Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Honourable Chairman and members of the committee, good afternoon and thank you for the invitation to appear before you today on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion on Bill C-597. On behalf of our Dominion president, Comrade Tom Eagles, and our 300,000 members, it is

Canadian Heritage committee  I am a third-generation military person, and I also spent a lot of time in Legions with my grandfather when I was a young child. I have two sons currently serving in the RCMP. You asked whether we ask or consult our members about how our policy is supposed to be formed. We do. Th

Canadian Heritage committee  I would. There's no doubt about it. I would go to the schools and make a presentation to the schools. I think what the issue comes down to is the concept of service and how we recognize service. A lot of us in this room have served. We have gone to different places. We understand

Canadian Heritage committee  Legally or otherwise—we can play with words—you give Canadians the average sort of indication that this is now a holiday, then they take it as a holiday. They don't look at the Library of Parliament to have a definition of what is or what is not implied by the terminology of bein

Canadian Heritage committee  Mr. Clark is along with me, and I think I'll let him answer this question.

Canadian Heritage committee  On an average basis...okay? What I'll explain to you is that the ordinary member, like me, has served in the Canadian Forces or the RCMP. Normally, the largest group of the membership are called associate members. Those are the family members of those who have served. Those who h

Canadian Heritage committee  As I mentioned to you before, you can use any of the terminology you want to. As soon as you say a holiday—

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to say no.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think that in any democratic organization, as we see in Parliament today, there are regional differences and divisions. The Legion is very much the same thing as what Parliament is. We have our regional differences. We have our regional issues. When these issues are debated, th

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, it was.

Canadian Heritage committee  That would be unclear to me.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to start and then I'll hand it off to Steven quickly. The intent of any legislation, whatever it's going to be, should be to put forward to all Canadians the issues of sacrifice and remembrance, and the respect they have for their veterans and people who serve their co

Veterans Affairs committee  Chairman, it will be me.

Veterans Affairs committee  Honourable chairman and members of the committee, good morning and thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee today to speak on Bill C-597. On behalf of our Dominion president, Comrade Tom Eagles, and our 300,000 members, it's a pleasure to be here. I am Brad Wh

Veterans Affairs committee  Keeping with the chairman's wishes, no.