The popular Lest We Forget program operated by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has been given new life with a partnership announced Nov. 8 with the Canadian Urban Libraries Council and the Canadian War Museum.
Under the program, students have been able to come to the National Library in Ottawa and pore over original documents of those who served in the First World War with the help of trained Library and Archives Canada staff. The students then use that information to write biographies or other assignments on the people they have studied (Lest We Forget Project Brings Names To Life, July/August).
“The program was mostly able to help students who lived in Quebec or Ontario,” Librarian and Archivist of Canada Dr. Daniel Caron told Legion Magazine. “It was my idea to expand the program.”
The partnership was launched with workshops in four centres, Burlington, Ont., Toronto, Winnipeg and the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. “I was at the first one in Burlington. It was fascinating. The students went to the cenotaph in the morning and picked a name [from the list of war dead]. Then they came into the library and we had packages available to match the names that they had picked,” said Caron.
The packages the students receive contain original documents that have been laminated for their preservation and protection. The documents include military service files for Canadian soldiers, doctors and nurses who served in the First World War and those killed in action in the Second World War.
The Canadian Urban Libraries Council represents 522 locations which serve more than 7.5 million users.
The Canadian War Museum is also involved in bringing classes from across the country to its museum in Ottawa. The museum has a program in place where the students will spend half a day in a Lest We Forget workshop and then the other half of the day visiting and learning from the museum’s exhibits and programs.
The expansion helps perpetuate the program. Last year Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore denied suggestions in the House of Commons that the Lest We Forget program may be cancelled as part of overall cost-cutting at LAC (Editorial, July/August).
“This is a very good way for people to get to explore the people in their community,” said Caron. “It is what this country is about.”
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