Canada observes Merchant Navy Veterans Day on September 3rd to honor the bravery and sacrifice of Canadian merchant mariners who served during the Second World War. Veteran Gil Kenny helps us remember them. The date was chosen because September 3, 1939, was the day the SS Athenia, a passenger ship carrying Jewish refugees, Canadian, American and British civilians, was sunk by a German U-boat, becoming the first casualty of the Second World War. The day recognizes their vital role in supplying go

WATCH: Our NEW #MemoryProject video The Forgotten Navy: The Merchant Navy in the Second World War launches today! “I saw with my own eyes, people struggling to stay alive in this massive fire-ridden ocean.” The Merchant Navy consisted of former civilian ships and government-run vessels, crewed by merchant sailors who were not members of the armed forces. They were commissioned to carry supplies up and down the Atlantic seaboard of North America and to Europe. In this Memory Project video, two Me