THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay city officials participated in the fifteenth annual Peace Bell Ceremony which celebrates Thunder Bay’s special relationship with Gifu City, one of the city’s five sister cities.
“It’s very important. This has been 15 years. Gifu and Thunder Bay, we have a very good relationship as you all know, we have five sister cities so this is not just at this moment this is the history,” said acting mayor, Peng You.
“We remember history well, like young people, you know, to carry on and to bring more peace, not just for Gifu and Thunder Bay, but for the whole world.”
The ceremony embraces the spirit of peace while commemorating those who fell in the bombing of Gifu City on July 9th 1945.
"Peace is not just a local initiative, it’s a worldwide initiative and every person in the world needs to be able to connect and do citizen diplomacy and that's what the sister city program is all about,” said Matthew Villella, chair Sister City Advisory Committee.
“Citizens working with citizens to make the world a better place, hopefully a more peaceful place. But a better place in general.“
The international ceremony saw the Peace Bell, located at city hall, rung at the exact same time as the Peace Bell located in Gifu city and called for peace and prosperity for all people by reaffirming both cities’ commitment to world peace.
As part of the ceremony, city officials also offered words of condolences and a moment of silence for the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated Friday.
“It was terrible news that we all woke up to in Canada yesterday that the past Japanese Prime Minister had been assassinated and in the world, we just need to do a little bit better,” said Villella.
“We need to provide peace and love and be more supportive, and hopefully small little events like this can help spread that here locally and then globally as well.”
