Mr. Chairman, honourable members of Parliament, and comrades all, obviously you know who I am. I am Jack Frost, president of the Royal Canadian Legion. I have with me Brad White, who is the director of administration at our headquarters.
I likewise am only here to add support to the peacekeepers in their bid for this. So on behalf of the 400,000 members of the Royal Canadian Legion, we fully support the passage of BIll C-287 in respect of a national peacekeeping day.
This past June, in Calgary, our convention delegates passed the following resolution, which I would like to read:
WHEREAS the Legion wishes to represent all veterans and recognize the significant contributions that they have made to Canada;
WHEREAS the Legion has issued a definition of a veteran which encompasses traditional war veterans, Cold War veterans, U.N. Peacekeeping veterans, Gulf War veterans and all serving Military personnel;
WHEREAS the Legion acknowledges that the public often refers to these veterans regardless of their background and service affiliation as “Peacekeepers”;
WHEREAS the Legion wishes to welcome and recognize all of these veterans as Ordinary members of the Legion;
WHEREAS the Legion acknowledges that the public wishes to recognize these veterans by the establishment of a “Peacekeeping Day”; and
WHEREAS the establishment of “Peacekeeping Day” would serve as a day of “Recognition” of the contribution and commitment of the Canadian Forces and not as a day of “Remembrance”:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Dominion Command petition the government of Canada to recognize all veterans as Peacekeepers and Peacemakers by declaring 9 August as a special “Peacekeeping Day”.
That motion or resolution was passed unanimously in Calgary, and I don't really think I can add any more to support my colleagues in this bid for this bill.
Thank you.