Bill C-64: the Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act received Royal Assent.  The Act promotes the protection of the public, of the environment, including coastlines and shorelines, and of infrastructure by regulating abandoned or hazardous vessels and wrecks in Canadian waters and, in certain cases, Canada’s exclusive economic zone, and by recognizing the responsibility and liability of owners for their vessels.

One of the provisions contained in the act allows for the designation of Ocean War Graves which are defined as places "at the bottom of the ocean where lie human remains and, for greater certainty, includes the personal possessions of the deceased, which are entombed in the abandoned wreckage of a warship or an aircraft in military service or a merchant ship in military service that were wrecked in consequence of hostilities or warlike operations and which is recognized and acknowledged for the purpose of according respect to the dead and protecting the sanctity of human remains."

The passage of this act represents the culmination of a multi-year effort by retired Merchant Navy Captain Paul Bender.  Captain Bender joined the Merchant Navy in 1943, just before his 16th birthday.

You can read the Government of Canada Press Release here.