WEBVTT 00:00.944 --> 00:05.521 May 8th, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of victory in Europe 00:05.702 --> 00:07.569 during the Second World War. 00:08.034 --> 00:10.560 Now more than ever, it is important to reflect 00:10.585 --> 00:14.084 upon Canada’s commitment to that conflict. 00:15.471 --> 00:18.717 From the distance of eight decades we can forget Canada’s nearly 00:18.742 --> 00:23.825 unlimited mobilization from 1939 to 1945, 00:23.850 --> 00:28.054 with its full deployment of resources and people in times of great strain, 00:28.160 --> 00:30.405 the acceptance of state intervention, 00:30.430 --> 00:33.165 the hardening of attitudes to win at any cost, 00:33.190 --> 00:36.834 and the willingness to make sacrifices. 00:37.489 --> 00:41.336 Canadians who served in the war, contributing overseas or at home 00:41.369 --> 00:46.569 – some of whom are still alive today - also faced long periods of uncertainty 00:47.230 --> 00:53.166 and many defeats before they prevailed in the victory against fascism and the Nazis. 00:53.766 --> 00:59.166 From a country of 11.5 million, more than 1 million Canadians served in uniform. 00:59.662 --> 01:04.460 That figure represents about one in three men of military age. 01:04.779 --> 01:08.815 Almost 50.000 women also served in uniform in the navy, 01:08.816 --> 01:12.602 in the army, in the air force and as nurses. 01:13.607 --> 01:17.308 On the home front, millions worked in the war time economy, 01:17.309 --> 01:22.329 producing essential food and extracting minerals for the Allied war effort. 01:22.479 --> 01:26.309 At the same time, the country’s defense production was staggering. 01:26.310 --> 01:29.043 Some 16.000 air craft were manufactured, 01:29.158 --> 01:30.557 more than 8.000 ships, 01:30.583 --> 01:33.767 almost 43.000 artillery pieces, 01:33.849 --> 01:36.726 over 800.000 military trucks, 01:36.970 --> 01:40.785 and more than 1.7 million small arms. 01:41.228 --> 01:44.226 Canadians fought in campaigns around the world 01:44.227 --> 01:49.091 – on oceans, in the air, and on the ground across multiple continents. 01:49.319 --> 01:51.467 There was Hong Kong and Dieppe; 01:51.492 --> 01:55.254 the defense of North America and the Battle of Britain; 01:55.288 --> 01:58.790 The war effort included the Canadian projection of power abroad, 01:58.791 --> 02:01.732 as far as North Africa and the Caribbean, 02:01.757 --> 02:04.672 and to the Soviet Union and the Pacific. 02:05.925 --> 02:09.232 Crucial to the war effort was Canada’s part in the Battle of the Atlantic, 02:09.291 --> 02:12.154 as the Royal Canadian Navy and the Merchant Navy braved 02:12.155 --> 02:15.926 the gauntlet of German U-boats to deliver essential supplies 02:15.927 --> 02:18.518 to keep Britain in the war. 02:19.482 --> 02:23.517 Across Canada, over 200 new airfields and schools of instruction 02:23.518 --> 02:27.251 were created under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, 02:27.276 --> 02:34.268 and an astonishing 131.000 airmen were trained to take on the fight against fascism. 02:34.718 --> 02:37.092 The skies became battlegrounds, 02:37.117 --> 02:40.698 with Canadian aircrews supporting naval vessels in the Atlantic, 02:40.723 --> 02:45.340 flying crucial supplies to aid the isolated British army in Burma, 02:45.365 --> 02:50.799 and with Bomber Command striking deep into German-occupied Europe. 02:51.477 --> 02:54.879 Canada’s war effort included the first sustained army campaigns 02:54.904 --> 02:59.784 in Sicily in July 1943 and then the invasion of the Italian mainland 02:59.785 --> 03:02.227 in September of that same year. 03:02.934 --> 03:06.251 The war in the Mediterranean involved almost 100.000 Canadians 03:06.252 --> 03:10.833 who played a key role in the Allied war effort to draw German divisions away 03:10.834 --> 03:16.633 from the Western and Eastern fronts, and to fight them on this Southern front. 03:18.332 --> 03:21.662 All of the Canadian armed forces converged for the invasion of 03:21.663 --> 03:26.860 France in Normandy on D-Day, the 6th of June, 1944, 03:26.861 --> 03:31.928 which was fought shoulder to shoulder with the British and American forces. 03:32.323 --> 03:36.352 Juno Beach was ours to take that day; and we did. 03:37.062 --> 03:39.688 And we will hold it forever in our hearts. 03:40.279 --> 03:43.679 But Canadian contributions continued beyond D-Day. 03:44.104 --> 03:46.193 There was the all-important defense of the beachhead 03:46.194 --> 03:48.328 in that grim week that followed. 03:48.852 --> 03:52.098 After defeating the German counterattacks, the Canadians, fighting with the British 03:52.099 --> 03:59.935 and later Allied forces, clawed forward through Normandy in July and August of 1944. 04:00.331 --> 04:05.728 Finally, on August 21st, two German armies were destroyed in the Falaise Pocket, 04:05.753 --> 04:11.517 as the Allies won the first significant phase of the battle for Western Europe. 04:12.891 --> 04:19.400 The cost to Canadians was witheringly high – with almost 20.000 killed and wounded. 04:19.401 --> 04:23.476 The cost to the Germans was far, far worse. 04:24.018 --> 04:27.740 Sadly, less well known in Canada’s social memory, 04:27.765 --> 04:30.854 the Canadians continued to drive forward, 04:30.855 --> 04:34.489 first clearing the Channel ports in September 1944, 04:34.490 --> 04:36.439 and then fighting in the Battle of the Scheldt 04:36.440 --> 04:39.023 in October and November that same year. 04:39.423 --> 04:42.892 The Scheldt is at least as important as the Battle of Normandy, 04:42.893 --> 04:46.217 and the Canadians, with British allies, were ordered 04:46.242 --> 04:49.394 to open the essential port of Antwerp. 04:49.957 --> 04:52.489 The Germans had the advantages of fighting on the defensive, 04:52.490 --> 04:56.213 in flooded terrain, which one Canadian officer described as 04:56.214 --> 05:00.436 a “devil’s dream of mud and dykes and rain.” 05:01.070 --> 05:05.489 In this campaign, First Canadian Army – the largest fighting force Canada 05:05.490 --> 05:10.353 has ever assembled - provided a massive contribution to the Allied war effort. 05:10.627 --> 05:14.234 Through intense and relentless battle, the Germans were totally defeated 05:14.235 --> 05:17.334 on November 8, 1944. 05:18.125 --> 05:19.489 By the end of the month, 05:19.490 --> 05:22.999 the first vessels were arriving with supplies to Antwerp, 05:23.000 --> 05:27.240 crucial in contributing to the Allied advance in the last year of the war. 05:28.545 --> 05:34.017 Again, the cost of victory was terrible, with some 6.367 Canadians 05:34.018 --> 05:39.018 killed or wounded, and an almost equal number of British casualties. 05:39.384 --> 05:42.684 But there were over 41.000 Germans captured. 05:43.147 --> 05:46.369 Despite the strain of combat and the loss of comrades, 05:46.370 --> 05:50.594 Captain Hal MacDonald of the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment 05:50.595 --> 05:53.475 wrote to his wife at the end of the battle: 05:54.396 --> 05:57.439 “what we’re fighting for is always clear in our minds.” 05:59.142 --> 06:02.910 After their victory in the Scheldt, First Canadian Army fought 06:02.935 --> 06:06.372 in the titanic battles that contributed to defeating the German forces 06:06.373 --> 06:10.516 in the Rhineland in February and March 1945. 06:10.726 --> 06:16.054 Weary, ragged, and fought-out, the Canadians continued to drive forward. 06:16.055 --> 06:19.516 But now, there was a race against time, as the starving Dutch desperately 06:19.517 --> 06:24.182 needed food after their German overlords had cruelly curtailed 06:24.207 --> 06:27.768 supplies and fuel to that occupied country. 06:28.228 --> 06:32.809 Thousands had already starved to death in what was known as the Hunger Winter. 06:32.810 --> 06:35.144 Without the Canadians, tens of thousands more 06:35.169 --> 06:37.811 would die in the coming weeks. 06:38.532 --> 06:42.199 And so, from April 1945, First Canadian Army turned 06:42.200 --> 06:45.949 to fully liberating the Netherlands, bringing food and relief 06:45.950 --> 06:49.450 to the oppressed and starving Dutch. 06:52.490 --> 06:56.767 "I saw a tank in the distance, with one soldiers’ head above it, 06:56.768 --> 07:01.911 and the blood drained out of my body, and I thought: Here comes liberation.” 07:01.931 --> 07:04.261 So recounted a Dutch teenager in The Hague, 07:04.286 --> 07:06.385 upon arrival of the Canadians. 07:07.100 --> 07:11.935 That scene – of liberation – was repeated throughout dozens and dozens of villages, 07:11.936 --> 07:14.469 towns, and cities in the Netherlands. 07:15.240 --> 07:18.559 -Winston Churchill: "Today is Victory in Europe Day. 07:18.560 --> 07:22.121 Long live the cause of freedom." 07:22.122 --> 07:28.546 Victory came in Europe on May 8th, 1945, 75 years ago. 07:28.885 --> 07:32.643 It came through nearly unbelievable sacrifice, as thousands of Canadians 07:32.644 --> 07:37.143 were killed in the final battles of 1945. 07:37.643 --> 07:41.685 “Today is VE Day & I should be happy,” wrote Private Gerald Montague of 07:41.686 --> 07:46.086 the Canadian Scottish Regiment in a letter to his wife on VE Day, 07:46.245 --> 07:50.118 “but I find it very hard because so many of my comrades 07:50.119 --> 07:55.067 that should have been here are lost and will not return to their loved ones.” 07:55.588 --> 07:59.988 Indeed, close to 45.000 Canadians never came home, 08:00.073 --> 08:06.185 and today they lie buried around the world or marked on Commonwealth memorials. 08:06.428 --> 08:11.060 And yet, 75 years later, we have to work to remember these deeds 08:11.061 --> 08:15.810 and sacrifices in what I have called the "necessary" war. 08:16.032 --> 08:21.311 I call it the "necessary" war, because the evil Nazi regime had to be destroyed. 08:21.481 --> 08:23.881 The Nazis were like no other enemy. 08:24.271 --> 08:26.871 Canadians understood that at the time. 08:27.246 --> 08:29.719 Tens of thousands -- and then hundreds of thousands -- 08:29.720 --> 08:32.184 stepped up to serve in uniform. 08:32.390 --> 08:36.598 They left behind their jobs, their loved ones, and their homes. 08:36.657 --> 08:38.390 They went into harm’s way. 08:38.430 --> 08:41.718 Many knew they would not return. 08:42.210 --> 08:46.435 75 years later, we are lucky to still have 30.000 veterans 08:46.460 --> 08:51.771 from the 1.1 million who served in this terrible but necessary war. 08:52.090 --> 08:56.557 We should take the time to reflect on their service and sacrifice. 08:56.836 --> 08:59.636 We should take a moment to say thank you. 09:00.091 --> 09:05.477 We should contemplate the meaning behind the passing of this generation. 09:06.475 --> 09:10.476 But we must also understand the past in all of its complexities. 09:10.477 --> 09:14.085 We need to remember that it took a massive mobilization on the home front, 09:14.086 --> 09:16.581 on the farms, in the mines, and in the factories 09:16.582 --> 09:20.584 to defeat the fascists, and yet there were some in Canada who were 09:20.585 --> 09:24.405 singled out for disloyalty because of race or religion, 09:24.406 --> 09:27.100 while most Canadians had their civil liberties curtailed 09:27.101 --> 09:29.852 in the crusade for victory. 09:30.852 --> 09:35.851 We need to remember also that war imprints itself in unknown ways 09:35.852 --> 09:42.102 on the survivors – both those in uniform, and those who waited and worried at home. 09:42.466 --> 09:48.006 For some, the trauma of the war did not end with the victory in 1945, 09:48.474 --> 09:51.197 but continued on for decades. 09:51.761 --> 09:55.392 Also, we must continue to tell our story. 09:55.393 --> 09:58.688 We must do it with bravery and with honesty, 09:58.805 --> 10:01.205 but also with urgency and accuracy. 10:01.520 --> 10:04.805 This is our story, and this is our history. 10:05.476 --> 10:08.997 We need also to remember that history doesn’t just exist. 10:08.998 --> 10:10.664 It must be nurtured. 10:10.665 --> 10:12.559 It must be cultivated. 10:12.560 --> 10:14.485 It must be taught. 10:14.486 --> 10:16.810 If not, it will wither away. 10:17.435 --> 10:22.560 75 years later, it is our job to keep the memory alive.