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By Jordan Press, Canadian Press November 10, 2018.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Veterans Affairs Seamus O 'Regan, and Canadian Ambassador to France Isabelle Hudon walk past the memorial at Vimy Ridge, France, following A ceremony held on Saturday, November 10, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Adrian WyldVIMY RIDGE, France – The iconic monument of Vimy Ridge recalled the sacrifice of Canadians during the war, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made another visit to the memorial one day before the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Strolling his hands at the engraved names of Canadian soldiers killed in the war and walking in the graves – some with names, others simply identified as "a soldier of the great war" – Trudeau and his Minister of Veterans Affairs have shaking hands with veterans and thanking them for their services. .
The monument became a symbol of Canada's experience during the "War to End All Wars," during which approximately 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served – a number that is considered remarkable given the population of the country, about eight million.
The Prime Minister went to Vimy Ridge last year to mark the centenary of the battle.
On Sunday, more than 60 world leaders are scheduled to meet in Paris on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, making Trudeau's decision in Vimy politically symbolic. Many of them gathered in Paris on Saturday night, walking on a red carpet and stopping for the photographers before having dinner inside the Musée d'Orsay.
Roland Paris, Trudeau's former foreign affairs advisor, said the combination of events over the weekend gives the prime minister the symbol of his continued support for public pressure for governments not to break international alliances.
Trudeau and other leaders will meet on Sunday alongside French President Emmanuel Macron during the Armistice commemorations in Paris. Later in the day, Macron will hold a peace forum. The French government hopes to attract an annual draw for civil society and political leaders.
"Going to Vimy and the Armistice Day celebration … offers the Prime Minister the opportunity to highlight why Canadians have sacrificed in the past and the importance of maintaining an order rules-based international law, "said Paris.
Approximately 66,000 Canadian soldiers died during the First World War, between 1914 and 1918, and 172,000 were injured. People buried in Vimy and elsewhere believed that defending Canadian values "was worth the sacrifice," said Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O'Regan.
"We must remember the lesson of these conflicts: this freedom is not free. That's not easy indeed, the fight is tough, "O'Regan said.
"But remember those lessons, it's remembering those who fought those fights and who still fight them."
Matthew Barrett, an expert on Canadian military history at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, learned of one of the lessons learned from the First World War by regional disputes.
This concern about rushing into conflict fueled the uneasiness of military alliances such as NATO, prompting Trudeau to continue talking about maintaining alliances.
Trump was clearly not among the leaders to walk on the red carpet for the evening gala dinner in Paris. Earlier in the day, he had been criticized for canceling a visit to the American cemetery of Aisne-Marne, outside the French capital, because of bad weather.
Much of the 2,289 soldiers buried in the cemetery died in 1918, the last year of the war.
Some 11,000 names of Canadians who died in France are inscribed on the Vimy Memorial, marking the ridge taken by Canadian soldiers kidnapped from the Germans in April 1917.
Fighting continued in Europe for a year before the armistice of November 11, 1918.
"Canadians remember who you are, what you represent and the story you have defined, a story for which you have bled and fought, a story built on your sacrifices. Thank you, "Trudeau told a group of veterans during a speech at one of the cemeteries where Canadians are buried.
Clouds covered the site – the rain stopped until service at the monument was completed – and a cold, wet wind swept through the area, rustling slightly the leaves of a young tree, grown in Canada and descending of oaks once grown here.
Following the Battle of Vimy, a Canadian soldier, Lieutenant Leslie Miller, plucked a handful of acorns from a fallen oak tree and sent them home to Toronto, where they grew up.
A group of volunteers worked to obtain 100 young trees for the four-acre park that coincides with the centennial of the end of the First World War. The trees will grow inside four concentric rings, each representing one of the four Canadian divisions that fought at Vimy.
Trudeau and O'Regan walked through the recently opened memorial park.
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