Honourable member, I thank you so much for that important question.
I keep going back to education. I keep going back to our institutions of learning. When I was in high school, I'd learned about Samuel de Champlain and Mathieu Da Costa. I didn't know that Mathieu Da Costa was a black man. So the issue is really one of being transparent and making our history relevant, making our history clear. Our history books are there; we need to make sure that the faces of these soldiers, who are on our Veterans Affairs website.... I'm seeing some of these faces for the first time, and I've been in this country over 35 years. So it's important that we continue through the educational institutions to talk to our young people. I think that's the medium.
Our faith community and our youth organizations have a responsibility with regard to the information they receive, but again it has to be coordinated. So I think Veterans Affairs has to make an effort to make sure our schools are supplied with the necessary resources to be able to talk to these young Canadians who are coming in, so they are aware of the true history of this country instead of not seeing themselves represented in the military. They'll see the contributions of Canadians from the past who have been involved in exploits and done great work. I think that has to come to the forefront now.
I think we start with our education system. We start with our community centres. Again, they would receive a package from Veterans Affairs to say, “This is the true mosaic of Canada; these are the contributions of various individuals, whether you are from India, whether you are from South America. You've come to this country and you've contributed. Whether you're from China or Korea, you've made contributions to this country.” I think it's important that those recognitions be brought forward.
What has to be put forward is an education piece that is concise and accurate and that is not missing information. It must be clear and consistent with the website information that gets transferred, and I think it's easily done. I think if the information is already there, it has to be packaged and marketed so individuals can, on a daily basis, pick up a book or go to the website or be inspired in some way by seeing some sort of a plaque or by going to a commemorative event that recognizes these contributions. These things will engage our young people and encourage them.