Veterans Affairs committee  I think what we need to do is to stress exactly why the memorials are here, but to make reference to what could happen if you disrespect it would not be the way to go.

Veterans Affairs committee  From a service perspective, the main goal of Legion branches is to support veterans with the care they need. We are blessed by the generosity of Canadians to have poppy funds available to provide that emergency assistance to veterans who find themselves in need. That is the core

Veterans Affairs committee  Throughout the pandemic, I continue to be impressed by the ingenuity of Legion branches across the country. Currently, as of last week, 7% of our branches still have not opened since March 2020, 27% of our branches are fully open and the rest to varying degrees, so the pandemic i

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. Having a base knowledge, that main level of understanding, is important. This supplements or enhances that. That speaks to what John McCrae talked about in his poem In Flanders Fields—passing the torch. You're passing on information. You're passing on lived experience

Veterans Affairs committee  Definitely. The Legion has been involved in a couple of instances exactly as you explained, but you added on a very good point that I did not. It's great that the individual understands from the personal perspective of veterans what they've gone through, but then they go back and

Veterans Affairs committee  It would be very productive, if it could be done to say that in addition, along with or instead of a financial penalty, there would be a requirement that the individual spend time with a veterans' organization or a school or a veteran. That could be very easily set up, and I thin

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. You have to look back at when the government first started the competition to construct this memorial back in 1925. Their vision at that time was to keep alive the spirit of heroism and self-sacrifice. They wanted it to represent everything that was noble and great, e

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. In fact, we heard from our Legion OSI special section about that very thing. That memorial stands for all who have served and fallen in military service. It's not for one particular mission or war. Of late, with the war in Afghanistan, we've seen 40,000 Canadian Armed

Veterans Affairs committee  No.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. Preparedness is key. Take a look at previous large-scale occupations or protests, for example, in 2002, the G8 “take the streets” Ottawa protest. We would have learned from that. Policing agencies would have learned. Apply what you've learned.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's an interesting question, but I have to say one thing about that. The monument was extremely heavy, so to topple it was a deliberate act. The outpouring of support from the community to help restore, replace and shore up that memorial was simply outstanding. One thing that

Veterans Affairs committee  I would not want to see anything permanent put in place. Again, remembrances are very personal expressions of honour and thanks. We don't want to do anything that's permanent. Having signage in place would help. We need to focus also on education. Veterans Affairs Canada does a s

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. The Legion produces every year a teaching guide. We make it available to teachers across the country to talk about the importance of various remembrance initiatives and symbols, with memorials being one. We have been asked from time to time if memorials glorify war. T

Veterans Affairs committee  It comes down to priority. The priority at the time was making sure the memorial was safe so that in the future, in the very near future, we would all have free access to be able to pay our respects in the way that we would personally choose to. As a temporary measure, it was im

Veterans Affairs committee  A lot of it comes down to education and awareness. We have to do a better job of educating. It starts with youth and making sure that the public is aware. In a perfect world, there would be a federal department that would look after the curriculum in schools across the country, b