Toespraak van minister Koenders bij lancering studiebeurzenprogramma in Canada

Toespraak | 28-05-2015

Your Majesties, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure and honour to be here today at the University of Waterloo in this unique region, Canada's Technology Triangle. Professor Hamdullahpur: my colleague the Minister of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands, Jet Bussemaker, joins me in thanking you for the University of Waterloo’s great hospitality.

Today’s event brings together the past and the future. It links Canada’s determination to restore liberty to my country 70 years ago to our present efforts to invest in a better future through research and education.

70 years ago the First Canadian Army, under the command of General Harry Crerar, liberated the Netherlands. Well over 7,600 Canadian soldiers paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Their final resting places are at the Canadian War Cemeteries in Bergen op Zoom, Groesbeek and Holten. As a young man in the Netherlands we were raised with acknowledgement and appreciation for those who gave their lives for our future. It has formed an inspiration for me ever since. We have said it before and we will say it again: thank you, Canada.

It’s a great honour to be here with you, during this State Visit, to thank Canadian veterans, to commemorate our shared past and to look ahead to our common future. And it’s a privilege to do so in the presence of one of those Canadian heroes, Colonel Donald Shaver. In the war he served as a tank squadron commander in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, remembered by so many in the provinces of Friesland and Groningen he helped to liberate

70 years after the liberation, we want to honour the sacrifices those Canadian soldiers made for our freedom. On behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands I am very proud to inaugurate the Liberation Scholarship Programme: as a token of our lasting gratitude, 70 brilliant Canadian students will receive grants to study at a Dutch university.

Our bilateral exchanges are already flourishing. Yet it is my firm belief that this scholarship programme will give an extra stimulus to this relationship, driven as it is by the common efforts of both public and private sector organisations in the Netherlands and based on the inspirations of your courage and dedication in times of war. Government and academic institutions, as well as a select group of Dutch and Dutch-Canadian companies, have teamed up to make this possible, and I thank them for that.

I believe it’s all the more fitting to present the Scholarship Programme here in Waterloo, Ontario, which was named after a hamlet close to Brussels. Two hundred years ago Brussels was one of the two capitals of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, Amsterdam being the other one. Waterloo itself, of course, is best known as the setting of one of the greatest military showdowns the world had ever witnessed. Where the Allied forces of the day overcame the threat of Europe coming under the sway of a single power.

What’s not so well known – at least in my country – is that the geographical and historical links between the Kingdom and this part of Canada go far beyond the incidental naming of this town.

Because it was in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands that the peace negotiations took place that ended the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. The resulting Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814, led to the restoration of British power in the American-held parts of what is now Ontario. It formed the beginning of a lasting alliance between the two neighbouring countries and – more importantly from the European perspective at that time – it freed up the British forces that the Duke of Wellington needed to beat Napoleon at Waterloo, six months later.

The historical importance of the War of 1812 and the Treaty of Ghent is often overlooked in continental Europe. That’s a pity because it still resonates on a number of levels.

• Thanks to the Treaty of Ghent, military conflict as an instrument of foreign policy became a thing of the past in the relations between the US and Canada. To enjoy two hundred years of peace is unique in contemporary history, a feat that Europeans can still only hope to emulate, as exemplified by the recent turmoil in and around our continent.'It was a treaty that brought together two countries – the UK and the US – that strongly disagreed with each other over some very fundamental issues. Imperialism, slavery, competition for foreign markets, to name a few. The joint commissions set up in Ghent helped them find a way to resolve some of the issues that divided them. It resulted in a lasting alliance between the two countries, helping continental Europe to overcome new threats of domination by a single power in the twentieth century.

• It was no coincidence that the negotiations took place in the Netherlands. King William I was eager to have the talks hosted in Ghent – in what was often considered to be his favourite city. In his view, it gave the Netherlands an opportunity to take up its rightful place in the context of the Concert of Nations. Not as the military powerbroker it was in the 17th century, but as a diplomatic force, brokering for peace. There is a clear relationship between Ghent and the current position of The Hague as international city of peace and justice .

• Last but not least – it was a war that contributed to the Canadian peoples sense of cohesion. Otherwise – who knows? – there might not have been the strong and vibrant multicultural society there is today. In the nation that welcomed so many newcomers and that gave so many of my compatriots a new, bright future. The country that was so generous in helping overcome tyranny and dictatorship in two world wars and so instrumental in creating the modern concept of peacekeeping in the UN context.

Our historical ties and personal connections serve as the foundation for a shared future. Canada and the Netherlands share a close and often very personal bond, based on the experiences of liberation, of mutual joy and happiness, as exemplified by the many Dutch war brides. It led to a steady flow of migration from the Netherlands to Canada, the land of new opportunities. We want to ensure that these past achievements are cherished and consolidated, as a basis for our shared future.

Because Canada and the Netherlands can look towards a bright future together. We are partners by choice, with strongly held beliefs in international cooperation based on international law, in the promotion of democracy, human rights and rule of law, and in the desire to work together in strong military and economic alliances, like NATO and OECD. The Canada–EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which will offer us enormous opportunities upon its ratification. And there is tremendous potential for academic collaboration, as shown by the higher education mission led by Minister Bussemaker, and all the participants present here today.

Which brings me back to where I started – the Liberation Scholarships. I mentioned Colonel  Shaver, one of Canada’s veterans. I am delighted and deeply moved to tell you that his granddaughter Terran will be amongst the first group of 70 students to receive a Liberation Scholarship. I cannot think of a more symbolic way to thank Canada’s veterans than by providing her with a scholarship. And I salute five other recipients present here today too: Jeremy Smith, Andrew De la Chevrotiere Borchert, Naomi Huisman, Madelaine Liddy and Yasamin Yavari.

To all the grantees I say: enjoy your stay in Netherlands. I hope you will be able to spend your time well, both in academia and in other pursuits. That you will be able to see the country and perhaps use it as a base to see other parts of Europe. That you will come back to Canada as ambassadors honouring the special ties that exist between our two countries.

Allow me to conclude with a quote from the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan. I do so hesitatingly. Woody Allen in his timeless film classic Annie Hall showed what could happen if you publicly misquoted McLuhan. The great man made a cameo appearance as himself, admonishing a man claiming to be a media professor with the words:

You know nothing of my work! You mean my whole fallacy is wrong!

Now this is what Marshall McLuhan wrote in a letter in 1969:

War has become the environment of our time if only because it is an accelerated form of innovation and education.

McLuhan was prescient in many respects. But we can prove him wrong here. I’m convinced that peace will prove to be a stronger force for innovation and education. And that the Liberation Scholarship Programme and other forms of cooperation in the field of higher education are the best expression of that desire.

To illustrate the possibilities, I am very happy to introduce an animated short film made by the very talented young Dutch artist and alumni of the University of the Arts in Utrecht: Nicolien Opdam. It captures in only a few minutes the ideas and purposes behind the Liberation Scholarship Programme.

Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Canada.