Honourable senators, I’m honoured to rise today to mark the start of Veterans’ Week 2020. This year we commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversaries of the liberation of The Netherlands, Victory in Europe Day and Victory over Japan Day, and the end of the Second World War.

We also commemorate the start of the seventieth anniversary of the Korean War years — June 25, 2020, to July 27, 2023 — and honour the Canadians who served in the Korean War and in peacekeeping duties post-armistice, many of whom were also World War II veterans.

Without the heroic efforts of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Royal 22e Régiment, the Van Doos, on Hill 355, to the PPCLI, who held the final line of defence at Kapyong, Korea would not have been able to become the dynamic G20 country it is today. From World War I to World War II to the Korean War, and all wars and peacekeeping missions since, Canadians have always answered the call to duty to defend the rights and freedoms of people oppressed. Their selfless service and courage remind us that freedom comes with a cost.

Many Canadians left for war and did not return home. Many were under 20 years of age, some as young as 17, with a long future ahead. At their age today, many would be thinking of post-secondary education or learning a trade or applying for jobs. Yet, they volunteered to enlist and said goodbye to home and family and travelled across the continent, across the oceans to countries they had never seen before, to a world of war they could never have truly imagined.

The full impact of war, the comrades they would lose, the deafening sounds that would reverberate in their heads, memories that would never fade, nightmares that haunt their nights and all the scars of war can never be measured. Freedom is not free. Others have paid for our freedoms with their lives. But how can we repay such immeasurable debt?

Honourable senators, it is through our remembrance — the passing on of their legacy. As part of this year’s Veterans’ Week, I will be hosting a special online tribute event on November 7 called Intergenerational Integrities, a legacy project initiated by secondary school students of B.C. and Alberta, which I have described in a previous statement.

Students interviewed veterans to learn about their lives and experiences during the Korean War. The students then prepared biographical essays, short stories and poems based on what they heard. Their tributes are a promise to remember the legacies of service and sacrifice from one generation to the next.

The current COVID-19 public health guidelines and restrictions will reduce and perhaps cancel some of the ceremonies but, honourable senators, we owe it to our veterans and the current serving men and women in uniform to remember. On Remembrance Day and every day we will remember them.