B.C. veteran to receive France's highest honour for service during Second World War
The war memorial at the B.C. legislature in Victoria (CTV News)
A veteran who lives in Duncan, B.C., will be honoured with France's highest award for his service in the country during the Second World War.
Ferdinand Labrie will be presented with the rank of "Knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour" at a ceremony in Duncan on Nov. 17.
The award will be presented by Nicolas Baudouin, the Consul General of France in Vancouver, with local MLAs, MPs, and Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples in attendance.
Labrie is receiving the award on the 80th anniversary year of the Jubilee Operation, also known as the Dieppe Raid.
In 1942, the Canadian military led the Allied charge on the French port of Dieppe, making up nearly 5,000 of the 6,100 troops involved in the assault, according to Veterans Affairs Canada.
Labrie, who landed in the U.K. in 1940, was involved in the operation but his regiment was not sent ashore, according to the Consul General of France.
Labrie was part of the Brigade Reserve Regiment which was an Intelligence regiment that acted as a cipher specialist, says the consulate.
Labrie would later land on France's Juno Beach shortly after D-Day, and eventually returned to Canada in January 1946.
"He was one of only two of the original regiment to return to Canada," the consulate said in a release Wednesday.
FILE - Members of the Royal Canadian Medical Corps evacuating Allied soldiers from the beach after the Dieppe, France raid during the Second World War. (CP PHOTO)
France has been awarding the Knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour to Canadian soldiers since 2014.
Anyone who knows a living Canadian veteran who served in France during the Second World War can contact the Embassy of France in Ottawa to nominate them for the award.
"This distinction, the country‘s highest national order, illustrates the profound gratitude that France wishes to expresses to [Labrie]," said the consulate.
"It is awarded in recognition of personal involvement in the liberation of the country during the Second World War," the release continues.
"Through veterans like Mr. Labrie, France remembers the sacrifice of all Canadians who came to liberate it. The people of France will never forget."
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