Transport committee  Captain Bender, with his research, is certainly the best person to ask. I know that he was saying before that there were nine Canadian wrecks, and that up to 1,200 lives had been lost. These are just Canadian wrecks. I couldn't necessarily comment on the broader issue on the ocea

Transport committee  If I may add to that, sir, I know that in the U.K. legislation there is actually a definition for what military service is. As Captain Bender was saying, you could take that definition of what military service is and apply it to the merchant vessels to determine if they were in m

Transport committee  Thank you for your question, Ms. Sansoucy. One of the things that becomes a problem when you group ocean war graves under general heritage designations is that you might end up with a situation where someone who desecrates an ocean war grave would only be committing a regulatory

Transport committee  I'll leave it there.

Transport committee  Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to appear on the topic of protection for Canada's ocean war graves. Before I begin my remarks, I must acknowledge the presence of merchant navy Captain Paul Bender, whom I'm honoured to be sitting with today.

Transport committee  With the cost of sport diving and just general salvaging decreasing, absolutely. I think that's why, in the past decade, we've seen ships that have remained undisturbed for the previous 50 or 60 years all of a sudden disappearing.

Transport committee  The only thing I might add, which Captain Bender has raised, is that when it comes to the vessels themselves, the idea to provide protection isn't necessarily to preserve them. We're not talking about maintenance for the vessels. We're not talking about adding additional costs. I

Transport committee  The U.K. has what's known as their Protection of Military Remains Act. It was enacted in 1986 and they provide protection not only for their ships, but for German U-boats in the same waters. As Captain Bender has found, you could go to the same geographic area, and you'd have p

Transport committee  An example would be France, and in fact through Captain Bender's work, France actually now provides protection to one of our own ships under their heritage code. It's not something that is totally foreign, and Canada wouldn't be the first nation providing it. In fact, we're proba

Transport committee  This is actually part of the issue. In the protection that exists under Canadian waters the closest thing we come to are the heritage protections under the Canada Shipping Act.

Transport committee  There are 480 souls and 19 wrecks, as the admiral was saying. The problem, of course, that we run into is that section 7 of the Canada Shipping Act excludes warships from anything in the act. For the merchant navy vessels, for example, if tomorrow the minister were to come out

Transport committee  I'll just add to what the admiral is saying that one of the things Captain Bender has stressed in his own work is that even these other acts don't necessarily provide a concrete definition for what an ocean war grave is. In France, for example, you're taking heritage law and prot

Transport committee  When I look at subsection 163(2) of the Canada Shipping Act—and this came from a conversation with Captain Bender—there is a provision that allows the minister to designate vessels as having heritage status. The problem with this is that, federally, there is no actual protection

Transport committee  Madam Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to contribute to the committee's study on Bill C-64, the wrecked, abandoned and hazardous vessels act, with a specific focus on the need to provide protection for Canada's ocean war graves. Before I begin my re

Transport committee  Thank you, Chair. My name is Patrick White, and I am the Founder and Executive Director of Project Naval Distinction.