Veterans Affairs Committee on Oct. 6th, 2011

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Excellent. One of the things that I'm already interested in is...I think we need to do a better job telling the story of some of the Victoria Cross recipients. You mentioned that, Mr. Whitham. Can you tell us what you are planning to do there and how we can make sure that kids in school hear these stories? They're great stories about Canadians.

[James Whitham]

We're trying to find different ways to present these heroic tales of Canadians who have been awarded Victoria Crosses. Right now we're just feeling out a couple of different proposals, so I really don't have anything concrete. But we want to tell not just the story of the Victoria Crosses within the museum but the ones that Canada has and that have been awarded throughout the wars. So we're still trying to find whether that is best as an online database, with biographies and stories and images, or as a smaller travelling venue. We're still looking at that.

One of the things we're going to try with the War of 1812 is to make a portion of it for travel, but smaller in size to allow it to go to more locations.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

When you do know concretely what you're doing, can you make sure the committee gets a copy of that information?

[James Whitham]

Yes, sir.

[Yasmine Mingay]

Just one quick thing. We've undertaken a wonderful initiative, and I think it's the start of something we'll be working on across the country. Not only do we work with the curriculum in order to match up and work with teachers, but we're partnering with the Ottawa 67s in a few short weeks. On November 7, they're presenting a game day based on remembrance for 10,000 school kids in the region. They're working with the Ottawa school boards in order to bring these kids out for a game, and the entire theme of everything they're doing is remembrance.

For that, we actually created a cartoon of the Valour Road story, which obviously highlights the Victoria Crosses given out to those three individuals on Valour Road. We have just created that now as a document that belongs to the museum. It's a cartoon that tells the story, and it really reaches out to kids. The series of pages we've created will also soon be available online for others to download and incorporate the stories of Victoria Crosses and other stories into their day-to-day activities in schools.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thanks very much.

We'll now go to Mr. Casey.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I don't have any questions, but I would like to thank you for being here today and congratulate you on your terrific work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you, Mr. Casey.

Now we'll go to Mr. Lobb for five minutes.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thank you very much for attending today.

You touched on attendance. I was curious about whether you could update the committee on approximately how many people would go through your doors every year.

[James Whitham]

We plateau at approximately 450,000 visitors yearly. We opened in 2005 and had a large attendance. Usually after the first couple of years the attendance falls off, but we've actually come to a nice level of approximately 450,000 visitors to the site a year.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

That's pretty good. That's probably more people than the Atlanta Thrashers had go through their gates last year. You're right up there with some of the NHL teams.

Of the 450,000, do you guys do as best you can to track what the demographics are as far as age goes? Could you tell us what that breakdown is?

[Yasmine Mingay]

The age demographic has actually quite evened out throughout. We do monitor all of that. We monitor whether they are Canadian citizens who live in the national capital region, or people who come from the outside, or international visitors. What I can tell you is that 75% of our visitors, give or take, are Canadians from outside the national capital region.

That speaks a little bit perhaps also to your question as to how.... The message is out there. People know we are here, and they want to learn. Many of them have a personal connection, as many of you around this table do.

So 75% are from outside the national capital region. We have a very large number of students that come. Many of them come in school groups because of our curriculum-based programs. If any of you do come and visit during May and June, you will have to manoeuvre your way through masses of school kids, which is wonderful. It's part of what we do, and it's part of what we are supposed to do. Again, there are age ranges.

I have one story. A gentleman came with his daughter and his father-in-law the other day. His daughter learned about the ravages of war and all of its elements. The grandfather of that child, his grandfather was in the Cameron Highlanders, so for him the experience was connected to his own personal history. The father of the daughter is actually a major who serves in the military, and he was very moved, again, by the experience. Each of them was coming from a different perspective. Each was taking away from the museum Canadian military history and was affected by it.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Your website is quite good as well. I was wondering if you could tell the committee approximately how many people a year would look at your website.

[Yasmine Mingay]

I don't have that, unfortunately, off the top of my head. I can get back to you with that. I don't have that number.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

The education link is quite good. How do you decide how that's going to evolve on the educational front?

[James Whitham]

The education portion, on the website or when you come for a tour, is a group effort. It's put together by historians, interpretative planners, programmers, and a wide range of people. They kind of refine the material before it goes online to make sure it hits what we want, the key messages we want. We have groups that look at it to make sure it speaks to the individuals or to a certain curricula or teaching base. It's a long process of taking the raw information and making sure that students and teachers can understand it, because what a historian will look at and read doesn't necessarily always hit what a student or teacher would really want to hit. It's a combined effort to present it.

[Yasmine Mingay]

We work very closely with the curriculum across different provinces, as you can imagine. The War Museum is part of the Museum of Civilization Corporation, as many of you know. We have a group within that who work with schools across the country, and they push material out into the schools. We also meet with individuals across the country in order to fine-tune the material, as Jim was saying, to match it with the curriculum and the right age group. A seven-year-old will obviously take in material differently than a 15-year-old will.

We work with educators in order to provide them with the tools they need, based on our scholarships. That's the connection. But obviously, as Jim was saying, the material needs to be tailored to the age groups. We work closely with educators across the country to be able to do that.

We certainly are seeing our website and our website content growing, as are most of our websites.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Papillon, for five minutes.

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

I visited the museum several years ago, but I think I will go back soon. I was actually speaking with some veterans in Quebec, and they asked me if I had noticed some things in particular when I was there. So I decided that I would go back to see those things specifically, military vehicles and such.

Are you doing anything special on November 11?

In addition, would it be possible to build an exhibit around the personal experiences and stories of actual veterans, something more interactive?

[Yasmine Mingay]

We would be delighted to have you back for a second visit.

You touched on two very important points. We have the good fortune of having veterans assist us in our efforts through Friends of the Canadian War Museum, an organization made up of veterans and citizens. Many of its members are veterans, and they spend hours upon hours in our permanent exhibition galleries sharing their stories, so we can encourage discussion with young students.

When you can speak to somebody and learn from their personal experience, it makes all the difference.

You are right, and we do offer that. I hope that you will let me know when you are coming. You could talk to those veterans and hear what they have to say.

What was the second question?

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

I was wondering if you were doing anything special this Remembrance Day.

[Yasmine Mingay]

We have put together a special schedule for the first two weeks of November. On Friday, November 11, we will be offering some very rich programming in both official languages. You mentioned Valcartier. This year, we are lucky enough to be working with the NFB. Just a few days ago, we put the finishing touches on a documentary about Valcartier's Royal 22^e Régiment to mark the anniversary, and we will be showing the film to the public. It is amazing. The documentary is in French with English subtitles. That will be the first in a series of scheduled events designed to highlight the role played by veterans in recent conflicts. Showcasing our military history is important, but it is also important to highlight the efforts of our veterans in more recent conflicts.

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

You have a bit more time, if you want it.