The event was to commemorate the 1943 birth of Dutch Princess Margriet who was born at the Civic Hospital during the Second World War.
It’s a story that’s become part of the lore of the City of Ottawa.
During the Second World War, members of the Dutch royal family were given safe haven in Canada to escape the Nazi occupation of their country. On Jan. 19, 1943, Princess Margriet was born at what was then the Ottawa Civic Hospital to Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
“It was a ray of light in the midst of war. Everybody in the Netherlands knew about it, from the secret radio [transmissions],” said Margriet Vonno, ambassador to Canada from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
A government proclamation …