The Government of Canada announced Friday that the state funeral of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will take place at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal on Saturday, March 23 at 11 a.m.
The 18the Prime Minister of Canada died on February 29 in Florida.
Mr. Mulroney, who was very proud of his Irish origins, will previously be treated to a state funeral at the Basilica of Saint-Patrick in Montreal on Thursday and Friday before the funeral.
The two previous days, his remains will also be laid in state in Ottawa, at the Sir John A. Macdonald Building. Tuesday morning, dignitaries, including the Governor General and the Prime Minister of Canada, will be able to offer their condolences to the Mulroney family.
The public will then be able to visit the Sir John A. Macdonald Building on Tuesday afternoon, from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. In Montreal, citizens will be able to come and worship at the Basilica of Saint-Patrick on Thursday, from noon to 6 p.m., and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday morning will be reserved for dignitaries and members of the extended family.
Books of condolences can be signed on site, indicates the federal government, which adds that visitors will have to undergo a security check before entering these buildings.
Before the funeral ceremony at the Notre-Dame Basilica, the funeral procession will leave Saturday morning from the Basilica of Saint-Patrick accompanied by a mounted escort from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), an escort and a guard of honor of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Air Force Band, RCMP pallbearers and honorary pallbearers, specifies the government in a press release.
The ceremony, which will include religious components, will be celebrated by the Archbishop of Montreal, Christian Lépine, and the priest of the Notre-Dame basilica, Miguel Castellanos. Eulogies will be delivered by Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of the former prime minister, by Justin Trudeau, Pierre Karl Péladeau, Wayne Gretzky, Jean Charest and James Baker, who was American secretary of state for George Bush senior.
The funeral music will be provided by members of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the OSM Choir, under the direction of conductor Rafael Payare. The group “The Tenors”, Marc Hervieux, Marie-Josée Lord and Elizabeth Theodora Lapham, granddaughter of Mr. Mulroney, will also perform.
At the end of the ceremony, a 19-gun salute will be fired from the Quai de l’Horloge, in the Old Port of Montreal, very close to the basilica.
The Canadian government indicates that the funeral procession and the ceremony will be broadcast live on the Facebook and YouTube channels of the Department of Canadian Heritage.