Veterans Affairs committee  We often reach out to ESL and LINC classes as much as we can to talk about certain issues that relate to new Canadians. We've had veterans go in to speak to them--a much different kind of audience--about the war. So it's not about bombing missions and troop movements; it's more about why they joined up and what it meant to go over there to represent Canada and fight for freedom.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. More and more, it seems, we get interest from women veterans who want to be involved in telling their story, and it's for that reason: they don't feel that young people know about it, or that young people think they know the “veterans story”, which often comes from a male perspective.

Veterans Affairs committee  Remembering the post-Korean war veteran is a really important point. With Veterans Affairs Canada and the contribution agreement that we're in the middle of right now, in our second year of a three-year agreement, the focus over that three years is to engage more post-Korean war veterans to become speakers in the speakers' bureau and to at the same time encourage teachers to request those same veterans to come into their classrooms.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. We've done one in Sault Ste. Marie before now. I think the concept works best with the smaller or mid-sized communities. This past summer, we tried to target communities that would act as hubs. So we'd bring together surrounding communities from London or around Hamilton or around Windsor and incorporate them into the planning of the event.

Veterans Affairs committee  Great.

Veterans Affairs committee  Once again, thanks for having us here today. It's great to be here. I'm going to give you a brief overview of some of the core veteran initiatives that we work on daily at the Historica-Dominion Institute. First and foremost is the Memory Project Speakers' Bureau, a program that started in 2001 with about a dozen veterans in Toronto.