Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm very pleased to be here. I think it's very timely to be here talking about Veterans' Week just a couple of months before Remembrance Day.
I had an opportunity to brief some of the members of this committee in Charlottetown in June on the overall work of Canada Remembers. I'm very pleased to be back to talk specifically about Veterans' Week.
Some of the presentation will be given in English and some in French. I can also answer questions in French.
I would like to give you a bit of an overview of what is planned for Veterans' Week this year and identify some opportunities where members of Parliament can assist in taking a leadership role in encouraging Canadians to become involved in remembrance.
Our greatest objective is to increase awareness of Canadians in the service of Canadians during times of war, military conflict, and peace. But it's not just to make people aware. What's important is to have them go beyond awareness and understanding to take action and personal responsibility for remembrance. It's not about the Government of Canada honouring the service and sacrifice of Canadians; it's about Canadians honouring the service and sacrifice.
In remembrance activities we're also trying to ensure that Canadians, in particular veterans and their families, are aware of the services and benefits that are available from Veterans Affairs. We always cross-promote between remembrance and the benefits and services of the department. The same happens in venues where we are making Canadians aware of services and benefits; we're also encouraging them to become involved in remembrance.
Measures consist of motivating Canadians to take personal responsibility for remembrance.
We want to encourage high levels of participation of Canadians and increase the engagement of youth and educators in remembrance, in particular during Veterans' Week. The future of remembrance is in the hands of our youth, so it's critical that we ensure they are aware of what Canadians have done and continue to do in defence of Canadian values. It's critical that we encourage them to take leadership roles. You'll see some specific things we're doing with youth, as I go through the presentation.
We want to increase the visitation to and use of the Veterans Affairs website for the purposes of remembrance. There's a tremendous wealth of resources on the website and many ways that people can use those resources to become involved in remembrance.
On the messages this year, the overall approach is to encourage action on remembrance. The tag line this year is a call to action: “How will you remember?” So it's challenging people to answer that question themselves. What are they going to do personally to remember and honour Canadian sacrifice?
We have messages for the general public, but we also have specific messages targeted toward key groups: youth, Canadian Forces veterans, and educators.
It is important to tailor messages to audiences such as youth, members of the Canadian Forces and veterans.
Some Canadian Forces veterans do not see themselves as veterans. Some in the Canadian public do not see modern-day veterans as veterans. So part of our work is to ensure that people understand who is a veteran and the importance of the service they have provided to Canada.
In addition, this year we are recognizing the 65th anniversary of the Italian campaign. This is a campaign that took place between July 1943 and February 1945. During the autumn of years that end in four and nine, we recognize all of the service during the Italian campaign.
As I mentioned, the messages also reflect the commitment of Veterans Affairs to provide the necessary services and benefits to veterans, young and old.
There are activities that take place, of course, in the national capital. There are also events and ceremonies, as well as other remembrance activities, that take place across the country in communities both large and small. We have a number of events and ceremonies that will take place overseas this year, during and around Veterans' Week. We work with hundreds of external partners as well in remembrance. We'll talk a bit about each of those.
There will be a nationwide launch of Veterans' Week. We are in the process of finalizing arrangements for the launch.
It's possible that this year the launch of Veterans' Week will be outside the national capital. We're looking at some options and working with some community groups to come up with the best possible launch for Veterans' Week. There are many events that take place in the Ottawa area, so we are trying to ensure that we have some high-profile events outside this area and from coast to coast.
There will be, in the national capital, an annual candlelight tribute. This event takes place in partnership with the City of Ottawa. It pairs young people with veterans, and together they bring candles. It has a very high level of participation, usually over 1,000 people. It's a very large event here in Ottawa.
Just before Veterans' Week, which is November 5 to 11, there is often an unofficial launch to Veterans' Week in the Ottawa area.
The Senate ceremony will be held this November 6.
As always, there are statements and standing orders in the House of Commons.
The Encounters with Canada program is one that is now under the umbrella of Historica. It's an organization that brings together, 26 times a year, about 130 or 140 young people from 15 to 18 years of age, from every province and territory, for a week of learning about Canadian citizenship. Each year, during or around Veterans' Week, one of their theme weeks is specifically dedicated to remembrance. It really encourages and equips these young people to go back to their communities and become leaders among their peers in remembrance.
The Remembrance Day ceremony, of course, as always, here in the national capital and in most communities across Canada, is organized by the Royal Canadian Legion on behalf of the Government of Canada.
There are a wide range of activities taking place across the country. Many community groups are supported by our community engagement partnership fund. We have been receiving partnership proposals from groups across the country for the last few months, and we expect to see many more over the coming weeks.
Again this year there will be wreaths provided to parliamentarians. In fact, the initial wreath that is provided to each parliamentarian, each member of Parliament, is going out this week. It will be arriving in your constituency offices in the next few days. There is a letter accompanying that wreath that provides information on how to order additional wreaths, should you require additional ones for laying at other ceremonies in your riding.
Overseas, this year as always, there will be ceremonies at Vimy Ridge and at Beaumont-Hamel.
The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.
They will be held on November 7 and 8. There will also be a ceremony in London at the Canada Memorial in Green Park, which is across from Buckingham Palace. This is a newly acquired memorial. It had been falling into disrepair. The group that had established the memorial in the 1990s was no longer able to take care of it and had largely disbanded. The memorial has now been taken over by the Government of Canada and it is the responsibility of Veterans Affairs to maintain and operate it. So the High Commission in London, as it does each year, will be organizing a ceremony at the Canada Memorial.
As well, there will be an overseas delegation, again to recognize the 65th anniversary of the Italian campaign. It will be leaving on November 26 or 27 and will be returning in early December. The delegation will include veterans of the Italian campaign, representatives of the national veterans organizations, and parliamentarians. Letters have gone from the minister to the parties in the House of Commons as well as to the government and the opposition in the Senate, inviting the House leaders to nominate representatives to that overseas event.
In terms of external partners, there are literally hundreds of partners with whom we work in organizing Veterans' Week activities. Beginning here in Ottawa, we work with all of the other federal departments. All of the departments have Veterans' Week material on their websites, and many of them undertake specific activities with their employees, and with their constituencies as well, across Canada.
This year, of course, there is something unique: the Olympic torch relay. There will be 12,000 Canadians carrying the Olympic torch, and 120 of those spots have been provided to the federal government. The decision was made that all of those 120 spots would be offered to veterans. So we worked with the major veterans organizations across the country and they have selected 120 veterans who will carry the torch from October 30 until the beginning of the Olympics in communities right across Canada. All of the promotion associated with this is restricted exclusively to VANOC, the Vancouver Organizing Committee. They guard very tightly how all of that is promoted. But certainly Canadians will know that many of the people carrying the torches are veterans, modern-day veterans as well as older, traditional veterans.
There is a vignette on remembrance that is produced each year and is made available on television and through the Internet. It is going to be available as well this year in the 126 Service Canada locations across the country. As Canadians go into these sites, they'll be exposed to the remembrance messaging and the call to action, encouraging them to become involved in remembrance.
I earlier mentioned Historica's Encounters with Canada. In addition to the Canada Remembers theme week, in all 26 weeks of their activities each year they have a component of their citizenship program that specifically deals with remembrance.
We began a new partnership with the Canadian Football League last year. Before the eastern semifinal and the western semifinal again this year there will be a tribute to veterans in the stadium, just in advance of the coin toss. That will also be broadcast on TSN, reaching about 1.7 million Canadians with the tributes to veterans before the games. And of course there will be about 60,000 in the stadiums. We won't, however, know the location of those tributes until the regular season ends.
As well, for some years we have worked with the B.C. Lions. In their last home game of the season they do a tribute to veterans as their entire half-time show.
So that's our work with the Canadian Football League.
We're also working with other sports leagues to have tributes for veterans. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, for over five years, has had tributes to veterans before each home game during Veterans' Week in all of their locations, except of course the one that is based outside of Canada in the United States.
This year, on October 19, there will be an unveiling of a new stamp by Canada Post, depicting the National War Memorial. That will be another thing Canada Post is doing to support Veterans' Week activities.
We have sent educational materials to every school in Canada.
All 16,000 schools in Canada receive the pack that was just distributed to you a moment ago. It provides a sample of the Veterans' Week learning materials produced for this year. You'll notice there are two pieces in newspaper format. One is Tales of Animals in War, for students from kindergarten to grade 6, and another is Canada Remembers Times, for students from grade 7 to 12. It has more sophisticated and more in-depth material and information. The younger age group, of course, receives information on remembrance with a different approach, one that is more tailored to their age group. It uses animals who had ancestors who served in wartime: elephants, carrier pigeons, horses, and Winnie the Pooh, who was the mascot of the Winnipeg Grenadiers. It uses animals as a way of introducing remembrance to younger children and an understanding of what Canadians have done.
These have been extremely well received by educators across the country. This is the third year of this approach. It has had a very, very positive reaction from educators across the country. It provides the opportunity for teachers to then order class packs of 30 of each of the materials. There are lesson plans and a teacher's guide, so that teachers can use them in their own innovative ways but also according to the lesson plans provided. If you want teachers, who have very, very busy schedules and jam-packed curricula these days, to teach remembrance, it's a good idea to make it easy for them. That's what these materials do. They're also sent to 6,000 other organizations: every branch of veterans organizations across the country, military family resource centres, scouts, guides, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and other community organizations across the country as well. Many of them order materials as well. Last year, 1.3 million pieces of these materials were ordered by educators across the country.
I've already mentioned Historica and I won't mention it again.
The other comprehensive learning materials that are available from us free of charge, as well as on our website, are promoted at teachers' conferences, at conventions of social studies teachers, and by history teachers across the country. These materials are developed by former educators who are on our team. When they meet with educators across the country, they're speaking the same language.
As well, we work with the provincial ministries of education, who are responsible for the curricula, to ensure that our materials meet the requirements and standards of the provincial ministries of education.
As for web content, the Veterans' Week feature is already up on the website now. It provides the information on the learning materials and how to order them. There's a section on remembrance and ways in which people can become involved. There's a calendar of events. Last year, there were over 320 events across the country posted on that calendar—and that was up 45% from the previous year. We're encouraging people to use it as a way of promoting and making people aware of their events.
Some of the other products that are available include the Veterans' Week poster, and you'll see some copies of that in the sampler pack.
There will be articles in Salute!, the newspaper provided to veterans across the country. It has a circulation of 250,000.
As I mentioned, there is the Veterans' Week vignette that you will see on television across Canada. Last year it had tremendous coverage--I saw it many times. This year there is greater emphasis on that. There's an enhanced and expanded campaign with the vignette, but it has many other components. It will also have a much expanded component on the Internet this year. When you visit other websites, whether it's news websites, sports, or other popular websites in Canada, the vignette will be available there as well.
A new approach we have, which we began last year and is much expanded this year, is using the social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Our materials are available through YouTube, but we're also encouraging Canadians to use Facebook to get their friends involved in remembrance. They can develop pages on Facebook related to remembrance. Many Canadians in fact change their profile picture on Facebook to a poppy during this period and encourage their friends to do so. There are also fan clubs on Facebook. I received information about one in April from someone here in Ontario. His target is to have nine million fans of remembrance by Remembrance Day. He is working through Canada, the United States, and many other places. The idea is to take remembrance to where Canadians are, rather than trying to drag Canadians to where remembrance is. If we make remembrance a part of the everyday lives of Canadians, that's how to get them involved.
This year we are also providing some suggested tools and ingredients for remembrance activities on social media sites to young people. You don't need to tell them how to do things on Facebook, YouTube, and the other social media sites; you just need to provide them with the idea, give them some of the tools, and then get out of the way. They are much more creative in those areas than we are. It's a matter of providing educators with the ideas so they can assign projects in school for students to create videos, etc., that they can post on YouTube and encourage their friends to see.
That's my presentation.
