November 11, 2023
On Remembrance Day, and on every day, let us honour our veterans, pay tribute to those who never made it home, and work towards a more peaceful and harmonious world.
Remembrance is about more than battles or statistics. It’s about people. It’s about the specific courageous, kind, generous, heroic acts made by those who wear the uniform. It’s about the changing face of veterans—veterans who were peacekeepers or who fought in wars. Veterans who served far from home or exclusively in Canada. Veterans who returned with injuries and those who never returned at all. Veterans today are young and old, and they are women, men and people of all identities. Remembrance is about all their stories: the stories that stay with us and change us, the stories we cannot forget.
As governor general and commander-in-chief, I am proud to honour, meet with and speak to serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces and veterans. I am inspired by them, by their creativity, adaptability and professionalism. And I am inspired by their stories, which I carry with me wherever I go.
Today, I ask that you listen to our veterans, and preserve their history and experiences. They are entrusting us—all of us—with their stories. We must all shoulder that responsibility and share what they went through. Our country also has a responsibility to look after our veterans, to ensure that they have safe spaces and the resources to stay healthy in both mind and body.
And let us never forget: we all have a duty to remember.
This duty also falls to young people, who will learn from our past to create a bright and positive future. If each of us remembers one story, shares that one story, passes on that one story to someone else, we will have fulfilled our responsibility.
To all our veterans, to our serving members in uniform and to every military family, you are in my thoughts, today and every day.
Mary Simon
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