Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Colleagues, it moves me deeply to speak about a subject that differs from my usual focus. I feel this is an important part of respecting our duty to remember.

Last week, June 6 marked a key date in our country’s history. That day commemorates a bold and decisive military operation. On June 6, 1944, Allied armed forces launched an offensive on the beaches of Normandy, a battle that changed the course of the Second World War.

At the time, France was occupied and the whole of Europe was living under the terrifying threat of the Nazi regime. The whole world held its breath awaiting the actions of one man.

Some 79 years ago, our soldiers — mostly young men, some scarcely more than boys — risked their lives with unrivalled bravery. They fought for their homeland, of course, but even more importantly, they fought to defend the values of democracy and human rights and to help Europe and the Allies free themselves from Nazi oppression.

On the eve of June 6, 1944, these 130,000 brothers in arms landed on the beaches of Normandy to open a new front in Europe. These soldiers drew their courage from their sense of duty to face the firepower of new German machine guns. However, that duty came at a cost. Many of those soldiers did not return from the beaches of Normandy. On the evening of June 6, 1944, the Allies mourned the death of 10,500 soldiers, including 1,000 Canadian soldiers, on Omaha Beach and Juno Beach.

These soldiers gave their lives to liberate Europe. Their sacrifices deserve our eternal respect.

I would like to share with you the poignant testimony of Samuel Fuller, an American solder who participated in the landing. This is what he said:

The day was starting to break and we could just barely see the coastline through the fog. We left the ship and got into the landing craft, which carried us toward the beach. I was in the 16th Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Company K. . . . The water was rough and soldiers were seasick. We were in the third assault wave. The closer we got to land, the less we could see — Smoke, fog, explosions . . . . It was hell. But that was just the beginning. . . . The whole scene was straight out of Dante’s inferno. The ocean ran red with blood and body parts were being tossed on the waves. My sergeant and I managed to get to a sandbar, but we could not find any bomb holes in which to take shelter from the gunfire. That is when everything started to slowly fall apart. Air support missed the beach and was bombing inland. We had nothing to protect ourselves with but the bodies of fallen soldiers. We tried to figure out where the mortar fire was coming from that was tearing up the beach. The sergeant was surprised by the power and quality of the enemy fire, and he told me that we were facing seasoned soldiers.

Rather than staying on the beach for 25 minutes as planned, we were trapped there for three hours under enemy fire. It wasn’t until 9:30 a.m. that we managed to open a breach in the beach defences . . . it was a nightmare.

Honourable senators, in memory of those soldiers, I want to sincerely commend their courage and recognize their sacrifices.

Let’s promise never to forget those who gave their lives for our freedom. Today, history seems to be repeating itself with the war that is raging in Ukraine, a country that is fighting for its freedom just as those soldiers fought for ours on June 6, 1944.

Thank you.

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