“I congratulate the Royal Canadian Dental Corps (RCDC) on its 100th anniversary. Since its inception, the RCDC has enjoyed an excellent reputation, providing high quality, operationally based dental care and other professional capabilities at home and abroad. It has participated in numerous international humanitarian and domestic outreach operations, and has developed forensic and oral health capabilities.
“Having seen the need for oral health care in the field as early as the Boer War in South Africa, where dental services were seen as indispensable when a great number of soldiers presented with dental emergencies, Canada established the Canadian Army Dental Corps on May 13, 1915. Since their formation, Canada’s military dental services have looked after the oral health needs of our troops deployed in both World Wars, in Korea, and in Afghanistan, and have responded to orofacial disease and injuries with tremendous skill, precision and dedication.
“Most recently, the Canadian Forces Forensic Odontology Response Team verified the identity of Private Albert Laubenstein, a Canadian casualty of the Second World War during the Battle of Kapelsche Veer on January 26, 1945. As a result of this identification, we were able to bury him with full military honours and lay him to rest at Bergen-Op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands on May 6th, 2015.
“Yesterday, I had the distinct honour of opening “Oral History-A Century of Canadian Military Dentistry” at the Canadian War Museum where this particular forensic identification, along with other Canadian military dentistry artefacts, is showcased.
“Celebrating its centennial year, the Royal Canadian Dental Corps is truly deserving of national praise and recognition for providing care that directly contributes to CAF operational readiness and quality of life, while also undertaking other missions important to the Government of Canada.”
