Learn and Live features decorated military veterans Monday, Nov. 4

A wealth of knowledge and experience will be presented in a panel discussion at the next Learn and Live event on Monday, November 4 at 1 p.m. in the Mori Room at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Community Centre. 

Monday’s session, entitle Lessons in Service, builds on the vast and remarkable military and police careers of NOTL resident Peter Warrack, Lieutenant-General Michel Maisonneuve and Major Barbara Krasij-Maisonneuve, both of St. Catharines. 

It’s a rare occasion for the Learn and Live Series to offer a panel discussion. It was Warrack who suggested the format to organizer Cindy Grant following a NOTL Rotary Club meeting one afternoon. 

“I heard him talk about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies,” Grant tells The Local. “I asked him to do a Learn and Live presentation on that topic but that didn’t interest him at all. Instead, he told me about his time in the police force in Northern Ireland during the troubles. He came up with the topic lessons of service and he brought in Michel and Barbara.”

Warrack, who moved to NOTL in 2016 with his wife Bonita, is a former member of the British Army (13 years) and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (21 years). His years with the army and the RUC coincided with the horrors that became everyday happenings in Ireland during what is commonly referred to as ‘the troubles’. Warrack tells a chllling story of when, as a 19-year-old new recruit, he was walking beside a senior officer when that man was shot and killed. 

His specialty was financial crime, using his knowledge to track terrorist cells. Upon leaving the RUC he brought that knowledge to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Financial Group’s Corporate Investigations Services (CIS) Unit as its senior manager. He later became RBC’s head of investigations for their AML (Anti-Money-Laundering) Financial Intelligence Unit. 

He held similar roles with the Bank of Montreal until his retirement in 2018. Today, he is chief compliance officer for Bitfinex, leading a team of trained AML investigators and compliance specialists for one of the world’s largest virtual currency trading platforms and exchanges by volume.

But it’s Warrack’s work with Project Protect, a public‐private partnership that targets human trafficking, that earned him The Governor General’s Meritorious Service Cross in 2022. Warrack was recognized for his work in developing a system for using financial tracking to pinpoint possible human trafficking perpetrators, and for his work to train bankers and law enforcement officials around the world to use his techniques. 

Closer to home, the member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 124 headed up the drive to raise .$80,500 for repairs and maintenance to the Queen Street cenotaph in NOTL. It’s Warrack’s commitment to the betterment of the community both near and far that he hopes to focus on Monday. 

Lt.-General Michel Maisonneuve has also earned the recognition of Canada’s Governor General. In 2003 he was named a Commander of Military Merit. In 2022, Maisonneuve was presented with the Vimy Award by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDA Institute) as a "Canadian who has made a significant and outstanding contribution to the defence and security of Canada and the preservation of its democratic values.”

The Quebec-born former tank officer is a veteran of 35 years of service in the Canadian Armed Forces. He served in Cyprus, Kosovo and elsewhere and was at the US Central Command table in Tampa Bay at when US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that a missile would be heading for Kabul, Afghanistan in October 2001.

Upon his retirement from active service in 2007, the bilingual graduate of Royal Military College in Kingston became the first academic director of RMC Saint-Jean in Quebec. 

In his just-released book In Defence of Canada, Maisonneuve is outspoken about his concern for the current government’s lack of spending on today’s military. The book is a testament to the Lt.-General’s passion for helping veterans and serving military personnel, preserving Canada’s proud history, and encouraging volunteerism, leadership and service in our country.

Major Barbara Krasij-Maisonneuve joined the Canadian Armed Forces at 18 as a military police officer. She then graduated from Royal Military College with a Bachelor’s degree in logistics. Over 21 years with the Royal Canadian Air Force she served on several international missions, including a peacekeeping effort in the Golan Heights that straddled the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria in the late 1990s.

In the community, Krasij-Maisonneuve chaired the Première Gala that raised funds and celebrated the re-opening of the Westdale Theatre in Hamilton and helped raise millions for Canada’s veterans and serving soldiers. She currently serves on the Board of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope, Ontario. 

The panel discussion, which will feature time for questions from the audience, was rescheduled from May and fitting falls exactly a week before Remembrance Day. 

The Learn and Live program arose from the town’s community wellness committee’s 2021 report to council. It focuses on “enriched learning for all ages” through the presentation of a curriculum of themed seminars and discussion groups.

Monday’s event is fully booked, but you can add your name to the waitlist here. Refreshments will be provided.