A piece of land in France that was once overrun by allied forces on D-Day during World War Two will be purchased with assistance from Canada.
The purchase puts an end to a three-year conflict with a French developer who wanted to build two condos nearby.
Canada was concerned that the construction might have an impact on a neighbouring museum that honours its soldiers who lost their lives in the conflict.
The nearby town of Courseulles-Sur-Mer will purchase the land back from France.
A statement made by federal veteran affairs minister Lawrence MacAulay in Ottawa on Friday states that, Canada would donate close to C$4 million ($2.9 million; £2.6 million) toward the acquisition.
A 20-year-old Canadian museum that honours the 45,000 Canadian soldiers who perished during World War 2, is located at France’s Juno Beach.
The area is notable historically since it is where, on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the first allied troops set foot on French soil.
Additionally, it was the site of the Battle of Normandy, a crucial turning point in the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany.
In the Battle of Normandy, around 5,500 Canadian soldiers perished, and 381 died on D-Day.
To honour Canada’s sacrifices to the war, Canadian D-Day soldiers opened the Juno Beach Centre in France.
Mr. MacAulay claimed that Ottawa was adamantly opposed to the French developer Foncim’s project, the sixty-unit Domaine des Dunes.
He remarked, ‘The development would go where so much Canadian blood was poured.’
After a two-year legal dispute between the museum and Foncim over the usage of a road run by the centre that Foncim intended to utilise during construction, Canada intervened.
The plan was opposed this year by tens of thousands of Canadians who participated in a letter-writing campaign to French and Canadian government representatives.
Ottawa came to an agreement to purchase the land with the aid of the Courseulles-Sur-Mer municipality, putting a halt to the project that was scheduled to start building this fall.
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