REGINA — Those who received Canada’s highest military honours are being permanently recognized inside the Saskatchewan Legislature building.
At a ceremony Wednesday, Room 218 of the legislature was renamed the Hall of Valour.
The room is a gathering place which will honour those Saskatchewan people who served in the military, and in particular those servicemen who received the Victoria Cross — Canada’s highest military honour.
On the wall of the Hall of Valour is the Wall of Honour, showcasing those 15 Saskatchewan individuals who received the Victoria Cross. Those had already been on display in Room 218, making the renaming of the room to the Hall of Valour an obvious choice.
The hall was dedicated at a ceremony that included Premier Scott Moe and Lt.-Gov. Berandette McIntyre, as well as numerous individuals representing Saskatchewan’s military and veterans community.
The room was dedicated on April 22, an important date that marks the anniversaries of the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres during the First World War and the Battle of Kapyong during the Korean War.
Moe said there are two reasons behind the renaming.
“First is to honour our veterans, honour those that have served, those that have earned the recognition of the Victoria Cross that is on display inside of this Hall of Valour now, but to more properly just recognize and honour all of those that have served and continue to serve in our military, defending the very sovereignty of our nation,” said Moe.
“Second, this is part of a larger process, a process to really re-institute the opportunities that we have as Canadians to honour with that very prestigious honour, the Victoria Cross, more individuals in the future.”
The reason this particular room ended up being renamed the Hall of Valour goes back to the days when they were deciding where to place the tribute to the 15 Victoria Cross recipients. It was decided to use Room 218 because of its importance within the legislature building.
“This is the room of gathering,” said Moe. “Receptions are held here, meetings are held here. When people come to the Legislative Assembly, there is a very large chance that they are going to be in what was Room 218, what today will be known as the Hall of Valour. That's why those 15 shadow boxes honouring those veterans that earned that very prestigious honour are on display here, so that anyone that comes to this building from this province or outside has the opportunity to read, to see, and to honour them.”
There is also hopes that the room could see the addition of more Victoria Cross recipients in the future. A petition had been presented to the House of Commons to set up an independent committee to review files where the criteria of the Victoria Cross potentially could have been met.
“And many of those files, in fact probably most of the files that could be reviewed, have received the Star of Military Valour, which is the second highest award that could be given to the military veterans and those serving for the country,” said Lumsden-Morse MLA Blaine McLeod.
That petition was tabled and then presented in the House of Commons after it was verified on April 15. McLeod said he was there to witness that.
“It was an incredible moment, a moment that I'll remember for my lifetime, to see everyone stand and give an ongoing ovation to those that gathered,” said McLeod. “And Saskatchewan led the way in that, which was pretty amazing, thanks to the push from our premier and getting a unanimous motion across the floor on Dec. 3, 2025, and then moving that to other provinces in following suit. So good things happen in Saskatchewan, I'll just say that.”
Retired Brigadier General Cliff Walker welcomed the support from all the MLAs for that national effort, as well as for the renaming of Room 218 to the Hall of Valour.
“An incredible feeling, a feeling of gratitude towards the premier and to the leader of the opposition for the unanimous support,” Walker said.
“It's been a long time coming. It certainly is a tribute, I think, to the generation of today, and as I said, when we're long gone, I'm sure there are going to be people who felt that this has always been, you know, the Hall of Valour, because it's going to be such a visiting place in this legislature. So for me, it's a culmination of many years of hope, and now just extreme gratitude to the premier, to Blaine, and others who've put all this together.”
