What I'm seeing here is a bit of a pattern. These guys are asking for this. I don't think it is a difficult thing they're asking for.
We've seen delays in the construction of the national monument to the mission in Afghanistan. We've seen this committee being stymied by government members when we were trying to get documents produced in order to find out why the Prime Minister interfered to delay that. We saw a directive come out banning prayer at Remembrance Day ceremonies, which we were able to push back on. We saw the 10th anniversary of the end of the mission in Afghanistan come around last spring, with lots of speculation among veterans and even at the CBC about whether the department forgot until the last minute and failed to plan a proper ceremony or purposely wanted to keep it small. We've seen a lack of Canadian flags in the colour party at official Canadian events for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
We heard that the Persian Gulf veterans are asking for something pretty simple here. I guess what I'm wondering is this: Why is it so difficult for this government to simply honour the legacy of Canadian veterans? There are so many examples, and it seems to be a pattern.
Can you give us any insight into that?