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Remembering the
Costs of Freedom
Remarks by the
Hon. David Kilgour (Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific)
Remembrance Day
Ceremony 2003, West Edmonton Mall
(Check against delivery) Veterans, servicemen and -women, ladies and gentlemen: Today
we gather to honour the memory and courage of those who gave their lives so that
we can live in a more just world. John
McCrae, the Canadian doctor and poet, was among the 45,000 Canadians who rushed
to join the army at the outbreak of World War I. He, like so many others before
and since, understood that the price of liberty is high. As he tended the
wounded at the battle of Ypres, he wrote to his mother: "The
general impression in my mind is of a nightmare.... For seventeen days and
seventeen nights, none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even,
except occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire...never ceased
for sixty seconds.... And behind it all was the constant background of the
sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the
line should give way." The
words McRae wrote following the death of a friend a few days later still echo
among us: "If
ye break faith with us who die, You
and I will not break faith either with those who have gone before. Earlier this
year, 4,600 soldiers came together in Wainwright for the largest military maneuver
by our troops in a decade. They continue to prepare themselves for dangerous
work in Bosnia, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. Indeed,
I must not sit down without saying a word about the just-published book, Shake
Hands with the Devil-the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Ladies
and gentlemen, the author, retired General Romeo Dallaire, is one of the
bravest, kindest, wisest and finest human beings our country has ever produced. His
work in 1994 as force commander of the UN mission for Rwanda had such an impact
on him that he returned home broken, disillusioned with those who had abandoned
his mission, and profoundly disturbed. He
and his tiny group of peacekeepers had witnessed the murder of 800,000 human
beings and were too weak in numbers to prevent the genocide. One UN official
later wrote: "The
fact is that never in living history has such wanton brutality been inflicted by
human beings on their fellow creatures (as in Rwanda)...even the killing fields
of Cambodia and Bosnia pale before the gruesome awful depravity of the massacres
in Rwanda." There
must be no more Rwandas anywhere on earth. But today, we remember all those who died in battle. As a Canadian, I thank all those of you who have served in Canada's Armed Forces for your courage, your strength, and your sacrifices. Thank you. |
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