Evidence of meeting #46 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was remembrance.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Communications Manager, York Catholic District School Board
No. We feel that our students have an excellent opportunity to learn and prepare for assemblies for Remembrance Day. We invite veterans to speak to them about what Remembrance Day means to them and why, and our students learn a great deal from the experience.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Peter Stoffer
Thank you very much.
Now we move on to Mr. Opitz, please, for five minutes.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here. I truly appreciate it.
I share everybody's confusion on this, but there's one thing I'm not confused about. I know everybody around this table cares deeply about veterans, they care deeply about remembrance, and if we didn't, we wouldn't be so engaged in this discussion today. So thank you all for your concern for veterans.
I'm going to start with Ms. Gallo. We've gone around talking about legal versus statutory, and so forth, but I'd like to talk about effects. One of the things we do in the military is talk about effects-based things. I'd like your opinion on the effect of keeping kids in school, the effect that a veteran or somebody knowledgeable would bring to the table, and the effect on these kids, not only immediately, right after they get their presentation, but throughout the rest of the school year and as they progress through the grades.
Can you maybe comment on what you may have observed as to the level of understanding and comprehension of students about the actual meaning of Remembrance Day?
Communications Manager, York Catholic District School Board
We think the effects are profound and it varies from grade to grade. We teach our youngest students, and as they move up to the older grades, we have our high school students right now creating walls of remembrance where they're asked to research individuals who have made an impact in wars and the like. With those walls of remembrance, they then pay tribute and post information on those walls. We've gained much media attention from that, and those specific learning opportunities do stay with the students.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
That's great. What you're saying as well, then, is that it's not just passively sitting back, listening, and absorbing the information, it's also the walls of remembrance. They actively go forth and research the information.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
That's great. That was part of my job when I worked at Canadian Forces College, to rally, not only other regiments but my fellow staff members, and get them out to the schools. It was always, I thought, very valuable to have current veterans there in concert with previous veterans and the Legion.
I'm going to give a shout-out to the Legion because I've used, year after year, the packages and the materials that are produced by the Legion, and I think they're absolutely outstanding for the children. I always tend to want to look at the effectiveness of this.
Do you have any comment on the Legion packages that come to schools? Do you find them effective?
Communications Manager, York Catholic District School Board
Absolutely. We use those as additional material to supplement what we're teaching in our curriculum about Remembrance Day.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
That's great. What about kids from other cultures? Some kids' parents may have come from places where they fear their militaries. I've run into that at times as I've gone in as a soldier to talk to kids on Remembrance Day, and on other occasions, by the way. Sometimes I found there was a little trepidation on their part when they saw a uniformed individual, especially in a military uniform. Do you have any comment on what kids of immigrant families might find when they participate in this program, when they create the wall of remembrance, and if you've observed it, possibly the impact on their parents?
Communications Manager, York Catholic District School Board
We use that as an opportunity. A lot of what happens is in our classrooms, especially with a student in the younger grades who might feel that sense of trepidation. We do a lot of inquiry-based learning, so teachers are trained to take the lead if a student is feeling like that. We address those queries head on with those children, but we use it as an opportunity to relay the information with respect to our nation.
Conservative
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Peter Stoffer
Thank you, Mr. Opitz.
I now just have a quick question for anyone who may answer this.
Before it was called Armistice Day. Does anyone know when it was changed to Remembrance Day? The actual wording? I just throw that out there for anyone who does know. It's just something curious, I think. I still speak to some veterans who call it Armistice Day. I leave it with you.
For everyone who's listening, we have one of the smartest people in all of Ottawa right here, our analyst. He is chomping at the bit. He's analyzed the bill. He's followed this debate quite carefully, to the best of his ability.
Mr. Jean-Rodrigue Paré would like to give a clarification on statutory, legal, and everything else. By the way, we refer to him an awful lot in many of our reports. So, sir, you have two minutes for the floor.
Committee Researcher
First, the federal Parliament does not have the constitutional power to legislate on holidays for all businesses. It has the power to legislate on federal employees and employees in businesses under federal legislation. Even if it wished, it could not impose statutory holidays for businesses, schools, and things like that. It does not have the power. It would make the bill unconstitutional.
It can legislate only on its own employees, and the federal employees already have Remembrance Day as a statutory holiday, as a day off, so that does not change anything here. The provinces would have to adopt a specific bill for their own businesses and schools to implement something that would make it a statutory holiday and define what it means for them. The federal Parliament does not have the power to legislate this.
The problem with the Holidays Act is that there is a distinction between “legal holiday” and “holiday”. For 25 years, the courts have been saying that the difference does not have any legal consequences. Because these differences in language are actualized and implemented in other legislation and in all other federal or provincial legislation, it doesn't make a difference.
If you read the Holidays Act, you see the confusion. You could think there might be a difference between “legal holiday” and “holiday”. The courts have said there is no difference, really. There are no legal consequences. The confusion would remain if somebody reads the act and thinks there must be a difference because there is “legal holiday” and there is “holiday”. In fact, there are no legal consequences to that.
Therefore, the consequence the bill would have is to remove the possibility of confusion in the reading, but this would not have any legal consequences.
Conservative
Diane Ablonczy Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Mr. Chair, I am happy to advise you that Armistice Day became Remembrance Day in 1931, about the time you and I were born.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Peter Stoffer
Ms. Ablonczy, thank you very much. You are a great addition to our committee, by the way.
To our witnesses and to Ms. Gallo out in video land, on behalf of our esteemed colleague Monsieur Royal Galipeau, who couldn't be with us, we want to thank all of you very much for appearing before the committee to give us your testimony and to take time out of your busy schedules to help us in our deliberations on this bill.
We are going to close down for about one minute to say goodbye to our witnesses, and then we have to come back immediately to discuss what we'll do, moving this bill back to the other committee.
We have one minute to say goodbye to our witnesses, and then I ask everybody to be back in their seats in 60 seconds.
Thank you, all, very much.
Conservative
