Evidence of meeting #9 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cadets.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Army Cadet League of Canada
In Buckingham, the army still has a cadet corps. They will participate in every parade
at the cenotaph ceremony in Buckingham. There will be a contingent of cadets here in Ottawa at the national war museum. They will also be doing a commemoration at the Beechwood Cemetery. In Winnipeg, Manitoba, there's a war memorial there where a large contingent of cadets will parade, as well as in Regina, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and
in every Canadian town and village.
NDP
Réjean Genest NDP Shefford, QC
As you know, in Quebec, the sovereignist movement has caused cadet corps to practically disappear. A few remain, but they are rare. There is only one corps in my riding.
Which group or which movement could encourage the establishment of other cadet corps? Could the Legion help us in this matter?
This is unfortunate because this activity provides young people who wish to excel themselves with an exceptional opportunity to do so.
Executive Director, Army Cadet League of Canada
Yes.
Each Quebec region is different. The Army Cadet Corps are supported mainly by service clubs, such as the Kiwanis or Optimist clubs. Clubs such as these support the cadet corps, not the Legion.
I don't think they're in danger of disappearing.
For example, in Chicoutimi, there is a high school that...
I'm going to stick to English. It will be simpler for everyone.
Executive Director, Army Cadet League of Canada
There's an école secondaire up there that wants to do a program, in the same way that they have sports programs in some schools in Quebec where they'll play hockey in the afternoon and do their studies in the morning, where they'll do classical studies in the morning and then cadet subjects of expedition, drill, and all this kind of stuff with the kids in the afternoon.
Quebec has a mix of different attitudes in different regions. It's hard to say this is going to happen or that's going to happen. It's different in each unit.
Conservative
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
Thank you very much for your wonderful passion and for the great work the cadets do. In fact, in Mississauga they're incredibly active. We've got the Avro Arrows down in southern Mississauga. We've got some wonderful young women who are very active there. We've got the Streetsville cadets, and they're terribly active. They'll come out to all sorts of community events, and they're just wonderful go-getters.
Parents do come forward to speak to all of us to say how meaningful the cadet program is and how revolutionary it really is in these young lives. It teaches these kids leadership, brings them out of their shells, and encourages them to bond.
The work you and your entire team do is just so appreciated throughout our community, so thank you.
Thank you, also, for your passion for Oscar Peterson, who is from Mississauga. He is a wonderful....
He absolutely is, Mr. Stoffer.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
We are terribly proud of him. He's a wonderful Canadian treasure.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
We are so honoured to have had him in Mississauga, and we certainly pay tribute to his wonderful accomplishments.
I'd like to ask you, though, if there's any special commemoration amongst cadets that you have in mind as the centennial of the First World War approaches, and if there's anything that you could recommend to us, as the federal government, as to what we might be doing.
Executive Director, Army Cadet League of Canada
Frankly, I haven't thought that far ahead, myself.
The commemoration of the War of 1812 is coming up very quickly, and there are events all over southern Ontario.
We were concentrating on getting this commemoration of the Battle of Vimy Ridge going, because it's something that the army cadets can latch onto. The air cadets commemorate the Battle of Britain and the sea cadets commemorate the Battle of the Atlantic, but up until this point, the army cadets really had nothing in that regard. Now we have this Battle of Vimy Ridge, and we're kind of concentrating on that. But we are aware, in the background, that the anniversary of 1914 is coming up and we will do something, but we haven't made any plans yet.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Just to interject, we're going to confirm that those are actually the bells calling. It would be rather early because the House has just started.
November 3rd, 2011 / 10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Mr. Chair, they're 30-minute bells. We only have 10 minutes of questioning left. If it's the will of the committee—and we need unanimous consent—perhaps we could at least finish our 10 minutes with Mr. Whitty.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Actually they are 30-minute bells, and they have started.
Is it the will of the committee to stay on for a few more minutes to finish off with the witness?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you very much, Mr. Stoffer.
Ms. Adams, you have another minute or so.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
You are probably very experienced in reaching out to youth through social media. Could you tell us what you have found to be successful and that we might be able to replicate, as we encourage Canadians across the country to commemorate the great service of our veterans going into the 21st century?
Executive Director, Army Cadet League of Canada
You have to develop programs that can flow out on all media. There is no one media. We use Facebook, but we also realize that teenagers use it as a social entity; it's more of a gossip column than anything else. Twitter is not bad. Websites are old stuff. But there are different types of kids and adults who monitor each of these different types of media, so you have to hit them all.
Conservative
Executive Director, Army Cadet League of Canada
Yes, we do. We put everything up on Facebook, Twitter, websites—as much as we can. We hit them all.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
What about our newer veterans, those who have fought in Afghanistan and so on? What more could we be doing to honour their service?
