Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Winnipeg North.
I would also like to thank my colleague across the aisle who moved that we have this debate this morning, as I do feel that there are still a few words to be said regarding the matter of an independent military honours review board.
On April 15, the day e-petition 6661 was presented to the House of Commons, I was pleased to welcome to Ottawa veterans of the Afghanistan war along with parliamentarians from the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, my colleague across the aisle, the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party. Representatives of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs and the Senate of Canada were also present. Together we heard from David Mack, a leader with the organization Valour in the Presence of the Enemy.
David reflected that resolving an important matter often takes a village, as the expression goes. He went on to say that in the case of the Victoria Cross cause, at the heart of the village has been a fire that has burned hot for six years, enduring setbacks and disappointments, surviving the moments when progress seemed to move two steps forward and one step back. That fire has been Bruce Moncur, whose name we have heard mentioned here this morning, a veteran whom many people describe as unrelenting and unyielding in his pursuit of justice.
On April 15, Bruce recounted how he had woken after being thrown by a bomb explosion in Afghanistan. The first thing he did was check his legs, then his arms. Relieved, he cupped his hands to his face, only to see them filled with blood. Bruce had lost part of his skull and brain. Back in Canada, he had to relearn how to walk and speak. Through determination and perseverance, he rebuilt his life and eventually returned to the classroom as a teacher. To this day, he is a great teacher, in Manitoba, I believe.
Bruce is a man who has given everything to the Victoria Cross cause to ensure that acts of extraordinary courage are properly recognized and that the stories of Afghanistan veterans are never forgotten. Bruce recently wrote:
I gave this cause my soul.
Not a piece of it. Not the part that was left over
after everything else was done.
All of it.
The hours no one counted.
The calls made at midnight.
The letters rewritten and rewritten.
The years when no one was listening....
I bled for this country once on a mountainside in Afghanistan
and thought that was the end.
It was not the end.
It was the beginning of something
I [simply at that point] did not yet have words for.
Six years ago I found the words.
I found them in the story of a boy from Restoule
who lay broken in the Afghan dust
and kept fighting.
I found them in the oral histories
of Haudenosaunee warriors
who carried eleven men to safety
across a mile of Belgian mud.
I found them in the grave inscriptions
of Métis snipers
whose comrades wrote in the dirt above them
that it must have been a damn good sniper
that finally got him.
I found them in the eyes of mothers
who outlived their sons [and daughters].
In the silence of families
who kept the letters.
Who kept the medals.
Who kept the faith....
These soldiers carried their countries
across impossible ground.
Today, on behalf of the House, I think it is fair to say that we thank Bruce Moncur for his words and for every hour he devoted to this cause: every post; every letter; every sleepless night, I assume; and every morning when he got up and did it all again. I still remember when he said that he took on this cause:
not because I was asked.
but because someone had to.
Because a boy from Restoule
lay alone in the Afghan dust
with a broken back
and kept fighting.
If he could do that
I could do this.
Those words remind us that perseverance is not measured in comfort but in commitment. They remind us that remembrance is not passive; it requires action. I really like that. They remind us that the stories of courage, sacrifice and service entrusted to us by Canada's veterans must never be forgotten, just like the unknown soldier's eternal flame.
I hope we can all draw inspiration from Bruce's own story and from David's own words as we embark on the important work of establishing the independent review board, which includes setting the assessment criteria, selecting the right members and establishing a decision‑making process. Moving forward, strict accountability and transparency will be what measures that the job gets done and gets done properly.