Debates of March 19, 2004 (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I didn’t have a Member’s statement, but I will tell you that when the Honourable Henry Zoe brought up this dedication to Rick Tremblay, it moved me to stand and say a few words.

Rick Tremblay was a lot of things to many of us. I met him in Fort Simpson when I was a young man. Seeing the dedication of this Inuit-style wrestling manual going in his name is very moving, I am sure, to his family. It surely brings warmth to my spirit and I can only imagine what it means to his family.

Rick, to many of us in Fort Simpson, was a lot of things. He was coach. He taught me wrestling as well as many other things. He always had time for all of us and took the time. He was a teacher as well. I can still remember him bringing his glass eyes to class and always making us laugh with this big belly smile and big beard. He was a mentor because he was somebody we looked up to. He was a class above everyone else.

He was also a friend. His passing in 2001 really hurt a lot of us. Like I say, it doesn’t compare, I am sure, to the emotions that that brought to his family. So, Mr. Speaker, in closing I just want to say this book is just one element of a fitting legacy many of us will remember of a man who touched all of us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause