Honourable senators, last month, I attended the ParlAmericas Plenary Assembly in Uruguay.

South America faces the same challenges and issues that we experience here, in Canada: an aging population and cybersecurity.

In addition to conferences I attended, I visited a museum commemorating the crash in the Andes of flight 571 on October 13, 1972. I remind senators that 14 of the 40 survivors endured 72 days of extreme cold.

This tragedy brings me to the crash of the Avro Anson V training aircraft.

The aircraft took off from the Summerside military base on Prince Edward Island on August 6, 1944, at the height of the Second World War. The crew was made up of four young servicemen: pilot W.A.J. Bennett, deceased, navigators J.R. Ogilvie and W.J. Antle, and radio operator J.R. Burke.

The accident resulted from dense fog and poor communication between the crew and the pilot. The aircraft had deviated from its flight path by 20 degrees due to a faulty compass.

As it tried to descend below the clouds, it struck the crest of the Cape Breton Highlands near Chéticamp. The rescue operation began that very evening. A team of soldiers and people from Chéticamp mounted an expedition to recover the body of the deceased pilot.

Items from the plane, such as the compass and the pilot’s seat, were recovered and preserved locally while the remains of the plane were being recovered. Since it was during wartime, the story was seldom told in the village and the plane fell into oblivion.

It was only recently, 80 years later, that a search led to the descendants of Sergeant Burke in Ontario and Navigator Ogilvie in New York.

Following my call, Sergeant Burke’s daughter, who had no knowledge of this event, found the 1944 telegram addressed to her mother, which reads as follows:

CANADIAN NATIONAL TELEGRAM

SUMMERSIDE P E I 9 00PM AUG 8

MRS MARJORIE A BURKE

BOX 235 WALLACEBURG ONT

PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR SON SGT J R BURKE WHO WAS INVOLVED IN AN AIRPLANE ACCIDENT AT CHETICAMP CAPE BRETON IS UNINJURED.

On August 2, a ceremony will be held near the crash site to unveil two commemorative plaques.

If you find yourself in my region in the future, I invite you to stop by to learn more about this tragic event. However, please don’t all come at once, as I would like to welcome you properly. Thank you. Meegwetch.