I fully share his point of view.
It is an honour to join with all members of parliament here today in order to remember our fellow countrymen who were killed in action and to pay tribute to their fellow soldiers who served our two nations in difficult times.
I also want to express all our gratitude to members of the Canadian forces currently serving overseas and to say that our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families during Veterans Week.
We have no greater duty than to honour the sacrifice of those who served to protect our peace and our freedom. One of the best ways to perform this duty is to do it as a community, by talking to each other, by laying wreaths, by shaking a veteran's hand or by reading the inscription on a monument.
We should also talk about it within our families, with our children; tell them about our service people and what they do to protect us; teach them how to pray for the safety of people in uniform; and say a prayer of gratitude for the veterans who protected us in the past.
We have a duty to pay tribute to all those who gave their lives for us, and those who are protecting us this very day.
The theme of Veterans Week is “In the Service of Peace”. In Quebec, and in Canada, we have the pleasure of living in a land of rich resources with a decent standard of living.
As well, this is a land that has known neither war nor occupation. For several decades now, however, our military personnel have answered the call to serve the cause of peace and freedom, in two world wars, the Korean war, the gulf war, and now the war against terrorism, and for more than half a century now as well in a peacekeeping role in some of the world's hot spots.
Most of us, however, have no knowledge of war, except for what we read in history books. Living such a sheltered life, without knowledge of war, is a blessing, one our grandparents and great-grandparents did not enjoy. Yet their experiences of war are engraved in our memories.
Let us recall that, in the past century, more than 116,000 of our fellow citizens, including no doubt members of our own families, lost their lives in combat or died later as a result of their wounds.
We have a duty to perpetuate the memory of our veterans throughout Quebec and Canada, those men and women who served so nobly in peace and in war. Let us make the commitment that they will never be forgotten. That is what we are doing here in the House, in a way, demonstrating that commitment.
Our fellow citizens everywhere will be coming together for Remembrance Day ceremonies and candlelight vigils, in churches, at war memorials and in cemeteries. At cultural and sporting events, they will pause for a moment of silence in memory of our veterans.
Veterans do not ask much of us. They ask that we never forget the sacrifice of those who will never come home, those whose youthful dreams could never be fulfilled, those who were not able to live to enjoy the peace we enjoy, the peace for which they fought so fiercely. How lucky we are.
We will never forget the marvellous legacy they have left to us, so that we may live freely within a democracy.