Canadian Heritage committee  I guess we're augmenting each other, but I'll just deal with state occasions for the moment. A state funeral takes on a personality of its own. You'd wonder how that would happen, but it does. We often have instructions long before the death. I'll give two examples—and I'm not be

Canadian Heritage committee  I guess the short answer is no, or at least not in our experience. We've had wonderful professionals from Heritage Canada and.... I've forgotten the name before Heritage Canada, but même chose. There have been a couple of issues raised here, though, and you've alluded to them

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, that and flexibility, as I think Mr. Cole and my colleagues alluded to earlier on. We're in a society now that is not what it was when I started—50 years ago; I'm in a rut, guys and ladies.

Canadian Heritage committee  No one will hire me anywhere else. But no, sincerely, your question is absolutely correct: flexibility is the order of the day in our work. As it happened in Quebec, if I may add very quickly, when René Lévesque died, his body was cremated and put in the casket, just like you

Canadian Heritage committee  In Ottawa, we look very much toward Heritage Canada, obviously, and currently to the two Kevins, as I call them—Kevin Vickers and also Kevin MacLeod. As you know, they are the Sergeant-at-Arms and the Usher of the Black Rod. They are wonderful people to work with—Heritage Canada

Canadian Heritage committee  This shouldn't be a criticism, of course, of Heritage Canada, for instance, or the RCMP, not at all. I think it's the inconsistency when something happens. Most recently, with the Honourable Jack Layton, it involved two cities, two funeral directors. We were only in a supportiv

Canadian Heritage committee  I think so.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the question. From the very formal aspect, the community involves many leaders of various religious faiths who attend, even though it might be a funeral for a Christian. In Ottawa, you might see Rabbi Reuven Bulka there. From that perspective, I think we're saying

Canadian Heritage committee  I just wanted to augment what the Honourable Scott Armstrong was saying. We shouldn't at all discount the security aspect in funerals now. I'm going to give you a very quick two examples. One is John Diefenbaker's funeral at Christ Church Cathedral here in Ottawa. We were seate

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Perhaps, if I may say, a picture is worth a thousand words. In case we might possibly take our work lightly—the global “we”—we've been flabbergasted, frankly, at the response by the public to these two books that were released a week ago. We've had over 1,100 folks