The MPP for Whitby.

I will be splitting my time with the member from Kanata–Carleton. It’s a great honour to speak this afternoon in support of Bill 65, the Honouring Our Veterans Act. I want to thank very much the member for Whitby for bringing it forward.

The bill introduced by the member from Whitby is a simple one, yet it is an extraordinarily meaningful way to show our gratitude and respect for the sacrifices of our veterans. It is a way to acknowledge the debt we owe to those who fought for our freedom, for democracy and for human rights. It’s a way to honour their legacy and ensure that their stories are never forgotten.

Madam Speaker, generations of young men and women travelled abroad to defend our way of life and our allies from tyranny and oppression. In fact, more than 100,000 Canadians have made the ultimate sacrifice in armed conflict and many, many more have been wounded, many with injuries we can see and, as we learn more and more about trauma, many more with injuries we cannot.

We mustn’t forget the sacrifices of these brave men and women and we mustn’t also forget the sacrifices of their families. Families feel the pain of absence, the stress of the unknown, the potential for danger and, of course, they must manage the challenges of injuries and the anguish of death. By observing two minutes of silence in this House, we are joining millions of Canadians across the country who pause at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to pay tribute to our heroes.

As many of you know, the community of Orléans is affectionately referred to as CFB Orléans—Canadian Forces Base Orléans—because of the great number of residents who are current or past members of the Canadian Forces, as well as those dedicated public servants who work at the Department of National Defence. Our community is proud and honoured to be home to so many active reserve and retired members, many of whom have served in both peacekeeping and active conflicts overseas.

These men and women are our neighbours. They coach hockey and football. They volunteer at the resource centre or at their church, their temple or their mosque. They contribute to our vibrant community life in innumerable ways. For this, I and all Orléans residents are extraordinarily grateful.

In fact, it might be suggested that Orléans was founded by a veteran. In 1830, François Dupuis, who was widely believed to be one of the original if not the original settler of Orléans, was granted 100 acres by the crown in recognition of his contributions at the Battle of Châteauguay in the War of 1812. From that, he and his wife and his 10 children encouraged francophones from across the Dominion to settle in Orléans and establish what is now the vibrant bilingual community that I’m so proud to represent.

I would suggest, Madam Speaker, that most Orléans residents have a family member or close connection to the Canadian Forces. I personally would like to thank my neighbours Gord and Dot, both of whom served in the Canadian Forces and who are the most generous, thoughtful and friendly neighbours anyone can hope for. My family is very proud of my brother’s own service. He joined the reserves in college. He fought in Afghanistan, served in peacekeeping operations in the Middle East and has built a career in the Canadian Forces, like so many of our neighbours.

Madam Speaker, in recent years, east Ottawa, Orléans, and Cumberland have seen first-hand the professionalism of our reserve army. During the devastating flooding in 2019, reservists were deployed from across Ontario to help residents in Cumberland protect and save their homes from the devastating flooding of the Ottawa River.

As we approach Remembrance Day and Veterans’ Week, I’m very proud to say that the community of Orléans is home to the second largest Remembrance Day ceremony in eastern Ontario, only outdone by the national ceremony which takes place at the National War Memorial. Thousands of Orléans residents attend the ceremony hosted by Royal Canadian Legion Branch 632. Our Legion in Orléans is a vibrant one, with dedicated volunteers and leaders. They play a critical role in supporting our veterans, and I can’t forget the incredible work that they do to distribute poppies in our community and ensure that our neighbours and friends never forget.

Madam Speaker, Remembrance Day is not just a date on the calendar. It is a solemn occasion to reflect on the costs of war. So let’s remember the courage and commitment of those who have served and continue to serve in uniform, and the grief and hardship of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and that of their loved ones. It’s time to renew our pledge to say “never again” and that we’ll never forget.

It’s an honour today to rise and speak in support of Bill 65, the Honouring Our Veterans Act, and I want to express my deep gratitude to the member for Whitby for bringing this bill forward. It’s an appropriate bill to bring all members of this House together to honour our veterans, and I think it’s important for us as members of this Legislature to observe two minutes of silence to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice serving our country and make the opportunity available for members to give speeches.

I know one of the most memorable things I’ve had the honour of doing in this House as a party leader is to rise and be one of those members who have the opportunity to honour our veterans on this floor. I think it’s important that all members have that opportunity to show our deep gratitude to our veterans and to their families. So I want to thank the member from Whitby for providing us with that opportunity through this bill.

Remembrance Week and Remembrance Day are truly meaningful moments each and every year, and it’s always an honour to stand with our veterans, our first responders and their families to honour them on Remembrance Day as we pay tribute to the sacrifices they’ve made, both seen and unseen.

I’m particularly honoured to be representing the riding of Guelph, the home riding of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, who was born on November 30, 1872. Last year, we had the honour of honouring the 150th birthday of John McCrae, and we’re blessed in Guelph to have our Royal Canadian Legion branch named in Lieutenant Colonel McCrae’s honour.

He volunteered in World War I at the age of 41 and was quoted as saying in a letter, “I am really rather afraid, but more afraid to stay at home with my conscience.” So, at 41, he went to Europe to fight for Canada, to fight for all Canadians.

In 1915, on May 3, he witnessed one of his best friends being killed in battle. He woke up in the next morning and he wrote this famous Canadian poem, and I’ve always had moments in the House to read bits and pieces of it, but I’ve never had enough time read it in full, I’m going to today in honour of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Speaker, when I put my poppy on this Friday and go to the Legion for the annual raising of the poppy flag and the launch of the poppy campaign in Guelph and in communities across Ontario and around this country, I’ll of course be thinking of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae and all veterans, and I ask all Ontarians to support and participate in the poppy campaigns because the money that our Legions raise through those campaigns are more than an offer of wearing something to honour veterans, but they provide funds to support veterans and their families.

As many of us know, fewer and fewer veterans are now members of our Royal Canadian Legion, so I also want to let my fellow Ontarians know that you don’t have to be a veteran to join the Legion. I’m not a veteran myself, but I’m a proud member of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 234. I encourage all Ontarians to join their local Legion and participate in the friendship and fellowship that our Legions offer their comrades.

I’m also a member of the Red Chevron Club Branch 4 in Guelph. There were four Red Chev clubs founded in the province of Ontario, in Toronto, Peterborough, London and Guelph. They were formed in World War I for veterans to have friendship and fellowship and a gathering place. I encourage all Ontarians to continue to support clubs like the Red Chev. Even though there aren’t many, we still have ours in Guelph.

I’m also going to think about my granddad, John Boyd. My middle name is John, named after my granddad. Sorry, I get emotional. He was a World War II vet. He was in the navy. He never wanted to talk about his service because it was too traumatic. I can’t imagine what he experienced, what he went through. I was lucky, because right before he passed away, I took the time, and he granted me the opportunity to tell his stories. So I recorded his stories, and I understood, in those moments when we talked, why he didn’t want to talk about it too much with his family, because he did not want them to know the horrors and the pain and the trauma he experienced. Even though my granddad was the gentlest, nicest person you would ever meet, he didn’t want people to know the anger he felt about what he saw and what he went through. And I think of so many veterans from so many wars and peacekeeping operations and military operations that have had that exact same experience.

So, when we remember and when we remain silent on the 11th day of the 11th month in the 11th hour, I’m going to be thinking and praying and offering gratitude to all the veterans and their families, because we also know their families made tremendous sacrifices. My grandma talked about the fact that she had never left home, and she went with my grandfather to his base for training and they got married right before he left. She’s like, “Jeez, how crazy is that? I’m going to marry this gentleman and he’s going to leave, and here I am stuck all alone in a little tiny apartment somewhere where I don’t even know anyone. But I wanted to be there for him. I wanted to be there to support his service. I wanted to be there to honour him.”

I know what kind of sacrifice families go through, and we as Ontarians and as Canadians benefit from that sacrifice. We live in the best province in the best country, the best place anywhere in the world we could live. We have democracy. We have freedom. We have the opportunity in this House to disagree and debate each other and have our moments. The reason we have those opportunities and the quality of life that we all have here is because people were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect us, to protect this place, to protect what we stand for and what we value.

I want to thank the member from Whitby for bringing this bill forward, and I hope all members in the House today and in years to come take the opportunity to tell their stories, to tell their families’ stories and express their gratitude for the veterans who have sacrificed so much so we could enjoy so much.

I want to thank the member for Whitby for bringing this forward to us to debate today, and it’s been to committee and such. This is a great opportunity to do something that is absolutely right for our veterans and those who serve.

I must say to my friend from Guelph, he’s not making my job any easier with his personal reflections because if I go that way, I’m going to have a little challenge myself. But I do want to say that Canadians and our record of standing for freedom and democracy and human rights and all of those things that we take for granted today, as the member from Guelph said—the freedom to differ in this chamber, the freedom to debate, the freedom to disagree, but also to be together on those issues where there is no disagreement.

I say, from Amiens to Afghanistan, from Passchendaele to peacekeeping, we have so much to be proud of for the men and women who have served in our armed forces. Particularly, we need to honour those who paid the ultimate price, made the ultimate sacrifice.

Quite frankly, Speaker, there is absolutely nothing we can do to repay them for what they have done, but this is an important and a significant gesture, to take a special time on the last sessional day before we recess for Remembrance Day to pay that tribute, to have that two minutes of silence and to then have representatives from each political party speak on behalf of their members to honour our veterans.

Of course, when I was a young boy, we were right on the main street of Barry’s Bay. The parades on Remembrance Day were something very special. We weren’t, at that time, dependent on current-serving members of the armed forces to come and populate the parade; we had enough veterans right at home. In fact, I remember that we actually had—I’ve been around long enough—veterans of the First World War marching in those parades. Of course, my father, who was a World War II veteran, was marching in those parades as well. He was, relatively speaking, a young man at that time.

So I’d see those parades, and then we’d have the wreath-laying ceremonies after that. After my dad passed away, I kind of lost maybe a little bit of a connection with that. He never, ever talked, as you said about your grandfather. But you did have that opportunity to sit down at some point. Maybe if my dad had lived longer, he may have softened to the point that he would have talked about it. But he didn’t, and I kind of lost maybe a little bit of a connection.

So how blessed am I to have been in a position where I could run for this office, run to be an MPP? Because during my first campaign and in the subsequent years since—I’m here 20 years now—I learned more about my father’s service in the Second World War certainly than I ever did from him, because I was graced with the opportunity to meet men who actually served with him overseas. Those were special moments, to sit down and talk to those other soldiers who served, particularly in the Glens, the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, of which my dad was a solider.

But of course, when I’m speaking to those veterans, they’re already in their eighties at that point. Most of them are gone now. But it gives you an insight maybe as to why your own father didn’t want to talk about it. As you said, maybe they just wanted to spare us from some of the most difficult parts. I know he did tell us one time that his best friend was killed next to him. That’s about all I ever got.

In those 20 years now, I’ve had that opportunity to rub shoulders, as my dad used to say, and interact with so many veterans. As the member for Kanata–Carleton said, there are fewer than 20,000 left—and, by the way, Roly Armitage, he’s a legend, not just for his military service, in other ways, as well. I was there, at the ceremony, when he was bestowed the Order of Ontario, so give him my best when you see him next. We’re all very proud of Roly Armitage.

But the other Roly Armitages of the world, those that I got to know in Renfrew county, and the veterans that didn’t serve with my dad, but, as you got to know and see and feel them, you understood how challenging and difficult it was—the life that they accepted, the life that they volunteered for.

If you look at the numbers, in the First World War, we sent almost 700,000—at that time, men—overseas. Our population was less than eight million. If you were of a certain age, on the high side, you weren’t going; if you were not above a certain age, on the low side, you weren’t going, and if you were required for essential industries—the country still had to run. So think of the sacrifice and the commitment of Canada at that time, out of that population, that almost 700,000 people volunteered to go for service.

So then you ask yourself, “What can we do to make it special?” Well, something that is happening today is what my friend from Whitby is doing. When I look at my Legions today—there’s eight of them in my riding and I’ve been at every single one of them for more than one remembrance service, because I’ve been around for a while—and you have that moment and those ceremonies, when you do reflect on the approximately—there’s no exact numbers—but the 65,000 that were killed in World War I and about 45,000 that were killed in World War II, and what that sacrifice has meant for us—not just the freedom to debate in this chamber, but the privilege of living in what is, I think in the minds of all of us, truly the greatest country in the world and the best country in the world to live in, and we owe so much of that to those people who came before us.

In the last couple of years, or few years—in some areas, maybe sooner—and post-pandemic, our Legions have had some struggles. They were really, really, really hurting through the pandemic. And, post-pandemic, it’s been harder to regenerate that atmosphere, and to bring back the people to the Legion.

So I certainly want to encourage everyone to get out there and support their Legions. They’re such a vital part—and they are, specifically, that group whose main focus is our veterans and their families, yet they are so involved in other things in our communities, as well.

But a few years ago, in Barry’s Bay, where I come from, they started the banner program. It had been in other communities prior to that, but over the last few years, it has just grown and grown and grown. And I think what it shows is that there’s a resurgence of what people are—so when we had our tours in Afghanistan, it was hard not to focus on our military, hard not to focus on what our military was doing and how we could help them and support them. But, with the end of our tours in Afghanistan, it gets off the front burner as well.

I think what’s happening in our Legions now is a resurgence of that kind of feeling that is so important for us, as individuals, to take that opportunity to thank those who are left and those who are the new veterans of today. Remember that it is not just the veterans that have served years ago, it is also the veterans that are serving today, and we have to be grateful for the fact that they are standing up and ready, if called upon.

This banner program that just continues to expand—this year, it also was adopted by the Legion in Eganville. And I brought a picture of the member for Niagara Centre’s grandfather, who actually is on the banners in Eganville, because on his mother’s side—I don’t know all the connections; I haven’t had a chance to have a deep discussion, but Mr. Burch and his family have roots in the Eganville area. I guess what I’m saying about that, Speaker, is that—and I read the transcripts from the committee, and I saw the impact that it has had on the member for St. Catharines and the member for Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas. We hear about your commitment, member for Kanata–Carleton—who has served in a dignified way herself in the armed forces. I don’t think there’s anybody in this chamber, or a lot of us, that don’t have some kind of connection with somebody who has served. That’s why I think it means so much, and we are so fortunate to be able to stand here and talk about this today.

So I’m looking forward to Thursday, whatever date that is, before we leave, the 2nd of November—it just clicked. On the 2nd of November, we will hopefully have royal assent, this bill will be through, we will be able to see it through to fruition on November 2 and bring that honour to the veterans that they so rightly deserve. It is the least we can do. Lest we forget.

I want to start off by thanking the member for Whitby for bringing this bill forward and all the colleagues that helped support the member from Whitby to make this a success here.

I want to thank and I want to recognize all veterans and all servicepersons that are serving today or have served our country, but today I’m going to spend some time speaking about two veterans that I know in the London area. I want to talk about their lives and their contributions under Bill 65, the Honouring Our Veterans Act, in this Legislature.

The first veteran I want to speak about is Corporal George Hebert Beardshaw. Born September 14, 1923, in the coal-mining town of Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, he was the fourth child of five, born to a single mother. George knows very little about his father, just that he had a family elsewhere. He believes that the police had made his father return to his first family, causing the family breakdown. Young George was sent away to live with his Aunt May. He retained no memory of his mother and memories of his aunt are of heavy drinking habits. He says, “She could drink 10 men under the table.” Of his siblings, he only remembered two older brothers, Charles and John.

At the age of six, he was sent to the Barnardo Homes. George remembers Barnardo’s as being a very strict home, where boys were thoroughly punished for small things. Alone at first, George was left to difficult tasks of fending for himself among the other boys. Charlie and John, who initially boarded out, came to live in the same cottage as George and protected him from the other boys. Although many of the children were educated out in the community, George was sent to the school inside Barnardo’s. John was sent to Canada through Barnardo’s in 1932 at the age of 15 and Charlie was boarded out once again, leaving George alone. In 1938, George was also sent to Canada.

He had been in school when the Barnardo Homes inspector came in and said, “How many of you want to go to Canada?” Fourteen-year-old George, wanting to get out of the Barnardo Homes, stuck his hand up. He looked forward to the excitement of an ocean voyage and to becoming a cowboy. Nobody ever explained to him what going to Canada really meant. George, knowing his brother was in Canada already and believing his mother was dead, looked forward to a new life that was being offered.

George was seasick on the voyage, but otherwise enjoyed the trip. They were treated well and could eat whatever they wanted. In his box, he was allowed to bring a box camera, clothing and a crystal set. From Quebec, they took a train into Toronto, and they stayed at the Jarvis Street receiving home for three days. Barnardo’s took the children on a trip to the Toronto Island.

The boys were given a list of about 200 farmers who were looking for farm help. On that list, he saw a Mr. Payne who was located in Little Britain. George thought, since he came from Great Britain he would go to Little Britain, and thus his placement was chosen. George was transported to the farm just outside of Lindsay, Ontario, by train. Mr. Payne picked him up from the train in a 1929 Chevy.

George stood out from the neighbourhood children, who often came to see him, to hear him speak and see his different clothing. He got used to stepping in cow dung and although he had never seen cows before, he soon got used to cleaning it up.

Mr. Payne was “ahhhh alright,” in George’s words. Mr. Payne told George he was too smart for his own good. George was worked very hard and felt he could run rings around him work-wise. George was to earn $3 a month and was told by Mr. Payne many times that he was not worth it. His pay was put into an account held by the Barnardo offices from which was deducted items for his care such as clothing and his straw hats needed. Barnardo’s held his money on account, and he did eventually receive it. George lived a very isolated and restrictive life. He was there to work. Simple activities such as going to a movie were not allowed. Indentured to Mr. Payne for five years, George often ran away. Barnardo’s told him that he could not leave Mr. Payne and that he had to stay there.

One morning, George, weary of the harsh life, had been up ahead of Mr. Payne. He had milked his three cows and by the time Mr. Payne arrived for work, George had started milking his. George remarked that the cow wasn’t giving as much milk as before, to which the farmer replied, “If you kept your mouth shut, she’d likely give more.” Well, George just stared at him, thinking he’d had about enough. Now was his opportunity to get out of there. He scared the cats away, took the milking pail and set it against the wall. Mr. Payne asked George where he was going, and he told him that he couldn’t take this treatment anymore and he was leaving him.

Fed up, George went into the house, where Mrs. Payne was making breakfast. She asked, “George, did you get your chores done already?” “Yup,” he replied, “about all I’m going to do.” “You didn’t leave Will down there all alone to do the chores, did you?” George told her that he didn’t care when she told him that they would be unable to obtain another hired man if he left them. “After all we have done for you?” she replied. “You’ve done nothing for me but work my” blank “off! One of these days, I will be leaving,” he responded. “One of these days, the farm will be yours,” she pleaded. “I don’t want your” darn “farm,” were George’s final words to the Paynes. He left, walked down the road and hitched a ride to Delhi. Although his brother John was also in Canada, George did not see him for at least two years. John was placed in Delhi, and that is where George headed. Once in Delhi, he was able to obtain a job working on a tobacco farm. Barnardo’s did try to get him to return to the Paynes, but George was determined he was not going back.

In February 1944, he went to Toronto to join the air force. He was told that because he did not have enough education, he would work as a grease monkey. George wanted to go overseas to see his family. He knew by this time his brother Charlie had found their mother. Although she had never bothered with him all his life, George, now 19 years old, still wanted to see her and join the army as a means to get back to England.

Once overseas, he obtained three days’ leave and arrived at her door, unannounced. Although his grandparents said they were proud of him and that he looked sharp in his uniform, it was like going into a stranger’s home. His mother was very quiet. George avoided discussing why she had given them up. He just wanted to meet his family. He was proud to be a Canadian soldier. George served with the Queen’s Own Rifles, reaching corporal status with the 8th platoon. While serving in action near the end of the war, he was taken prisoner of war in Deventer, Holland. After a bit of a shemozzle, Beardshaw was captured and spent the final 28 days of the war as a prisoner of war. That was, George said, “another fine mess.”

George settled in London, Ontario, where he lived with his pretty wife, Emma. George and Emma did not have children of their own but enjoyed a good relationship with his brother’s children. Charlie had come to Canada in 1953, married, had two children. Tragically, just after his 41st birthday, he was killed in an automobile accident. George and Emma helped the family out a great deal after the loss of their father.

One of George’s keepsakes from the war is the handkerchief which he was given by the Red Cross after his capture in Holland. The names of fellow prisoners of war are written on it, including the names of his captured platoon, in the top right-hand corner. George framed it proudly and shows it off to visitors.

George is glad he came to Canada. Despite his struggles on the farm, he is proud and grateful to be Canadian.

George was the special guest speaker on July 28, 2014, when the British Home Child Advocacy and Research Association held a special commemoration service to honour the British home children who served and died in the First World War. At the end of his address, he lifted his fist into the air and declared, “I love Canada.”

George is one of our last two surviving pre-1940 British home children and our last home child surviving who has served.

George, as I said earlier, was born on September 14, 1923. He celebrated his 100th birthday this September. I wanted to read George’s biography into the record because we are here today to honour our veterans. We’re honouring everyone, but specifically, I wanted to talk about George.

The next veteran I wanted to honour was Frank Davis, WOSA, Victory Branch RCL 317. He goes by Tex. He’s a poem writer, and I would like to read this poem to honour Frank Davis, our veteran:

O Canada it makes me proud to stand on guard for thee

When I see a farmer take a break in the shade of a maple tree

Or to see the wheat field’s gentle wave

When kissed by the prairie breeze

To watch the fishing boats return back home to port

With their bounty from the sea

Now Newfoundland and Labrador with its rugged coast is something to behold

When the morning sun first rises there

It turns the sky to a hue of gold

Now Nova Scotia with its beauty makes us all swell up with pride

To see the Blue Nose sail and walk the Cabot trail

Or watch the Fundy tide

You may boast of Prince Edward Island although it’s very small

Just like a jewel upon the sea

It’s there for one and all

Now New Brunswick has its pulp and wood industry

That keeps our nation strong

Great salmon streams where fishermen dream

Like the Miramichi and the great St. John

Quebec has its beauty and culture of its own

Where seven million francophones are proud to call it home

Ontario has its Great Lakes and industries large and small

And scenery that will take your breath away like the famous Niagara Falls

Then it’s on to Manitoba, our gateway to the west

And anyone who walks its soil will tell you it’s the best

Saskatchewan with its wheat fields and the hungry world to feed

Alberta has cattle, foothills and the great Calgary Stampede

British Columbia has its mountains and valleys far and wide

And miles of rugged coast to kiss the Pacific tide

The territories has its tundra and herds of caribou

What a great land, with God’s great hand, has made for me and you

But our real strength is in our people

That covers this land from sea to sea

I will say again O Canada, I am proud to stand on guard for thee.

That was veteran Frank Davis, and he goes by Tex.

These are two very special men in London that I see regularly. I wanted to pay tribute to them under the act of honouring our veterans.

We have all stood here today and talked about how remembering is so important and how our actions reflect our loyalty to remembering our veterans who fought in this war, in many wars. There are still many conflicts, far too many today. We should have learned from the past and not continued these kinds of wars and conflicts that are happening all over the world today.

I just wanted again to thank the member from Whitby for bringing this forward and for all the members who have contributed debate in honouring our veterans and honouring the fact that we will remember them.

It’s truly an honour to rise to speak to this bill. We don’t often agree on everything here, but this is definitely something we can all agree on. I thank the member for Whitby for putting forth a noble bill, an honourable bill and a bill that’s the right thing to do.

We, thanks to this bill, will be observing two minutes of silence before Remembrance Day, and we will, in addition, be given opportunities to speak about it. Why do I think this is so important? Why do I think that this is necessary here? While generals determine the details of battle, for the most part it is politicians who send our sons and daughters to war—perhaps not in the provincial Parliaments, but certainly in the federal one—so it is we as politicians, perhaps above all, who should reflect on what that means and what has been lost.

We remember that once a year on November 11, but how much do we truly understand and think about it? How much time do we spend thinking about those who have paid with their lives for us to have our own? When you think about it, for the most part, we have been insulated from the horrors that exist in so many places because of those sacrifices that were made on our behalf.

Veterans who are out there, struggling to this day financially, physically, emotionally and mentally from what they experienced, from what they have seen: For the most part, do we honour them enough? This honours them more, and there’s so much more that we can do. This is definitely something we will all support.

I wanted to share a little bit of my personal reflections on it because, as was stated by another member, we are all touched by this in some way, shape or form—those here in the chamber who have served, those who have family members who have served or are serving. I’m sure each and every one of us has a family member.

As a relatively new, but not young, father, I often look at my sons, my five-year-old and two-year-old sons, and I try to put myself in their minds as they grow, as they evolve, as they get smarter and wiser, and hearing that this was to be debated here on the floor, I tried to remember my own thoughts and recollections about what Remembrance Day meant as a child.

I remember being ushered into the gym on Remembrance Day with all the other students. I remember observing a moment of silence, but unlike any other times we were brought to that gym and asked to be quiet, there was a different silence on Remembrance Day. There were higher expectations of us to be respectful and to be honourable. As a child, I didn’t fully understand it, but I could feel that weight. Our teachers would sometimes show us a video. We would hear the trumpet. I remember when we had that moment of silence, and even as a child, there was something in those notes that struck. I could not understand it at that time, but there was a depth of sorrow to it that, as a child, I could just start in the smallest fraction to grasp.

It touched all of us. My own grandfather on my father’s side died, my father told me, fighting on the Allied side in World War II, leaving my father’s mother a widow, leaving my father and his siblings as orphans. We don’t even know where or how it happened. My late father served. He died when I was a young man and he didn’t share his experiences or what he went through, so I’ll never know. My mother told me that a distant cousin, family of ours, had three sons who all died in the bombing of Pearl Harbour. As a child, I heard these stories and they had an impact, but only as I got older and older did it start to hit home a little more.

I speak about the freedom that we have because what we experienced as young people growing up—and sure, we faced challenges, but so much of the challenges we experience, we experience second-hand in our pop culture. As children, you’re almost groomed—as a little boy, all my toys fought each other. I didn’t know what it meant. As I got older, I was attracted to the action movies, but they always sensationalized and glorified things I didn’t understand. It wasn’t until my teenaged years, as I was instructed to read certain books and some films began to come out showing the real horrors of what people were facing, that I started to think a little more and grasp it.

Why do I bring this up here in the House? Because I don’t think we reflect on this enough. Perhaps some of us do; I can’t put words in the mouths of others. But as a society, there are moments when we think about our veterans, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, those who never came back. They paid for us with their lives. We don’t do it enough.

Above all, as politicians in this House, we must understand it, because the decisions we make affect the lives of those veterans, of those soldiers we send off to war and the rest of their lives. We must make these decisions with knowledge, and we must do everything we can to make others in society and certainly here understand what that means. Lest we forget.

So, may God bless the veterans, their families, all those who have fought, died and paid the ultimate sacrifice so that I and my children can live in the relative safety that we have in this great nation.

I thank the member for Whitby for bringing this forward so we could debate it and respect our veterans. I thank the government for calling this bill to third reading and bringing this to pass. It is the right thing to do. It is necessary. God bless our veterans.

I would like to begin by thanking the member from Whitby, who brought this bill forward. I think it’s very important that we will be taking an additional moment of silence next week before the Legislature breaks up.

I also want to say how important it’s been to have this debate, because it’s an opportunity to learn. We’ve heard from many people who have had, I will say, much more direct experience than I have had, and I’m learning from this, and I appreciate that opportunity, so I thank the member also for providing that opportunity.

My uncle, who would have been 98 if he were still alive, served in the Second World War, but when he came back, he wouldn’t talk about it at all. We heard the member from Guelph make a similar reference earlier.

I know that my mother missed him enormously, that that was one of the effects of people going away to war, the people left behind. He came back alive, but she has never stopped talking about how much she missed having her older brother with her in a formative time in her life. And she still talks about how much she misses him and how important he was. I learned nothing, really, about his experience and just learned a little bit from her.

So then I think about the importance of the teaching that happens in schools. And I will say, I did not learn that much in my time in school—not enough that it really made a deep impression on me. But, over time, I have come to understand and respect and feel the need and the importance of honouring the people who have gone to war on our behalf.

And I think also of how important the work is that is being done in schools, and I do see it happening in schools. I know of school classes that write letters to veterans, for example. It is a way, again, to bring some reality to a day that perhaps the children don’t have direct experience of. Now, there are many refugee children in our schools, and they do have direct experience.

In my role as MPP, I have had the opportunity to meet veterans and also to meet Indigenous veterans throughout the community. Those Indigenous veterans are still very much leaders in their communities, and I want to thank them for their service—something that wasn’t really acknowledged at the time. They were left out of the benefits that were provided to other veterans when they came back. So I must say, I’m even more grateful for the work that those veterans are doing in their communities because they continue to serve in spite of not having received the kind of acknowledgement that they should have.

I also want to acknowledge that there have been recent deaths, and there was a recent death in the last few years of somebody who grew up in Thunder Bay. His name is Anthony Joseph Boneca. He was a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, which is based in Thunder Bay. At the age of 21, he was killed in a fire fight in Afghanistan. I know that people in the community mourned his loss deeply, and I also know that, in a sad way, his death brought home the work of people who go to fight on our behalf and made it real.

I’ve also walked into Superior View high school—I was actually there to look at their tech school, what’s going on there. I walked into a room and discovered photographs all around the room of young men just barely older than these high school students, and these were all men from Thunder Bay and the region who signed up. It was, again, a very moving moment to look at those pictures and realize that many of them did not come home—but that they were there for the students also, to make that connection, and make that connection real, so that they could understand on a deeper level the ceremonies that we attend, but to take it beyond the ceremony to some understanding.

I will just close by acknowledging the work of the Legions. I think we have at least four in Thunder Bay, and those Legions are places where men and women work together. They provide a safe social space, they do charity work, they do fundraising, they have a good time, but it’s all volunteer work and it also creates the safe space for people to be veterans.

I must say, it was another lesson for me—walking in with my ball cap on and learning that’s disrespectful. Being asked to take off that cap is always a reminder of the seriousness of where we are.

There are three ceremonies that take place in Thunder Bay. One at the Waverley monument, and it’s a beautiful ceremony; there’s one at Fort William Gardens, also a beautiful ceremony; and one in Fort William reserve, on Anemki Wajiw, which is the name of the mountain, and that is also a very special ceremony. In each case, there are pipes and drummers, and there will be a trumpet playing.

I appreciate everything that people do. Without the Legions, we would not have these ceremonies; they organize everything, so I want to pay tribute to them, as well.

Thank you again to the member. I know that we all support this bill and thank you.

It’s always an honour to speak in the House. I’d like to thank the member from Whitby for bringing forward this bill. I’d like to take a couple of minutes.

As someone of Dutch descent, my father grew up in Holland during World War II, and when the Nazis invaded and conquered, they were conquered. When the Allies came, as a young man, he thought they were conquerors—that they would come and do the same thing that the Nazis did. The Canadians came and liberated and went home. And that’s actually the reason I’m here today: because my father emigrated from Holland because he thought that people who come and liberate and go home must come from the greatest country in the world—and he was right. So people of Dutch descent owe a huge debt to Canadians in World War II.

But what I really want to mention, just for a second—we all have connections. And I don’t have a personal connection, but when you come over in my riding, you come over the hill at Temiskaming Shores and—it’s one of the most beautiful sites in Ontario, in my opinion—you come through two or three hours of Canadian Shield and you’ll come over a hill and there’s a huge agricultural valley there. On the right side of the highway, there’s a lookout, a park. I often go there, but especially when I drive by there—and if you ever go there, I urge you to go look and just ponder at that park, because that park—one of the first things that I was involved in as an MPP was that the Ministry of Transportation renamed that park in honour of Sergeant Martin Goudreault.

Sergeant Goudreault was just 35 when he was killed in action in the Panjwayi district of Afghanistan on June 6, 2010. It was his third tour of duty in Afghanistan; he was a 15-year veteran of 1 Combat Engineer Regiment and First Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group. He continued the proud tradition of going to a place and trying to help as a Canadian, and he gave his life for it—on our behalf, and on their behalf, as so many others have done. It’s been an honour for me to recognize him in this House.

I’d like to thank the member from Whitby for giving me this opportunity. On all our behalves, I thank the veterans who, on all our behalves, defend democracy.

I’ll recognize the member from Whitby to—

This House now stands adjourned until 9 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, October 25.

The House adjourned at 1817.