Canadian Heritage Committee on April 22nd, 2015

[Harry Watts]

It's all about respect and memory. How do you legislate two minutes of respect? That's something that.... I am old enough to remember when the streetcars in Toronto used to quit running for two minutes and when the factories would shut down for two minutes. We can't do that anymore, I believe, but that would be a tremendous moment with two minutes of silence.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Could you support this bill knowing now what you know that it doesn't create a statutory holiday?

[Harry Watts]

Absolutely.

As I say it makes no difference to me or the kids in the school; I'm there. Sure.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Mr. Ray.

[Brian Ray]

As I said earlier, and as I've said in the branch last fall and in the branch seven years ago last fall, Remembrance Day is a day to remember and reflect. It is not a day for politicking.

What you folks over there are doing is politicking and wordplaying, and I'll add the expletive if you ask me that question again. No, I do not believe it will enhance the program.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Okay, very good.

I have no further questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, Mr. Valeriote.

We'll go to our last questioner, Mr. Yurdiga. You have the floor for seven minutes.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you Mr. Chair, Mr. Watts, and Mr. Ray.

You know over the past number of weeks I've been talking to many veterans across my riding. They have a feeling that if you attach a holiday to Remembrance Day, it's telling our youth that it's a day off, it's a time to go out to the pool, it's a time to go out doing their own activities. That's what their concern is. It's not about the remembrance part; it's about the holiday. I think that's a dangerous slope that many veterans are concerned about.

Do you feel that by making Veterans Day a holiday it will diminish Veterans Day? Do you think it will just be another holiday to our children and our grandchildren?

[Brian Ray]

Absolutely, it's a slippery slope. If the wording is that it's a recognized national holiday, but not necessarily a day off, the provinces are potentially going to make it a provincial holiday and it will just be another day off with pay that the folks can do the things that they want to do and they won't remember. If they're in school they're more likely to, in my opinion.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you for that.

Can I ask the same question to Mr. Watts, your perspective on attaching a holiday to Remembrance Day?

[Harry Watts]

The schools make a wonderful effort to present Remembrance Day to the young people. The schools make it a special day. It's not going to happen if it's going to be a holiday and the kids aren't going to be in school. All the schools make November 11 as a special day. In Kitchener I know they do. There's only one of me and I can't be at all of them, but I would certainly like to.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you very much for your response on that.

Given the importance of consulting with veterans, do you feel that we spent enough time consulting with veterans? Do you think that we put our best foot forward to get a sense of what our veterans across Canada are feeling about having Veterans Day a holiday?

[Brian Ray]

I can't answer that because I don't know what foot you put forward to ask the veterans other than myself and some other people from Dominion Command, and some other people who may be misleading you and misinforming you.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Mr. Watts, same question.

[Harry Watts]

I feel that kids should be in school. The schools at present are doing everything they can to promote Remembrance Day. At lots of the schools I go into before Remembrance Day, everything will be set up special. I won't be there, but the kids and the teachers will use that special day as remembrance of the guys that sacrificed their lives so they can have the freedom to go to school and live in Canada. It's important that we leave the kids in school because the schools want the kids there. That's the way I feel about it.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Mr. Ray, I have one final question. Do you think there's anything wrong with how we celebrate Remembrance Day as it sits, without this Bill C-597 being passed?

[Brian Ray]

As I said earlier, I don't see that the bill would enhance anything. I think what we're doing now to remember the veterans is probably the best we're going to do. I do my best to encourage all my branch members to get involved and ensure that they get out to the branch and get out to the cenotaph that morning.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you. I have no further questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

That will be the end of the questions.

Witnesses, thank you for coming today. If you have any other input you'd like to put into the bill, please get it to us right away.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I was going to ask if maybe Mr. Watts could send us those poems.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Mr. Watts, are you prepared to send them to us?

[Harry Watts]

Harold Albrecht, Stephen Woodworth and Peter Braid all have copies of my poetry. The next time I see them I'll give them a few extra copies to bring to Ottawa for you.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I was actually asking if you could perhaps submit them to the committee, so that we could receive the copies for the entire committee as part of the study.

[Harry Watts]

I'd be happy to send them to you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

We are going to move in camera to committee business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]