250 dignitaries to attend LeBlanc funeral
Published Wednesday July 1st, 2009
MEMRAMCOOK - More than 250 dignitaries will attend the state funeral for Roméo LeBlanc on Friday in the former governor-general's hometown of Memramcook.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former prime minister Jean Chrétien, Governor General Michaëlle Jean, Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff and Papineau MP Justin Trudeau all have confirmed they will attend.
Premier Shawn Graham and Lt.-Gov. Herménégilde Chiasson will be among the public figures from New Brunswick in attendance.
Roughly 600 members of the public are also invited to the service in Saint Thomas Church honouring a man whose life took him from a small hamlet in New Brunswick to Rideau Hall.
A media briefing in Memramcook on Tuesday outlined details of the ceremony.
"The church has 1,100 seats and balconies so, depending on the number of dignitaries attending, I expect at least 600 members of the public will be allowed inside," said New Brunswick RCMP Sergeant Claude Tremblay. "We will also have other space available."
The event will be broadcast on large screens nearby. Officials with the Department of Canadian Heritage said they are expecting between 2,500 and 3,000 people.
A funeral procession will begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday from the Memramcook Institute, where LeBlanc will lie in state. The procession will make its way to the church about 500 metres away.
Members of the public must be seated in the church by 10:30 a.m., preferably arriving more than an hour in advance.
Participants in the slow march will include LeBlanc's family, the governor general and the prime minister.
An RCMP escort, a 100-man honour guard from Canadian Forces Base Gagetown and a Department of National Defence band will walk before LeBlanc's coffin, which will be draped in a Canadian flag.
Honourable pallbearers include Chrétien, Graham, Alexandre "Sacha" Trudeau, son of Pierre Trudeau; Yvon Fontaine, Université de Moncton president; James Irving, president of J.D. Irving, Limited; and Claude Brochu, former owner of the Major League Baseball's defunct Montreal Expos.
The service will be a Catholic mass delivered mostly in French and led by Monseigneur André Richard.
The selection and arrangement of music is by Jolene Richard, wife of LeBlanc's son Beauséjour Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc.
Three eulogies will be delivered: one by Chrétien, a second by Naomi Griffiths, a long-time friend and academic expert on the Acadian people and a third by Dominic LeBlanc.
The service will end at roughly 12:15 p.m. when, outside the church, Governor General Michaëlle Jean will present the Canadian flag from the casket to Roméo's daughter Genevieve and insignia to son Dominic.
After 10 seconds of silence, there will be a 21-gun salute.
The coffin will then be placed in a hearse and taken to a private cemetery ceremony.
State funerals in Canada are generally reserved for former governors general and prime ministers, but the federal government has been known to bestow the honour on other eminent Canadians.
The last state funeral was approved by Parliament in November 2006 for Canada's last First World War veteran.
The last governor general laid to rest was Ramon John Hnatyshyn in 2002. Pierre Trudeau was the last prime minister to receive a state funeral in 2000.
Typically the body arrives on Parliament Hill by hearse and is met by an honour guard, which escorts the body into the centre block of Parliament Hill in a simple ceremony.
Family of the deceased can ask for the funeral to be held elsewhere, as was the case with LeBlanc.
Seating will be available for the first members of the general public to arrive.
The public will also get a chance to pay their respects to LeBlanc as he lies in state at the Memramcook Institute on Thursday between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.
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