Dinner in Honour of Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall

Rideau Hall, Wednesday, November 11, 2009

My husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I are so pleased to welcome you to Rideau Hall, Your Royal Highnesses, under the favourable auspices of the Thunderbird, of all living life forms and all Manitou spirits that inhabit the water, earth and sky.

You can see how this monumental work hanging above us, born of the talent and generosity of the great Ojibway artist, Norval Morrisseau, introduces a dialogue with our surroundings, this very European architecture, as well as with the very personal and very moving portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh created by the famous Quebec painter, Jean Paul Lemieux.

As if the civilizations that made their mark on Canada’s history were setting out to meet one another, in harmony rather than in power struggles.

And it is in that spirit that we are gathered here this evening, Your Royal Highness, to hail your return to Canadian soil and mark The Duchess of Cornwall’s first visit to Canada.

We have learned, Your Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, that you have roots in Canada that date back to the 19th century.

Your great-great-great-grandfather, Sir Allan Napier MacNab, was prime minister of the United Province of Canada from 1854 to 1856.

And I am told that it was with much joy, curiosity and emotion that you and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales visited Hamilton’s Dundurn Castle, which was built by your forebear.

Your Royal Highness, this is your 15th visit to Canada, a country that you know well and to which, we know, you are deeply attached. 

Your last visit was in April 2001, just a few months before the suicide bomb attacks in the United States, witnessed live by millions of people around the world.

The world in which we are living today bears little resemblance to the world in which we were living prior to those terrible events.

For us, Canadians, the most direct consequence of those attacks is without a doubt our involvement in Afghanistan, alongside the International Security Assistance Force, to which the United Kingdom is also contributing.

Last week, it was with profound sadness that we learned of the tragic death of six British servicemen, including five in an attack in one of Afghanistan’s southern provinces. Six other British soldiers and two Afghan police officers were also injured then.

May we ask that you accept, on behalf of all Canadians, our expression of solidarity with the families of the deceased and the wounded and with the British people.

On this Remembrance Day, we are commemorating not only the tremendous sacrifices that have been made over the last century, but also all those that we are making today, in the name of that same ideal of justice and freedom for which so many women and men have fought, risking their lives to do so.

Last Monday, here at Rideau Hall, I was deeply moved to present the first 46 Sacrifice Medals of which 21 were awarded posthumously.

The Sacrifice Medal was created to provide a tangible and lasting form of recognition for the members of the Canadian Forces and those who work with them who have been wounded or killed by hostile action and to Canadian Forces members who died as a result of service.

Now more than ever, we need to honour the exemplary work of our soldiers, as they seek to restore security and prosperity in places where children, women and men continue to struggle under the yoke of oppression and misery.

I have travelled to Afghanistan twice, and both times I have seen the remarkable work being done by our soldiers, hand in hand with the humanitarian workers and many remarkable women and men from Afghan civil society.

Allow me to recognize the outstanding leadership of our Chief of the Defence Staff, General Walter Natynczyk, who recently accompanied me on my visit to Kandahar to support our troops in the field and to engage with the people of Afghanistan where children at the Sayad Pacha School, a school we helped to build, told me their fondest dream is to stop living in fear of stepping on a landmine.

Our troops are risking everything to ensure a safe environment for these children, and for all of the people of Afghanistan. Our troops are risking everything to promote their development.

And, as commander-in-chief, I am profoundly grateful to Your Royal Highnesses for the tribute you have paid to the members of the Canadian Forces and for the profound respect you have shown to them throughout your official visit to Canada.

Of course, the generations that came before us paid a heavy price to defeat barbarism, which has such little regard for life.

In an age of unprecedented openness, as we move forward in the 21st century, the time has come for us to redefine the ties that bind us to one another and to all forms of life.

As Morrisseau’s painting so eloquently shows, the first nations of this continent —our deepest roots in this land and this country—passed on to us the ancestral wisdom that all forms of life, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, are interconnected.

This wisdom of our elders rings out louder than ever in a world in which our fates are inextricably linked and where it is imperative that we stop defining our freedom solely in terms of our own individual interests, but rather in terms of the interests of the wider world.

Consider the dangers of a commercial logic without any safeguards, one in which the “fend for yourself” mentality makes the rules. One of the gravest dangers is most definitely the economic crisis gripping the world today.

As I stated before the members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), where I was invited to speak last month, this financial crisis, which is “difficult for some of our populations while threatening to devastate others—is in fact a crisis of values, urgently crying out for an ethic of sharing.”

An ethic that urges us to broaden our understanding of civic responsibility.

Because the issues of today concern us all.

Recently, Your Royal Highness, you spoke of that collective responsibility, specifically with respect to the environmental consequences of growth based on wasted resources, lust for profit and short-sighted decisions.

At the 2009 Richard Dimbleby Lecture held in London last July, you stated that “we face a future where there is a real prospect that if we fail the Earth, we fail humanity.” That is the same message you conveyed to the European Parliament during your official visit to Brussels in 2008.

At that time, you said that “the doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight,” adding that “[w]e cannot be anything less than courageous and revolutionary in our approach to tackling climate change” and that never before in history have we seen a threat like this.

You yourself have put your words into action, creating an organic garden and farm at your country estate, Highgrove House, and demonstrating an unwavering commitment to sustainable, environmentally conscious agricultural practices.

In this residence, we cultivate a philosophy of offering our guests products from the Canadian soil, from the food on your plates to the content of your glasses.

It is our way of celebrating the quality of our products and our culinary skill.

While our table is a place of celebration, it is also a place for discussion and reflection.

Know, Your Royal Highness, that your commitment to the environment is a concern that all Canadians share.

The company you founded, Duchy Originals, helps small producers obtain a share of the market and gives consumers access to natural produce.

This evening, we are offering you a taste of some of our own success in this regard and have brought together for you and for the Duchess some of Canada’s leaders in agriculture, the food industry and our nation’s table.

A growing number of us share a sense of urgency.

Urgency to take action to halt the processes that are having a damaging effect on the environment.

Urgency to preserve the vital link between us and nature.

Urgency to return to more collective, more human values. Values that unite us and are universal in scope.

Thank you for providing such a vivid reminder of this through your personal commitment.

I would like to warmly thank Your Royal Highnesses for coming to share your affection for Canada and its people.

We sincerely hope that you will have fond memories of this, your first visit to Canada together.