Mr. Speaker, on this cold day, December 13, imagine being forced, at gunpoint, out of your home and onto a ship, only to realize in horror that it would become your grave at the bottom of the icy Atlantic.
That is what happened on December 13, 1758, to some 850 Acadians, 850 innocent people who evince the cruelty of the deportation of this proud people, ordered by the British Crown.
Nearly 12,000 Acadians were deported during what became euphemistically known as the Great Upheaval. Many of them died before reaching their destination, from either illness or deprivation.
On this Acadian Remembrance Day, let us honour the memory of those who were lost but, more importantly, let us underscore the failure of this intractable attempt to wipe out a people, which constitutes a crime against humanity.
The fact of the matter is that British authorities failed. The Acadian people continue to thrive, proudly and strong, on their ancestral lands, as they do in many other places, including Quebec, where my own ancestors found refuge.