Students and community groups across the country are getting a history lesson during this year's Remembrance Day events, and their teachers are those who lived through Canada's wars generations ago — and those living though it today.

Leonard Levy, 85, was one of 1,500 Canadian veterans taking part in the Memory Project, in which the former soldiers volunteer to talk to young people about what it is like to go to war.

Capt. Mark Bossi of the 48th Highlanders greets Second World War bomber pilot Leonard Levy at a Toronto high school they visited as part of the Memory Project.
(CBC)

"I look forward to it," the Second World War bomber pilot said. "My children think it's wonderful because when they were going to school, they never had this opportunity."

While Levy has given more than 35 of these speeches in the past four years, this year's talk was to be different, as veterans of an old war were paired with those who are fighting now.

Capt. Mark Bossi, who recently served in Afghanistan with the 48th Highlanders of Canada, joined Levy at a Toronto high school to give the young audience a better understanding of how wars are very much a part of today's world.  

Students listen as Capt. Bossi and Levy share their wartime experiences.
(CBC)

"As a modern veteran or as a modern soldier who has been to Afghanistan, I'm able to tell the kids that all those black and white images … they come to life," Bossi said. "So one day somebody is going to be looking at my pictures and thinking, 'oh, that was just a history book.' Well that's not true." 

Common bonds

Though Levy and Bossi never met, within minutes they learned that they've got more than military service in common. Levy went to Humewood Public School, where Bossi's son goes today. Both men also joined the military at the age of 19, not much older than the kids hearing their stories.

"You talk about the merry band of brothers, and it's so true," Bossi said.

Levy said he wanted the students to know why he signed up to fight.

"There was a mad man in Europe who decided that he wanted to take over the world and first he was going to destroy my race," he told them. "I couldn't stay home."

With old newspaper clippings and his own journal entries, Levy gave them a window into what it was like over the perilous night skies of occupied Europe.

"We have been in the air almost nine hours," he read. "We have lost two men. We have two injured men. We are in bad shape."

The students said both men put a face on conflicts that had until now remained in newsflashes and textbooks.

"The people who experienced World War II first-hand are unfortunately not going to be around for much longer, so it's very important to get the first hand stories of what occurred and to meet them face to face," said Abby Eckler, a Grade 12 student at Crestwood Preparatory College.

"It comes a lot closer to the heart than reading it in a book or reading it in a newspaper," said Grade 11 student Dave Leonard.

Questions over Afghan mission

Bossi said he knows many Canadians have questions about Canada's role in Afghanistan, which inspires him to tell as many young people about why he joined up.

He told the students how he and his fellow soldiers built kindergartens and schools so the boys and girls could be educated together without fear of the schools being burned down or the teachers killed.

"Eighty five per cent of people in Afghanistan can't read, so the minefields get marked with stones," he said. "The white side is a good sign that it's safe. The other side is the danger side."

Levy said he will keep coming back to talk to school groups as Canadians honour those who served and died each year.

"Anything that I can do to instill in them that peace is the most important thing and living with one another, regardless of who or what we are," he said. "That's what I get out of it."