Speech

From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

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CANADA'S NEW GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR LOCAL MILITARY MUSEUM

May 25, 2007
CALGARY

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Colleagues from the Parliament of Canada,

Your Worship, the Mayor, and councillors,

Members of the Canadian Forces and Veterans,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Fellow Calgarians,

Thank you for that warm welcome, and thank you Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie for that kind introduction.

General Leslie has served Canada for many years, in many places, including the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, with great skill, dedication and professionalism, so thank you, General Leslie, for your outstanding service to our country.

I'm very grateful to the Calgary Military Museums Society for the opportunity to speak to you at this evening's fundraiser.

And I'm very pleased to report – as we'll hear from Minister O'Connor a little later – that Canada's New Government will be supporting your worthy cause.

These acclaimed facilities, collections, and programs already represent one of Canada's finest repositories of our proud military heritage.

Soon it will be even better, thanks to the unstinting volunteer efforts of the Society and the generosity of your donors.

With the addition of the Naval Museum of Alberta and an air force gallery, the Military Museums will tell the story of all three branches of the Canadian Forces – a story that will allow us to remember the achievements and sacrifices of Canadian soldiers, sailors, and airmen, to preserve their legacies and memorabilia, and to educate current and future generations about Canada's proud military history.

This project is a testament to Calgary's spirit of philanthropy and reverence for the Canadian Forces, by your presence this evening, all of you here are honouring the generations of brave Canadians who have served.

So, thank you, and please give yourselves a well-deserved round of applause.

This spring, it was a great honour for me to attend the celebrations in France marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the rededication of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

It was an extremely moving experience.

A great many people were in attendance, including about a hundred veterans and thousands of young Canadian students.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth dedicated the newly restored monument with words steeped in wisdom and grace.

"In any national story," she said, "there are moments and places, sometimes far from home, which in retrospect can be seen as fixed points which turn the course of history, moments which distinguish that nation forever.

Those who seek the foundations of Canada's distinction would do well to begin at Vimy."

And Canadians have been building on those foundations ever since.

Think of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, where the Canadians fought their way across Juno Beach and made it further inland than any of the other allied invasion forces. Think of the Battle of Kapyong where the Princess Pats, aided by the Australians, thwarted a Chinese force five times their size and saved Seoul from the Communists, and think of how the Canadians distinguished themselves during the Battle of Medak Pocket in the former Yugoslavia, helping ensure that those responsible for ethnic cleansing were brought to justice.

It is stories like these that will be vividly conveyed to the throngs of visitors who will pass through the Military Museums.

Stories of heroism, camaraderie, and sacrifice.

Stories that bind us together as a people, and define us as a country – a free country that stands for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

These are the stories and values that have shaped the Canada we know and love.

Ladies and gentlemen, our new government has made no secret of its intention to re-equip and re-build the Canadian Forces.

But this is not just about hardware and dollars.

It is also about restoring the armed forces to the recognition and respect they deserve in our national life.

The great advantages we have as a nation are not ours by right or by happenstance, but by the fortune God bestowed upon our land and by the strength and security of our country that has been earned, at enormous cost, by the generations who have selflessly served in the Canadian military.

And, who have served, not just here but around the world.

For this country realized – long before our American neighbours – that the strength and security of our country can only be preserved by a willingness to confront threats around the globe and to carry freedom and democracy to those less fortunate than ourselves.

And so today in the mountains and deserts of southern Afghanistan, a new generation of Canadians are writing another chapter in this history.

This chapter began six years ago when a hateful doctrine of religious extremism reached out from half a world away and delivered mass murder to our doorstep.

Our world changed forever that day.

We realized we were in a new kind of conflict, where the enemy moved invisibly among us, and attacked our most vulnerable targets:

Commuter trains in London and Madrid,

A school in Russia,

A nightclub in Bali, and

Countless civilian targets in many other cities including, nearly, in Toronto.

As Canadians have always done when faced with brutality and tyranny, we stood up to it.

We toughened our security systems at home.

We improved intelligence gathering with our allies.

We joined 36 other nations in a United Nations campaign to hunt down the authors of 9-11, overthrow their Taliban benefactors, and begin building a stable, secure Afghanistan.

The mission there has been long, hard, and difficult, as the tragic death of a Canadian soldier yesterday reminds us.

But we have racked up an impressive list of accomplishments.

First, as they have throughout our history, the men and women of the Canadian Forces have conducted themselves with the utmost degree of professionalism and demonstrated exceptional courage and skill on the battlefield.

Whenever and wherever we have confronted the enemy in force, he has always taken the worst of it, by far.

There are new stories of Canadian success in battle being written almost every day – and I'm going to introduce you to a couple of heroes of those stories in a minute.

But before I do, I'd like to speak briefly about our progress on reconstruction and humanitarian projects, some of which I saw firsthand during my visit to Afghanistan earlier this week.

In Kabul, I visited a Canadian-financed Aschiana school where hundreds of poor children – boys and girls – are getting the education they could never have had under the Taliban.

I also met with President Karzai, who again expressed gratitude to all Canadians for everything we've done to help rescue and rebuild his long-suffering country.

And you know what? We are making real progress.

Working in partnership with the Afghan national army and our NATO allies we have disarmed 63,000 former combatants;

334,000 landmines have been destroyed;

free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections have been held;

some six million children – a third of them girls – now attend school, practically ten times more than under the Taliban;

Canada is helping train 9,000 teachers;

millions of children have been immunized;

6,000 kilometres of roads have either been built or repaired;

two and a half thousand villages have electricity for the very first time; and

80% of Afghans have access to basic health care today, compared to just 8% in 2001.

Advances like these are improving security and stability in areas formerly held by the Taliban.

They are reviving communities and economic activity, and they are nurturing hope for a better future for Afghans and their families.

Our ultimate goal, of course, is to rebuild an effective government in Afghanistan so the people can look after themselves, and I'm especially pleased with the progress we've been making on that front.

For the last six months, Canadian troops have been helping train a battalion of about 1,000 Afghan soldiers in Kandahar.

Since then, that battalion has recorded the lowest AWOL rate in the Afghan army.

Canadian military and civilian police are also helping train Afghanistan's national police forces.

And we're helping rebuild the justice system:

over 200 new attorneys, public defenders and judges have been trained, and

Correctional Services Canada staff are helping build a humane and effective prison system.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt we are making real progress in Afghanistan.

But we have more to do before our work is done.

And I am proud to say that some of it will soon be done by about 60 members of the Calgary Highlanders Regiment, some of whom are with us here tonight.

And all of whom are reservists – volunteer soldiers who come from all walks of life.

For months they have given up family and leisure time for training.

And now they're ready to serve Canada for six months in this very dangerous part of the world.

In other words, they are as fine an example of citizenship as you will find in this great city.

So, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in offering a toast to these Highlanders and the comrades they'll soon be joining.

Their regimental motto is "Airaghardt" which means "onward" in Gaelic.

So, to the Highlanders and all the brave men and women serving in Afghanistan: Godspeed and Airaghardt!

And now, as promised, it is my distinct honour to introduce you to two Canadian soldiers who have recently returned from Kandahar.

Please welcome Captain Michael Reekie of Abbotsford, B.C. and Corporal Chad Chevrefils from Pine Falls, Manitoba.

Both of these men are currently based at CFB Shiloh in Manitoba.

In Afghanistan they were deployed with Alpha Company, 1st Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group.

On August 19th of last year, they were involved in a fierce three-hour engagement between Canadian troops and a larger Taliban force.

On punishing terrain and under withering enemy fire, Corporal Chevrefils skilfully positioned his light armoured vehicle to prevent his company from getting flanked.

While still taking fire, he dismounted and helped his comrades in another vehicle.

Captain Reekie exercised superb tactical judgment during the same firefight.

He also used his LAV to prevent a Taliban flanking manoeuvre, which enabled the subsequent interception and defeat of the enemy fighters.

Because of their selfless acts of courage, consummate skill and professionalism, and steadfast devotion to their comrades, the Governor-General of Canada will soon award these two fine soldiers the Medal of Military Valour.

So, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in recognizing their achievements.

Corporal Chevrefils, Captain Reekie and their comrades are carrying the torch that was handed to them by our ancestors – the defence of our country and its values.

We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude.

And passing on their story to future generations via the military museums is one small way we can repay that debt.

So congratulations everyone on this evening.

And God bless Canada.

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The Prime Minister's Office - Communications
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