Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
We Canadians are a non aggressive nation. We don’t go into the world looking for trouble nor do we impose our will on others without just cause. Regretfully, not everyone respects the democratic social order of other nations in the same way. Look at the pages of history to read about individuals and groups who embraced ambitions and ideologies that were, and continue to be forced upon the world with terror, hatred and violence.
We Canadians are a tolerant nation. We invite a diversity of cultures to flourish and prosper in our great land. We answered the call to arms many times helping our allies defend the very freedoms and liberties that all Canadians enjoy today. This is why remembrance and respect for our fallen and our veterans is all the more poignant because we sent our men and women into harms way, not because of aggression on our part but because our allies needed help with the necessary task of repelling the tyranny of madmen.
The circumstances and details of how existence must have been for our troops during the time of conflict can be hard to fathom. Many of us belong to a generation that has no first hand knowledge of how truly horrifying it was in the dark quagmire of the World War trenches or landing on a beach with fellow soldiers dropping dead and maimed all around; like some surreal penny arcade shooting gallery. Spared the agonies of war we must never forget the unspeakable sacrifice made by our Canadian Forces.
Having reaped the fruits of these sacrifices, we now enjoy a comfortable and abundant life in this country.
One wonders why it is necessary that we have to take the extreme measure of having to pay with our lives to protect and preserve this existence? Why can’t the rest of the world accept us and leave us and others like us well alone? Perhaps part of the answer to this seemingly naive question suggests that the world has become smaller. The repercussions of cause and effect are far more reaching and immediate then ever before, especially in the context of a technological world. Therefore the demands of leadership placed on us as a civilized and forward thinking nation have intensified.
Today this call for leadership is reflected by our involvement in Afghanistan where we again have to offer up the lives of our soldiers to repel another tyranny known as the Taliban.
Maybe the day will arrive when the remembrance of our heroes will be confined to a finite number knowing that no more will have to be killed to quell an ideological outrage or expansionist motives. Until that day comes, I for one will always be in deep gratitude for the life I have today thanks to the sacrifices that have been made and continue to be made by our Armed Forces.
Thank you.
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