Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined other leaders, army men and civilians in Normandy to observe the 70th anniversary of the D-Day, a crucial military invasion during the Second World War.
As many as 14,000 Canadian troops gathered at Juno Beach on June 6, 1944. They were a part of the allied troops that on this French coast had come together in an effort to liberate mainland Europe from the Nazi occupation.
President François Hollande paid tribute to the courage of the veterans of the Allied troops for their services.
"The French republic will never forget your sacrifice. We will always be grateful for what you have done," he said.
"We still have to do our duty. The duty to preserve what was left to us," he added.
"The duty to defend human rights across the globe."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were also in attendance.
Almost a 100 Canadian veterans attended the commemoration ceremony at Juno beach. In a statement issued to the media Mr. Harper said, “It is a source of enormous national pride that Canadians played such a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the D-Day landings, one of the greatest battles of the Second World War and a turning point in the world’s history,” he said.
“We are also deeply humbled by the enormous sacrifices made by our fellow citizens, who with grim determination, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded allies to fight evil.”
