News Release
Halifax to press for Remembrance Day Observance Across Canada
(Friday, May 31/2002)-- Halifax Regional Municipality will introduce an emergency resolution at the annual meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) which opens in Hamilton today to have Remembrance Day declared a statutory holiday in all Canadian provinces and territories.
The move is being initiated by Dartmouth Councillor Brian Warshick, who has been trying for the past two years to have official national recognition each year to honour the men and women who served in World War One, World War Two and the Korean Conflict, many of whom paid for Canada's freedom today with their lives.
Nova Scotia is the only province in Canada which recognizes Remembrance Day as a statutory holiday. Although the federal government has also declared it a statutory holiday, it is up to the individual provinces and territorial governments to enact similar legislation.
Councillor Warshick said "We continue to add to our lists of veterans through conflicts in the Persian Gulf and more recently, in Afghanistan. Some, such as former Nova Scotia residents, Privates Richard Green, of Mill Cove, and Nathan Smith, of Ostrea Lake, paid the price recently with their supreme sacrifices in the War Against Terrorism in Afghanistan."
He said it was ironic the Ambassador to Canada from the Netherlands visited Halifax last week to honour 3,000 Nova Scotians with the Dutch Medal of Honour-- "Yet many of us here is Canada do little more than pause for two minutes on November 11th. It's a sad commentary on Canadians when we know more about the Vietnam War that we do of Vimy Ridge. Our children learn more about Juneau, Alaska, than they do about Juno Beach."
Warshick is hopeful delegates to the annual FCM Conference in Hamilton will unanimously endorse the emergency resolution, bring it back to their respective municipal Councils for endorsement and then "pressure their provincial and territorial governments to follow Nova Scotia's lead and enact similar legislation."
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Councillor Brian Warshick
(902) 488-3800
