Mr. Speaker, today marks the 73rd anniversary of the D-Day allied landings in Normandy.
By June 1944, the Nazis had occupied France and much of the continent of Europe for four long and brutal years. The historic military victory of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy was a major turning point in the hard-fought war to liberate Europe from a cruel and oppressive regime. Canada's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and airwomen were assigned to capture an area that we now know as Juno Beach, which is legendary in our annals. It was there that our troops managed to defeat a heavily entrenched German force, but at a terrible price.
Today, we commemorate the victory of our ancestors, some of whom were mine, and pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate price to make that victory possible.
Indeed, the entire democratic world owes the soldiers—those who did not come home, those who were injured—and their families a debt we can never repay. There is a price for freedom.