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CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 137 Ï NUMBER 164 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 37th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Tuesday, April 9, 2002 (Part A) Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire´´ at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 10121 HOUSE OF COMMONS Tuesday, April 9, 2002 The House met at 10 a.m. the families of the dead, the price of victory would also be very steep. Prayers Allow me to share some lines from one letter written by Percy Winthrop McClare on Monday, April 16, about a week and a half after his first exposure to battle. ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS My Dear Mother, I can only write a short letter this time....as I have been in the trenches for nine Ï (1000) days.... You have no doubt heard...of the capture of Vimy Ridge. I was in the whole of that battle and it was Hell— [English] The letter went on to say: ORDER IN COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS —Mother Dear, please don't do any worrying as it does no good. But remember Mr. Geoff Regan (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of me in your prayer.... Your loving son, Winnie. the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I Thirty days later, Private Percy Winthrop McClare, age 19, was am pleased to table, in both official languages, a number of order in killed in action. council appointments made recently by the government. The story of Vimy is more than a major triumph for Canada. It *** was also the story of courage and valour of the families back home. Ï (1005) Those young men came of age under very brutal circumstances: in BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE the tunnels and trenches and on the barbed wire fences. Hon. Rey Pagtakhan (Minister of Veterans Affairs, Lib.): Mr. It is these images, as awful as they are, that we must keep in our Speaker, today is as very special day in the annals of Canadian hearts and memories and pass on to succeeding generations. That is military history and in the life of our country. the promise of remembrance we have made to all our veterans. On this day, 85 years ago, April 9, 1917 to be exact, the Battle of At 11 o'clock this morning, a number of us will gather at the Vimy Ridge was fought and won by Canadians where all previous National War Memorial to honour that pledge of remembrance to all attempts by other allied forces had failed. who served and to all who gave their lives in the Battle of Vimy May I note at this juncture that Canada's veterans lost a dedicated Ridge. and treasured friend with the passing of the Queen Mother. She was I had the honour this past Sunday to lay, on behalf of the laid to rest this morning and I would ask members to join me in a Government of Canada, the wreath of reverence at the Canadian moment of silence in her memory. Vimy Memorial in France. [Editor's Note: The House stood in silence] Thirteen high school students from across Canada joined me, as Mr. Rey Pagtakhan: The fateful battle: It was 5.30 in the did veterans and many others: officials of Vimy and officials of the morning. The ground would tremble and surely each man felt fear government of France. and thought of home. The assault turned out to be the swiftest and Standing in front of the Canadian Vimy Memorial was truly an most complete victory of the war. Within three days Canadians had experience I will not forget. For truly the Canadian memorial at captured the entire ridge. Vimy tells it all. It symbolizes supreme sacrifice and heroic deeds. Human values, peace, freedom, justice, truth and knowledge are The Canadian success at Vimy marked a profound turning point reflected in the statues of the memorial. for the allies. General Byng, commander of the Canadian corps and later a Governor General, would write: These human values are universal in space and time. They are There they stood on Vimy Ridge [on the 9th day of April 1917]...and there was about life and dignity. forged a nation, a nation tempered by fires of sacrifice— As we salute our Vimy veterans, let us also salute Canadians in However the cost of nationhood was high. Three thousand, five uniform who have been called to take up arms to serve the cause of hundred and ninety-eight would lie still forever on French soil. For peace and freedom in a far away land. 10122 COMMONS DEBATES April 9, 2002 Routine Proceedings The Battle of Vimy Ridge will continue to inspire a nation. Ï (1015) Ï (1010) John McCrae wrote in his poem, which has been immortalized Mr. Roy Bailey (Souris—Moose Mountain, Canadian Alli- and which most Canadian students still learn by memory, the ance): Mr. Speaker, as I left the coffee shop this morning I glanced following: down at one of the papers. It read “April 9, 2002, 85 years ago the birth of our nation”. As the hon. Minister of Veterans Affairs has alluded, this indeed was a turning point in the history of Canada. To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. It is hard to imagine that Canada was not quite 50 years old when the battle of Vimy Ridge took place. It was there that Canadians We have not always held that torch high. However this is not a day distinguished themselves in battle. On that day, very much like the to deal with the negative. This is a day to deal with the positive. This weather today only it was colder with snow and sleet in the air, the is a day to deal with this great military day in our history. This is a order was given. It was hell but the Canadians three days later had day that we too can add with this remembrance our respect to the performed what the other allied forces could not have done and were Queen. unable to do in capturing Vimy Ridge. November 11 last year was a great renewal. We noticed that across This day, April 9, 2002, is also a double remembrance day Canada attendance at November 11 services was up. I am very because, as the hon. minister alluded, today we buried our Queen. I pleased, as a member of Her Majesty's loyal opposition, that the would like to join these two remembrances together because they do government recently moved toward funding work on the nation's have a commonality. cenotaphs, particularly that great white monument that stands in the On this day we said goodbye to Queen Mum. I watched part of sky, the Vimy Ridge monument. In the travelling society there that on television this morning. I was reminded that as a boy, I stood perhaps is no other site in all the world that Canadians recognize so on Dewdney Avenue in Regina and watched the Queen go by. That clearly. was in 1939, about 22 years after the battle. I remembered that trip. There was no pavement. There was a Model A. There was Mom, I am very pleased that we hold this memory and we hold that torch Dad and seven kids. All I remember about that was that my dad high. We need to tell this story and we need to keep telling it. could reach through any part in that Model A and somehow find the Ï (1020) back of my head. That day was revered in my memory because before the parade there was a line of veterans some who had [Translation] experienced Vimy Ridge, so the two went together. Mr. Antoine Dubé (Lévis-et-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, BQ): Mr. I would like to read into the records this morning a poem that I Speaker, Monday April 9, 1917, at precisely 5.30 p.m. was a taught in school. I do not think it is in the literature books anymore landmark moment for Quebecers and Canadians. but I remember this well. This poem is entitled “London Under Bombardment” and was written by Greta Briggs. It was the EIghty-five years ago, while still a colony of the United Kingdom, personification of the city of London. As we revere this day, this Canada engaged in the first world war, without the experience some could well be the Queen Mum speaking. It reads: other countries had already had with war. On that night of bone-chilling cold, four Canadian divisions, that I, WHO am known as London, have faced stern times before, is 20,000 Canadian soldiers, including several Quebecers, surged out Having fought and ruled and traded for a thousand years and more; of the trenches and up the shell-strewn southwestern slope of Vimy I knew the Roman legions and the harsh-voiced Danish hordes; I heard the Saxon revels, saw blood on the Norman swords. Ridge. They succeeded in pushing a six kilometer segment of the But, though I am scarred by battle, my grim defenders vow front line back four kilometres. This mission, considered secondary Never was I so stately nor so well-beloved as now. when it was assigned to them, was transformed into a success that The lights that burn and glitter in the exile's lonely dream, was all the more remarkable because it was unexpected. The lights of Piccadilly, and those that used to gleam Down Regent-street and Kingsway may now no longer shine, But other lights keep burning, and their splendour, too, is mine, Vimy Ridge was one of the dominant points on the plains of Seen in the work-worn faces and glimpsed in the steadfast eyes northern France.