From the BBC:
“Canada buys land in France's
Juno Beach due to condo plan”
(The Juno Beach Centre was
erected 20 years ago in France to commemorate Canadian WWII soldiers.)
Canada will help buy a plot of
land in France that was once stormed by allied troops on D-Day during World War
Two. The purchase ends a three-year battle with a French developer that planned
to construct two condominium buildings in the area. Canada feared the
construction would affect a museum nearby that commemorates Canadian soldiers
who died during the war. Courseulles-Sur-Mer, the local town, will buy the land
back with Canada.
Canada will contribute nearly
C$4m ($2.9m; £2.6m) to the purchase, said federal veteran affairs minister
Lawrence MacAulay in an announcement in Ottawa on Friday. France's Juno Beach
is home to the privately-owned Juno Beach Centre, a 20-year-old Canadian museum
that pays tribute to 45,000 soldiers from Canada who lost their lives during
WW2. The land is historically significant, as it is where allied troops first
arrived ashore in France on 6 June 1944, known as D-Day. It is also where the
Battle of Normandy took place, an important milestone in the liberation of
western Europe from Nazi Germany. Around 5,500 Canadian soldiers were killed in
the Battle of Normandy and 381 died on D-Day.
The Juno Beach Centre was opened
by Canadian D-Day veterans in France to commemorate Canada's contributions to
the war. Mr MacAulay said Ottawa was fiercely against to the project - the
sixty-unit Domaine des Dunes - proposed by French developer Foncim. "The
development would be going on ground where so much Canadian blood was
spilled," he said. Canada stepped in following a two-year legal battle
between the museum and Foncim over the use of a road operated by the centre,
which Foncim wanted to use during construction. This year, thousands of
Canadians also took part in a letter writing campaign calling on French and
Canadian officials to halt the plan. With the help of the Courseulles-Sur-Mer
council, Ottawa reached an agreement to buy the land, putting an end to the
project that was set to begin construction this fall. The BBC has reached out
to Foncim for comment.
Ernest Beno, director of the Juno
Beach Centre Association and a retired brigadier general, said his organisation
is grateful for the help of Canadian and French officials in putting an end to
the dispute. "This project threatened the commemorative and the
educational efforts of our site," he said. The centre also thanked
"all of the French individuals who did the best they could with their
limited power but tremendous determination". Mr MacAulay said Canada is
now in the process of negotiating a 99-year lease that would protect the site
from future development. "Progress is inevitable, but some parcels of land
should never be touched, never," he said.
^ I am glad that Canada is doing
this, but it should never have been placed in this situation. France should
protect all of these historical sites since Men and Women from around the World
fought and died to liberate France. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.