Lest we forget
Published Wednesday November 11th, 2009
Editor's note: The following remarks were delivered in the House of Commons by New Brunswick's senior federal cabinet minister in recognition of Remembrance Week.
Hon. Greg Thompson
Minister of Veterans Affairs
Today is one of those special days in this place when members from all sides of this House will speak with one voice - and that is to honour those who have allowed us to live in the best country in the world.
There will be no disagreement and no debate.
There will be only one message: a sincere thank you to the generations of men and women who have worn our uniform. Who have defended our way of life. And who have made Canada strong and free and proud.
As we launch Veterans' Week, we think of the extraordinary contributions that ordinary Canadians have made in the two Great Wars, in Korea, on peacekeeping missions, on military operations, and in Afghanistan today - missions that have distinguished our soldiers as the best in the world.
They are the best trained.
The most disciplined.
The most professional.
We live in a country blessed with peace; a country built on the values of generosity, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. And we owe much of it - if not all of it - to our men and women in uniform. Past and present.
In this place, Mr. Speaker, words are all we have to express our gratitude. To describe their sacrifice.
But words fail to capture the brutal inhumanity of war and the tragic loss of so many young lives - on a scale that none of us can imagine.
Words cannot describe the sacrifice on Vimy Ridge or at Beaumont Hamel;
They cannot describe the horrors on the shores of Normandy, in the mountains of Italy, or in the Hills of Korea;
They cannot capture the atrocities in Rwanda or Bosnia.
And words alone cannot begin to tell the untold stories of Canadian bravery and determination.
In December of 1941, a valiant group of Canadians arrived in Hong Kong with few supplies and no backup.
Yet they stood in the face of relentless Japanese attacks for 17 days.
And again, words cannot describe the cruelty that eventually led enemy soldiers to overrun a makeshift hospital and assault and murder nurses and bayonet our wounded soldiers in their hospital beds.
And this happened on Christmas Eve.
These are actions that defy any level of human behavior. Even in war.
Our Canadian men and women still stood their ground with uncommon courage until the next day - until Christmas Day - when those still alive, those still standing, were taken prisoners of war.
But "prisoner of war" does not begin to describe what happened to these young Canadians.
It fails to describe the sheer torture and brutality they endured.
The term "prisoner of war" only proves that even in war, we sanitize the language.
These Canadians were forced to perform slave labour on a starvation diet. It was a prescription for death.
And what continues to amaze me is that some of our soldiers did walk out of those camps on Sept 9, 1945. After 1,355 days.
Almost 2,000 men and women had sailed to Hong Kong and more than a quarter of them never returned home. Some of those who did survive had to be carried out, only to die on the voyage home.
Their story is worth retelling because after all these years - some 65 years later - many of the horrors stories from those camps remain untold.
The survivors of the Battle of Hong Kong still cannot and will not talk about everything that happened.
Those still with us will occasionally share a story with each other, but they have never told their families, other loved ones or friends.
The question I keep asking myself is how did these men and women - how could any human being - survive such suffering. What kept them going?
When you ask George Peterson, one of the men who did survive, who did walk out of those camps, he will use one word: he will tell you they lived on hope.
They existed on hope.
They came from a country they loved and wanted to return to.
They believed in a free world and the mission.
And, most importantly, they'd made a solemn promise to their loved ones that they would come home - no matter what.
These stories remind us that the full cost of war is not limited to those Canadians buried overseas.
The full cost of war lives on from generation to generation. And it continues to be paid today.
Mr. Speaker, you and I and many Members in this House grew up with the children of that generation of soldier. Children who grew up in families with fathers that struggled with the invisible cost of war, brought up by parents who suffered in silence.
What is truly astonishing is that even those who endured such hardships, even those who still bear the emotional scars of war, came home to build this country.
Their contributions did not end on the battlefields.
They came home and started businesses.
They pursued careers.
They went to work. They paid their taxes.
They made the Canada we know today. They made Canada great.
That is the remarkable story of our veterans. And when we are in their presence, when we are sitting at a table and sharing a meal with these once young soldiers who are now in their twilight years, we realize these are not just ordinary Canadians.
As you watch a frail and arthritic hand break bread - just the way they look at their food before they eat it, the way they've never taken a meal for granted - you realize these men and women are different. They are special. They are our nation's truest heroes.
They never sought the headlines, but they wrote the true story of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, men and women like them are still writing that story today.
The Canadian story.
They are still risking everything to defend our way of life.
And each one of us in this chamber knows it.
Every one of us in this chamber has met families of our fallen soldiers from Afghanistan.
And when we are in their presence, our eyes are instinctively drawn to that tiny Silver Cross that tells the whole story: These families have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
When your eyes meet their eyes, you can't help but wonder how pain and pride can co-exist, simultaneously, in one set of eyes. But they do.
And as we reach out to them, just a handshake is simply not enough. It will not cut it.
These are truly powerful moments.
Because we know that for anyone who has lost a loved one, the pain they bear is real and it never goes away.
As we've heard in this place so often, for someone who has lost a loved one, every day is Remembrance Day.
And yet, amid such sacrifice, it is also true that - almost without exception - each one of these family members would tell you that if they were to do it over again, nothing would change:
They still believe in Canada.
They still believe in the mission.
And, most importantly, they loved and believed in their fallen sons and daughters, their fallen husbands and wives.
In the next few days, all of us in this House will return to the towns and villages we represent.
We will go back to the men and women who sent us here.
And with them, we will gather at our cenotaphs and memorials.
The bugle will sound. The pipes will blow.
We will lay the wreaths.
And we will observe the silence.
And during that time of reflection, we will thank them. We will remember them. And we will say a silent prayer for those who continue to serve.
Lest we forget.
The Hon. Greg Thompson is Canada's Minister of Veterans' Affairs.
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