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 our pleasure to be here.
I am Brad White. I'm the Dominion secretary of the Royal Canadian Legion. I arrived at the Legion in 1998 and I've been involved in just about every major commemorative activity that the Legion has been engaged in, as well as being the director of the national Remembrance Day ceremony.
Accompanying me today is Steven Clark. He is my director of administration and he is now the director of the national ceremony.
I will be speaking against the proposed amendment to Bill C-597 to make November 11 a legal holiday.
The Legion's activity work related to Remembrance Day dates back to our inaugural Dominion Convention in 1926 when we first proposed to the government that Armistice Day be observed on the 11th of November rather than on the Monday in the week in which that date fell. The advocacy was successful and resulted in the Armistice Day act amendment in 1931. In the ensuing years, Remembrance Day has been incorporated into the Holidays Act and is a federally recognized holiday for all federal offices and federally regulated employees. While this is not binding on the provinces, some jurisdictions have followed suit.
The Legion's position on this issue is our concern that Canadians, if given the time off as a legal holiday, will not take the time to remember. It may simply become another long weekend or mid-week break. This position was most recently reinforced by our national delegates at our national convention in 2012. It is paramount that the significance of Remembrance Day be inculcated in our youth and the general population to show their respect for the sacrifices of our fallen.
To honour this day, many schools hold assemblies where they organize their own commemoration. Others take their students to participate in ceremonies at local cenotaphs, thereby strengthening the impact of the significance of the 11th of November. The Legion works very closely with schools throughout the country to provide an educational component to Remembrance Day. In addition to welcoming classes at our ceremonies, we also have a very well-renowned teachers' guide on our website. It is an excellent teaching facility and a tool, and it has been downloaded more than a million times from our website.
So too are we encouraged to hear of organized commemorations in workplaces on the 11th of November. We need to make honouring and remembering an important part of our regular routine on that day and not simply provide a day off from school or work. We need only to look at Victoria Day, a legal holiday, to question what observances are being held across the country to honour Canada's longest-serving monarch. For most, it provides a long weekend in May. We must not let Remembrance Day suffer the same fate.
In regard to the half-masting of the Canadian flag on the 11th of November, it is the current policy to half-mast the flag on all federal buildings in Canada from sunrise to sunset. With respect to the Peace Tower, provision exists to half-mast the Canadian flag at 11 a.m. on the 11th of November, which coincides with the start of the two minutes of silence during the national Remembrance Day ceremony. It remains in that position until sunset. It is our position that this current practice should remain unchanged and intact.
We thank you again for giving us this opportunity to provide our comments on Bill C-597.