Evidence of meeting #10 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was school.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:50 a.m.
Director, Juno Beach Centre Association
I'm passionate about the Lest We Forget project, as it gives students the opportunity to do detailed research on the lives of soldiers. Of course, engaging our current Afghanistan veterans in the schools, in ceremonies, and in trips is important as well.
9:50 a.m.
Vice-President, Public Affairs and Event Tours, EF Educational Tours Canada
I think you'll see, and we've seen, the current Afghanistan veterans, after they've had a chance to come home, begin to represent those members of the Canadian Forces who came before them. The younger veterans I've spoken to talk about wanting to participate in things such as the Nijmegen march in Holland and participate in some of the pilgrimages that were made by previous veterans from previous wars. I think you will continue to see that.
My experience is that they have a great sense of honour and passion for this country and a real respect for the members of the Canadian Forces who served before them. I believe they think it's their duty to help carry that torch forward. I think you will see those veterans participate on behalf of those who came before them.
9:50 a.m.
National Student Tour Coordinator, EF Educational Tours Canada
I encourage as many of you as possible to come with us. What you'll see at Vimy and in Italy is quite remarkable because it grows every year.
One of our largest areas of growth is with our cadets. Going to Vimy we have the sea cadets of Winnipeg—which brings me great delight—and army cadets. We feature them in our ceremonies. We have our students side by side with our cadets in full uniform at our ceremonies. That ongoing relationship is going to continue through the future.
In addition, as I mentioned briefly, we're setting the stage for the 100th anniversary. We're bringing the flame home and that flame is going to travel across Canada. That will carry the message even more.
9:55 a.m.
President, Vimy Foundation
One of the programs mentioned is Lest We Forget. The kids haven't forgotten; they just haven't learned it to start with. They can't forget something they don't know about. We're doing a poor job of teaching the kids our history. I think we do a very poor job of conveying, in the case of World War I, the reality of what Canadians had to deal with.
It's a little-known fact that the enrolment rate of non-British subjects, if you will, is almost identical between French Canadians and non-French Canadians who are not British. So there shouldn't be any finger-pointing about enrolment rates. In other words, if you weren't British or if you weren't born in Britain or if you weren't the child of people born in Britain, your enrolment rate was much less than anyone else's, and it didn't matter what your mother tongue was. That's one of those things I love to jump on when I see that finger-pointing, because it's not right.
In fact, the head of recruiting, the head of the militia was Sam Hughes. It's well documented. You can look at Tim Cook's book, The Madman and the Butcher. Minister Hughes was by today's standards a rabid bigot. I think it's a miracle that anyone in the province of Quebec who was French speaking ever joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force because this man made it next to impossible for those people to want to participate in this.
The end result of the war, of course, with our signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the Statute of Westminster, almost hearkens back to what Robert Bourassa sought when he was a member of the Laurier cabinet. He gave up in disgust because the cabinet was too concerned about being British rather than Canadian. The end result of the First World War was that of Canadians thinking of themselves as Canadians first. We need to help the kids to understand that, right across the country.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you very much.
I'll now go to Mr. Lizon for the last five minutes.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Good morning. Thank you very much for being here.
The first question I have is for Mr. Owen and Mr. Robinson. As you mentioned in your presentation, you are the largest private educational institution in the world. On the other hand, you organize these program trips that are, in many cases, heavily subsidized. How do you do that?
9:55 a.m.
Vice-President, Public Affairs and Event Tours, EF Educational Tours Canada
Our programs are not subsidized. We receive no funding from any level of government, and they're paid for by the individuals who choose to travel with us.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
My question is, if there are students or veterans who participate, is their cost covered by someone?
9:55 a.m.
Vice-President, Public Affairs and Event Tours, EF Educational Tours Canada
That's no. Every student who goes on our tour pays their own way, 100%. There are no subsidies from anybody.
9:55 a.m.
National Student Tour Coordinator, EF Educational Tours Canada
They may go to a Legion and maybe a Legion might give them some money, but no, there's no government funding. I think that's what makes it really important, and proves the fact that they do care, and they do remember, because it's the families and they are individually—
10 a.m.
Vice-President, Public Affairs and Event Tours, EF Educational Tours Canada
They're making a choice that this is something that they want to invest in from a personal education perspective.
10 a.m.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
In case you have students who cannot afford it, you would get students who cannot afford the trip—
10 a.m.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Is there help or money coming from foundations, from Legions, or from private institutions?
10 a.m.
Vice-President, Public Affairs and Event Tours, EF Educational Tours Canada
That occurs in a number of ways. You do get students who choose to raise funds on their own to cover the costs. I can give you the example of a young man from Durham who last year decided he wanted to come to the victory in Europe tour. He made a decision to go door-to-door to his neighbours, and pledged to do a walkathon in the memory of veterans and to raise money to be able to do that. He covered the cost of his tour through his own initiative.
You do find individual schools participating with local organizations to raise money. Then we, as an organization, do provide support to larger schools and to other groups in the form of scholarships as well.
There is a whole host of ways that students can have get assistance to help cover their costs.
10 a.m.
National Student Tour Coordinator, EF Educational Tours Canada
That's one of the reasons why it takes two years, because the school boards have that same concern and want to provide assistance: they don't want to be seeing this as an elitist thing. So by giving the students two years, it makes the payments smaller and affordable, and also gives a chance for students to have bake sales, bottle sales, walkathons, skateathons, and so forth.
For any student who wants to go and makes that choice, the family does it. I can give you some incredible stories of inner-city schools in London, Winnipeg, and Sudbury, where families talked about how they could barely afford a loaf of bread but that their grandfather fought in the war, and that the student has to go.
10 a.m.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
That's incredible. And, of course, Mr. Robinson, I share your views on history teaching in this country. I hope we can get the provinces together somehow so that they can agree on a common program. If Germany and France can share the same books, maybe we can do it in our great country here too.
I have a question that may go to all of you. Generally speaking, war efforts are understood in many countries as the defence of their own territories. In the case of both wars, Canadians were sent to Europe and to other places in the world. So do you get questions like the following? What were our soldiers doing there and dying for if they were not defending their own territory? What is your approach to that? How do you answer that?
10 a.m.
Director, Juno Beach Centre Association
Maybe because the Second World War is a little closer to home than the First World War, I know that at the Juno Beach Centre we get that question all the time from the Dutch and the French to the effect, why did you come here? Canada was not under any threat. Why did you send young men to liberate us? They don't understand it.
10 a.m.
President, Vimy Foundation
I've had a French national say the same thing to me, and then he paused and he said this twice. I mean his family had been overrun twice and he couldn't understand why the Canucks had come over twice. It's what we do; it's our responsibility.
10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
We're just about out of time. I don't know whether Mr. Owen or Mr. Robinson want to comment on the same item or not.
10 a.m.
National Student Tour Coordinator, EF Educational Tours Canada
Because EF is an international company, the tour guides come from all countries. I've had to explain to these tour guides from Germany why we're doing it. Once they understand we're talking about commemoration versus celebration and they think about our Canadian identity, then they understand why we do what we do.
10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you very much.
We're going to go into an abbreviated second round and are going to start with Mr. Genest from the NDP.
November 15th, 2011 / 10 a.m.
NDP
Réjean Genest NDP Shefford, QC
I noticed that you spoke a lot about commemoration at Vimy and various locations. I also noticed that Korean War veterans were almost completely excluded. There is no memorial there. I even noticed that they tend to be stuck in a corner in the legions or other places—I've experienced it.
What do you want to do? The veterans of the Korean War are the last veterans we have left. Do you or does the government have a program to erect a memorial in Korea to show exactly what sacrifices these veterans made when they entered the Korean War? Because we have the impression that these veterans are aliens because they are completely ignored. Do you have plans to improve the situation? They are our veterans. It's all well and good to commemorate the veterans who are no longer with us, but I also think it's important to honour the veterans who are still around.