A ceremony was held Saturday at Casa d’Italia in Montreal, ahead of Remembrance Day, for the fallen of war. A tribute to the lives sacrificed to protect their country and in the name of freedom.
“The importance and significance of remembering not only on the 11th of November, but just taking this time of the year where we can remember those that gave the ultimate sacrifice, that those who continue to serve, those that continue to work to protect us and so that we can also remain a peaceful nation and in a peaceful global environment,” said Roberto Sforza, a warrant officer & Canadian Armed Reservist.
The event was organized in collaboration with the No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation, which has long been committed to honoring the memory of Canadian soldiers.
“Days like this one are important because we commemorate those who are forgotten, whose names are not written anywhere. Those who are normal people, like students, teachers, journalists, people who didn’t want to, who had other programs in their lives. Their dream wasn’t to fight a war, but still, they did their duty. And the importance of days like this one is to have students here, as it happened, because they will be the ones who hopefully will continue this process that was started years and years ago. We shouldn’t take for granted what we have today. Peace,” said Gianfranco Pino, an Italian Carabinieri.
Rocco Speranza, with the Quebec coordinator of No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation said, “Being Italian-Canadian, being born into the Italian community and culture and ways of life, doing this is important to link the two human lives together. If you look way back in 1943, Operation Husky in the southern parts of Sicily, all the way through the liberation of Sicily and parts of Italy, towards leading to the end of the war, the Italians were there. And as was mentioned during the ceremony by the Lieutenant Colonel in NATO, with the Gladiator organization, Italy is there, Canada is there, there’s an alliance, so being both Italian and Canadian, we thought it important to combine the two communities together.”
