Minister of Veterans Affairs
Encounters with Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
November 28, 2011
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Thank you Derek.
Madame Brunet [Linda Brunet, Director General, Encounters with Canada],
Youth and staff of the Historica-Dominion Institute,
Good afternoon and thank you sincerely for inviting me to take part in your wartime lunch today.
The ‘Canada Remembers’ Theme week gives you an opportunity to step back in time and experience something of what it was like for Canadian soldiers during the Second World War.
And the lunch we’ll be having in a few minutes reflects the sacrifices of those Canadians who stayed at home to work the farms and the factories and run the hospitals. It’s a modest lunch and that allowed essential foods to be rationed and sent to our troops on the front lines.
As you’ve participated in activities this week, I’m sure you’ve collected countless images and stories that you’ll take home with you.
But one question I believe you need to ask yourself is simple: How will you remember?
How will you remember the men and women who are Canada’s Veterans?
This week—Veterans’ Week—their heroism and their sacrifices for our country are front and centre.
As Canadians, we have a responsibility to remember, not just during Veterans’ Week, but throughout the entire year.
And it’s through you, and other young people across Canada, that the sacrifices and achievements of all those who have served our country will stay alive.
This concept of remembrance can seem a bit abstract. How can we remember those who lived and died almost 100 years ago?
What do their actions mean for us today?
If you’re like me, it is the personal stories that make it real.
Tomorrow will be my first National Remembrance Day Ceremony as Minister of Veterans Affairs.
During my first months in this position, I’ve had the privilege to meet and spend time with many Veterans, from the most senior—those who had meals just like this one—to men and women not much older than you who have served our country in Afghanistan.
Regardless of when or where they served, they have something in common.
The men and women who have served our country gave selflessly for our freedom . . . some at the price of their lives.
We are forever grateful. And our solemn promise is to always remember their sacrifices.
Through memory we repay what they gave for us.
How we remember them changes with time.
When I was your age, I could still look across the ranks gathered at the cenotaph on Remembrance Day and see the weathered faces of Veterans of the First World War.
They’re all gone now.
How will you remember them?
The ranks of those who ate meals like the one we share today are rapidly thinning.
How will you remember them?
We hope that you will remember them, and the Veterans who have come after them, by sharing what you’ve learned this week.
We encourage you to use the social media tools we’ve set up. Express your feelings about remembrance by using the DVD we’ve created to create your own video, Web page or Facebook page.
Use your own Facebook or Twitter accounts to post reflections or commemoration-related photos.
Or replace your Facebook profile picture with the image of a poppy for Remembrance Day.
The mobile app we’ve created gives you a direct link to the Veterans Affairs Web site, where there’s a wealth of information on our programs and services, as well as other ways that you can express and share your feelings.
However you choose to remember Canada’s Veterans, you’ll be doing your part in ensuring we never forget the sacrifices they made.
And you’ll be sharing the message of remembrance throughout your own networks.
Together, we can ensure that—in the immortal words of soldier-poet Colonel John McCrae—we do not “break faith” with those who died so that we could live in freedom.
This year, make remembrance more than something you feel.
Make remembrance something you do.
Lest we forget.
