Mr. Speaker, it is said that only a soldier can bear true witness to the nature of war and conflict. This is as true today as it was 95 years ago. For many of us in the chamber today, war and conflict are perhaps intangible concepts. As time passes and we lose more and more of our living links to those wars and conflicts of the past, our understanding will rely more on those stories passed from generation to generation, from family to family, as well as the stories captured in the recordings of our history books and the writings and poems of soldiers.
The First World War arose out of a series of complicated alliances, brewing tensions, efforts to maintain declining empires and the protection of territory and of commerce. It is telling that the killing of an archduke should trigger so much destruction and the death of millions of our fellow human beings. Valour and honour resided in those young men who took up arms and gave of themselves in the service of their country.
In his famous poem, Jorge Luis Borges laid out the sentiment in great clarity when he wrote:
It was their luck to be born into a strange time.
The planet had been parceled out among various countries, each
one provided with loyalties, cherished memories, with a past
undoubtedly heroic, with rights, with wrongs, with a particular
mythology, with bronze forefathers, with anniversaries, with
demagogues and symbols.
This arbitrary division was favorable for wars.
It is true that in the early part of the last century young Canadians left their homes, saying goodbye to moms and dads, saying goodbye to perhaps a lover or a wife. They were off to war. Some signed up for service, for duty and for adventure. What they confronted was anything but an adventure, but they were duty bound. They lived in rain-soaked trenches, endured the bitter cold of winter and every day confronted the possibility of their own deaths. They lived in conditions we could never fully comprehend.
They did all this in the service of their country and far too many shed blood for us. Therefore, today we remember Vimy Ridge. We remember Passchendaele. We remember Dieppe. We remember the Battle of the Atlantic. We remember all the battles from Kapyong to Kandahar. However, we should not glorify or revel in war, for to do so would bring dishonour to those who sacrificed so much. The young men who entered the call to fight, who took up arms in a cause greater than themselves, would have no doubt preferred peace over war.
I hope the House will allow me at this time to pay tribute to the profound role, and I would say the decisive role, women have played in the war effort. In August of 1914, life changed for Canadian women. It was a period when women were often relegated to their homes, cleaning the house and tending to their children. In the midst of the war overseas Canadian women got to work, literally. With so many of our young men overseas there was a significant void in the labour market. There were jobs to be done. In response, women worked in munitions factories, they became nurses, they worked in our shipyards and they still managed to raise their children. They too were heroes. They too sacrificed much. We remember their service to Canada and beyond and for paving the way for countless young women who followed.
I want to close by acknowledging one such woman. Nichola Goddard was the first female Canadian combat solider ever to be killed in action. She was a brave woman. She was strong in spirit. She loved her family. She loved her husband and she loved her country.
Nichola Goddard was born in Papua New Guinea, the daughter of British and Canadian parents, parents whose love of education and adventure led them to teaching in places all over Canada and eventually to Charlottetown.
It also provided Captain Goddard the opportunity to spend much of her childhood living in places like Black Lake and Lac La Ronge in Saskatchewan. She attended junior high in Edmonton and high school in Antigonish. She went to the Royal Military College in Kingston. She became a soldier, rising quickly to the rank of captain. She served with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and her parent unit, the 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery.
Captain Goddard arrived in Afghanistan in January 2006, and on May 17, 2006, she died. Captain Goddard was standing in the turret of her light armoured vehicle, when it was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade early in the battle. She died instantly. She left behind much that day. She left behind a mom and dad, devastated by the loss of their daughter. A mom, a dad, a husband, siblings, all left with a range of emotions but enormously proud of her bravery and dedication in the service of others.
Today, as on other days, we remember Nichola Goddard and all the men and women who served their country and paid the ultimate price.
Lest we forget.