SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Remembrance Day

Honourable senators, I’d like to share some personal reflections post-Remembrance Day. Two weeks ago today, our treasured colleague Senator Yonah Martin spoke these words: “I owe my life . . .” to the Canadian military. The Canadian military punched well above its weight, as it always has, and stopped the forces of authoritarianism from conquering the entire Korean Peninsula, which is why South Korea is a free, prosperous and joyful country, while North Korea is a concentration camp.

A year ago, in my maiden speech, I shared with you that while I’ve never been in Auschwitz, Auschwitz has always been in me. But my love for Canada will always conquer my concentration camp nightmares. I owe my life to the Canadian military.

Two weeks and two days ago, Veterans Affairs held a candlelight ceremony at the Canadian War Museum. It’s where I first got to see and touch the Manitoba poppy blanket created by Sheilah Lee Restall and its message brought to the world by the Speaker at Winnipeg City Council, Devi Sharma. The blanket is 85 feet long and made of 8,000 poppies sent to Winnipeg from all over Canada. They were crocheted and knitted into a blanket, with 2,000 ribbons with the names of Canadians who served and sacrificed.

At the ceremony, I met with veterans and members of the military serving right now. I saw a sea of faces from all over the world. I saw Canada’s diversity, but what gave the diversity meaning was unity. What gave diversity meaning that night was the Canadian military uniform.

Diversity is Canada’s poetry. Unity is the prose. It is the same beautiful Canadian story I see here in the Senate: the handsome and beautiful faces of the world all wearing a Canadian Senate pin.

Nine days ago, on November 11, I was asked to lay a wreath at the Winnipeg Cenotaph. I was announced as “representing Canada.” As I laid that wreath, I thought about Yonah Martin’s parents and mine.

As the piper was piping, I found myself praying for those who died so that Senator Martin’s parents and mine and millions of others could live. As I drove home, I reflected on what it meant to me to be thought of as representing Canada. I felt something that I had never felt before, a connection to something much larger than myself.

No personal or professional accomplishment has ever felt as meaningful. As I look around me and I see my treasured colleagues, I see them differently than I used to. Before November 11, I saw you as intelligent, highly accomplished fellow Canadians. Today, I see every one of you as the country I owe my life to. I love every one of you. I love you, Canada.

Thank you.