Member Statement (8 April 2024)

From Hansard (8 April 2024)

 

Royal Regina Rifles Donate Statue for Juno Beach Legacy Tour

Mr. B. McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Juno Beach Centre is one of Canada’s national treasures and a monument to the legacy of our veterans. June 6th of this year will mark 80 years since Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and began the liberation of Europe from the Axis occupiers.

To help commemorate this great occasion, our very own Royal Regina Rifles will play an important part in the proceedings. A statue of a Royal Regina rifleman has been sculpted and will be transported to France where it will be unveiled just inland from Juno Beach, right where the men from Regina, from farms across Saskatchewan and from many First Nations, landed to fight for our freedom.

A group of serving and retired members of this Royal Regina Rifles are working together to organize a tour, a legacy tour to coincide with the 80th anniversary. Together with university students and community partners, the tour plans to produce written and visual documentaries to help future generations remember these brave heroes. The organizing committee is raising the funds to allow serving and retired members of the Royal Regina Rifles to join the rifleman statue’s journey to Juno Beach. Anyone interested in participating by volunteering or by donating can visit rrrtrust.org.

Mr. Speaker, the statement is true that where we have been does make us who we are. We dare not ever forget our past or those upon whose shoulders we stand. On behalf of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, it is our promise that we will never forget.