Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning. My name is Melynda Jarratt. I live in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and I'm an historian of the Canadian war brides. I've been working on this subject for 20 years. This is my third appearance before this committee. I appeared in April 2005 and was recalled in May 20

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. The last thing I want to say is that as far as the Minister of Veterans Affairs.... And so many other ministers were dragged into this over the course of those years, because everywhere the war brides met, or interceded with any government department, the ministers would g

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can add to that. On Friday afternoon I personally received calls from two people I'd never heard from before. They were asking me for help about how they can get their passenger list--such as this one for Senator Roméo Dallaire, for example. This is his passenger list. These t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In fact, I find it interesting that you raise that question, because I spoke with Pierre Allard, of the Royal Canadian Legion, on Friday, and with Joe Taylor, by way of conference call. In that conference call, Mr. Allard surprised me by saying he's not even happy with 1910. He w

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon. I'm Melynda Jarratt, for those who have not met me before. This is my fourth trip before the committee in two years and my second trip this year. First I would like to ask, is it possible for us to be joined by Pauline Merrette, who is here today on behalf of he

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Pauline is going to join us.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm in a very unique situation because I am an historian of the Canadian War Brides. I've been doing this for over 20 years now. When I first started, believe me, the last thing I expected was to be sitting in front of a panel, for the fourth time, talking about stripping citize

Citizenship and Immigration committee  So can Don come and sit?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. There are a number of people who are willing to help, who have experience, who have been trying to get this through to the citizenship department at the highest levels. I don't claim to be a citizenship expert. I didn't want to be, and I am not. But I know what's right an

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have had the opportunity.... I'm probably one of the few people in the country who has actually explored the bowels of the National Archives microfilm, which is huge for the war brides. One thing about the military, they kept excellent records. So you know some pretty...Privacy

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to say that I understand where you're coming from. You want your minister to solve this problem because it's so solvable that it's ridiculous. You don't want her to be called Charlie Brown and you don't want Stephen Harper to be called Charlie Brown, because that brought

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for inviting me today. This is my fifth appearance before the committee, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed that Bill C-37 has not become reality. I wrote some notes so I could at least have some thoughts to refer to. After listening to Bill, I think it's i

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay, I'm getting to the end. It doesn't seem to have been carried through. Ed, you said it wasn't personal, but you know the war brides and their children are going to feel that it's personal. When discussing strippers is more important than discussing war brides and their ci

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It was 20,997.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The average birth rate for that group of Canadians is 2.5.