Juno Beach Centre celebrates 10th anniversary

The museum and cultural centre opened its doors June 6, 2003, on the Second World War site of the D-Day landing and Battle of Normandy.

The Centre presents the war effort made by all Canadians, civilian and military alike, both at home and on the various fronts during the Second World War. Since its opening, the centre has welcomed over 525,000 visitors from around the world.

The anniversary celebrations kicked off with a special commemoration ceremony and other events on June 6th. Canada’s History interviewed Marie-Eve Vaillancourt, program manager for the Juno Beach Centre.

• A commemorative ceremony and walk on August 10 to honour Acadian soldiers, followed by performances by Acadian performing artists from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on August 13 and 14.
• A regatta on September 22, followed by a special exhibit September 21 to October 13 featuring a large mural containing the faces of the 157 Canadian soldiers, sailors, and aircrew who lost their lives in Afghanistan.
• A conference in November on “The place of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in the Canadian conscience past and present” by Serge Durflinger, history professor at the University of Ottawa. Durflinger is one of the rare Canadian bilingual historians who have studied the topic of the Second World War from both the Canadian anglophone and francophone perspectives.

Founded by the late Garth Webb, a D-Day veteran, the centre is owned and operated by the Juno Beach Centre Association (JBCA), a Canadian non-profit charitable corporation governed by a Board of Directors.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage has designated the Juno Beach landing site to be a site of national historic significance to Canada.