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 OTTAWA
– Prime Minister Stephen Harper today attended a commemoration
ceremony marking the 20th Anniversary of the fall of
the Berlin Wall. The ceremony took place at the Government
Conference Centre in Ottawa, where a piece of the Wall is on
public display.
"The point of no return was reached 20 years ago today, on
November 9, 1989. That is when, with the world watching,
thousands of Germans from the east poured across a border that
would soon cease to exist. They chose with their feet the
principles long upheld by Canada and our allies, embracing
freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law," said the
Prime Minister. "Border guards at first uncertain in the face of
so many, became unwilling, and were quickly unable, to stop
them. The life had gone out of the communist system."
For almost thirty years, the Berlin Wall separated East Germany
from West Germany, a tangible symbol of the Iron Curtain between
Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc. On November 9, 1989, the
government of the former German Democratic Republic announced
that travel restrictions had been lifted and that citizens could
visit West Germany. In the following weeks and months, citizens
began tearing down the concrete division and poured across the
border, escaping Communism and finding freedom.
Prime Minister Harper used the occasion today to announce that
the section of the Wall housed at the Government Conference
Centre since 1991 will be moved to the Canadian War Museum. It
will be made available for public viewing.
"I am pleased to announce that this section of the Berlin Wall
will be relocated to the Canadian War Museum as an important
relic of the Cold War," said the Prime Minister. "There, it will
honour the men and women of the Canadian Forces who served
during that confrontation. It will also complement the memorial
to the Victims of Totalitarian Communism, planned for the
capital region by Tribute to Liberty."
The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and
Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, is participating in the
Berlin Wall Commemoration Ceremony today. This ceremony will
mark the 20th Anniversary since the Wall came down. The Canadian
Forces (CF) were stationed in Germany for 40 years during the
Cold War, with nearly one million CF members and their families
stationed in Germany during that period. The heavily-guarded
Wall separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989.
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