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Change of Command for the Royal 22e Régiment
La Citadelle, Friday, June 26, 2009
History has ensured that there is a special link between the institution of the governor general and the Royal 22e Régiment, beginning with General Vanier, who fought within its ranks and felt a deep admiration for the regiment.
I am delighted today to be a part of this great tradition and to take this opportunity to tell you how proud I am of you. How proud Canadians are of you.
The Royal 22e Régiment’s exploits fill the pages of our past, from the First World War to the Second, from the Korean War to Canada’s many peacekeeping missions under the UN.
But these exploits most often come at a hefty price: tremendous sacrifices have been made and many lives lost, as Canada’s participation in the international security force in Afghanistan so vividly reminds us.
When I think of those of you serving in Afghanistan’s most troubled areas, doing everything possible to assist a population that has been stripped of its most basic rights, I cannot remain indifferent, nor can I help but carry you in my heart.
And to you, the friends and families gathered here, I can only begin to imagine the sacrifice, courage and love it takes to support the one you love and to respect his or her choice, come what may.
Although we are saddened by the departure of General Baril, we can find reassurance in the arrival of General Forand in these particularly difficult times.
Because we know that you will be in good hands, just as you have been over the past five years.
General Baril, when you first joined the Forces, you served with the Royal 22e Régiment. You also held the command of the 3rd and 2nd Battalions.
In the course of your career, you have been assigned difficult missions and have proven yourself in positions of great responsibility, including an appointment by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as military advisor in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and being named Chief of the Defence Staff.
I am always deeply moved whenever you tell me about your experience in Croatia.
For the members of the Royal 22e Régiment, you are certainly someone who is highly respected, but you are also one of their own.
On their behalf, I thank you. Thank you for having represented them with pride and dedication and for having guided them all these years.
General Forand, you know better than anyone the kinds of pressures that our military personnel face, perhaps even more so for infantry regiments like the Royal 22e, in which you have also served.
You once said that “[f]ew professions face [their] leaders with this great contradiction of leadership: That on one hand of the protection, training and nurturing of soldiers under your command; while on the other hand having to deliberately expose those same soldiers to the most lethal hazards of war to achieve military missions.”
It is precisely because you have never denied that contradiction between the importance that every man and woman under your command represents for you and the risks they must face that you have earned their respect and admiration.
Because you have been aware of that responsibility and have always acted accordingly.
You yourself have been in situations where you have not hesitated to put your life on the line. One such situation earned you the Star of Courage.
And who could forget the efficiency and commitment with which you commanded the Montréal area intervention force following the catastrophic ice storm of January 1998.
You are said to be persistent, brave, dedicated. Today, we are entrusting you with the Royal 22e Régiment.
We are confident that, through your example, you will be a source of inspiration who will give his troops the strength to continue their perilous work; that you will give invaluable and much-needed support to wounded soldiers who have come home; and that you will help to expand the influence of this jewel of La Francophonie of which we are so proud.
I am so pleased to offer you my very best wishes for success.
On the occasion of this ceremony that has brought us here together, as commander-in-chief, I would like to express the profound respect of all Canadians for the work that you do and for the sacrifices that you make in the name of an ideal of justice and freedom.
Thank you.