Mr. Speaker, today, the war in Korea, the forgotten war, is still a war on hold, still not resolved. It is the war that was never declared, but make no mistake, it was a war.
During the war in Korea, 30,000 Canadians served under severe conditions. They gave a small, beleaguered nation the opportunity to be free. The price of this freedom was 516 who never came home, who never grew old.
In Ottawa a privately funded memorial now stands to remind all of the forgotten war and replicates a memorial standing in the United Nations cemetery in Korea.
Today, on Korea's beautiful and green treed hills, there is still a hopefulness for final peace.
Patrick O'Connor of the Royal Canadian Regiment was killed one day after penning these words:
There is blood on the hills of Korea It's the gift of the freedom they love May their names live in glory forever And their souls rest in Heaven above. Let us not forget.