Prime Minister Trudeau to Commemorate 80th Anniversary of D-Day at Juno Beach Ceremony in France
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will visit France next month to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Prime Minister Trudeau will spend two days in France attending D-Day events, including a Canadian ceremony at Juno Beach on the morning of June 6, marking exactly 80 years since 14,000 Canadians stormed the beach as part of a massive Allied forces operation.
An international ceremony will also take place later that same day on Omaha Beach.
On June 5, a memorial is scheduled at the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian war cemetery where 2,049 Canadian soldiers are laid to rest.
D-Day is viewed as the turning point in the Second World War, leading to the liberation of Western Europe from the Nazis by the Allies less than a year later.
However, it came at a significant cost, with 381 Canadians losing their lives on the first day of the invasion and over 5,000 casualties by the end of the Battle of Normandy three months later.
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Prime Minister Trudeau is expected to use the ceremonies to emphasize that the aftermath of the Second World War “led to the foundation of the modern rules-based international order” which Canada staunchly upholds.
In recent months, he has used many speeches to address the escalating threats to the rules-based order globally.
No official statement has been released by Canada regarding the French President inviting Russian officials to participate in some of the official D-Day events, despite Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, was not among those invited.
Prime Minister Trudeau has consistently condemned Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine as a threat to global peace and stability.
The organizer of the D-Day commemorations in France, known as Mission Libération, stated in an April release that France traditionally invites countries whose troops landed in Normandy, including the Russian Federation.
President Putin had been invited and had attended ceremonies marking the 60th and 70th anniversaries of D-Day, the latter of which occurred shortly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Trudeau had also participated in ceremonies in France commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019.
