SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Korean War Veterans Day
July 27, 2020
Honourable Senators, Canada as a nation owes a lifetime of gratitude to our brave Canadians who have served and sacrificed their lives for the cause of peace in Korea and in other wars and conflicts around the world.
I am honoured to rise on this day, July 27, Korean War Veterans Day, to pay tribute to the more than 26,000 brave Canadians who served in Korea, the more than 7,000 who served in peacekeeping duties after the signing of the Armistice and the 514 who paid the ultimate sacrifice and never returned to Canada but are buried in Busan, Korea to this day.
In June 2013, Senate Public Bill S-213, Korean War Veterans Day Act, became an act of Parliament to enact this day annually as a day of remembrance. Since then, Canadians have gathered across Canada on July 27 at memorials and cenotaphs to honour and remember the heroes of the Korean War.
Today, we commemorate this important day for our Canadian heroes as we continue the three-year Korean War Forgotten No More commemorative campaign, which began on June 25, 2020, with the seventieth anniversary of the breakout of the war, and will conclude with the seventieth anniversary of the signing of the Armistice on this day three years from now.
As part of the three-year campaign, we also coordinated the launch of a student-led project called Intergenerational Integrities. Engagement of students through education and projects such as this one will ensure that the legacy of the Korean War and the stories of valour and sacrifice are shared with future generations and recorded in the annals of Canadian history.
Intergenerational Integrities was initiated and developed by a group of passionate and compassionate secondary students of British Columbia and Alberta who share a common love of people, history and writing. Their project aims to connect youth and seniors, especially during this challenging period due to COVID-19 where many have been physically and socially isolated. Each student has been paired with a veteran of the Korean War, and using the Zoom platform and/or their telephone, the students will interview their veteran buddies about their lives, including their memories of the Korean War. The students will then compose essays, short stories and/or poems based on their interviews as a tribute to the veterans’ service and life well lived.
Honourable senators, I will now enter into the record the names of these thoughtful students, our future leaders of tomorrow, who co-initiated Intergenerational Integrities, and the names of the veterans paired with each student, who have been and continue to be our inspiration: Braidyn Chang with Claude Charland, Leonardo Curiel with Jai Boong Kim, Sonya Ferdowsi with George Guertin, Galicia Gordon with Ron Foyle, Alexa Hersch with Bob Orrick, Ruiyi Jia with Ralph DeCoste, Rasee Kachchakaduge with Bill Newton, Hazel Leung with Dennis Moore, Sam Michael Lloyd with Frank Smyth, Amanda Palmatary with Edward Graham, Kai Ramsay with Woo Seok Jason Lee, Melody Sameti with Bill Black, Charissee Wang with John Robertson, Olivia Wong with Don Sudden, Tiana Wong with Doug Finney, Quing Xu with Doug Germaine, and Amy Yin with Alphonse Martel.