 7,004 Canadians were wounded in the battle that began here 100 years ago today. 3,598 Canadians died. This, from a population in 1917 of just 8 million. Think of it for a moment, the enormity of the price they paid. They were, for the most part, young men at the end of adolescence or at the beginning of the 20th. They were not professional soldiers, but they were well prepared to be trained for months. But despite all, they needed courage at a level that is difficult to imagine. These men were not insensitive to fear. They were human. They suffered from the distance, from fatigue. Their feet were sore, they were cold. But they continued to advance, to advance through the mud under the enemy shots. They were advancing, fighting like lions, just behind a powerful barrier of artillery. And they did not stop there, they fought until victory. There were strategic objectives, Vimy is an author. The place had been transformed into fortresses. They asked about brothers and sisters, and they wrote about their fellow soldiers. Those who'd fallen, those still fighting. Typical Canadians, they talked about the weather. The sun has been shining a couple of times this last week. This week reads a letter from William Henry Bell dated April 7th, 1917. The sun is a kind of a stranger here. Say, that cake you sent sure was fine. William Bell died at Vimy on April 10th, 1917. He was 20 years old. The burden they bore, and the country they made. Because this too, is why we're here. Why we remember? We're going to sacrifice their lives. These ordinary and extraordinary men. The British Dominion. They fought for the first time as citizens of a single and same country. Francophones and Anglophones. New Canadians. Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples. Coat-to-coat, united, here at Vimy, within the four divisions of the Canadian body. It's by their sacrifice that Canada has become an independent signator of the Treaty of Versailles. And in that sense, Canada was born here. Here. The sculpture entitled, Le Canada en deuil, represents the pain of a whole country. It evokes a devout affection, and also the thousands of Canadians who bravely responded to the call, as nurses, or by putting a critical support at home. But this monument is also symbolic of Canada's birth, and our enduring commitment to peace. As I look over the faces gathered here, veterans, soldiers, caregivers, so many people. I can't help but feel that a torch is being passed. One hundred years later, we must say this together, and we must believe it never again. Friends and honoured guests, let us hold to the grace of William Henry Bell. To the grace of the ones who stood by their friends through unimaginable hardship, through death itself. And who, in that offering, stood by their country and made their country in its beginnings. They were Canadians, and they were valiant beyond measure. Honour them.