Vimy: a reminder to the world of the senselessness of war
VIMY RIDGE, FRANCE—It all started on April 9 at 5:30 a.m., now 101 years ago. After weeks of furious preparation intended to give the assaulting force a chance against an objective that had already cost 100,000 French casualties, the first wave of 15,000 Canadians began the effort to retake France’s Vimy Ridge from the Germans. The […]
Should we care about another broken promise for veterans?
OTTAWA—The process was rotten from the start. Does the product provide any redemption? On April 1, 2018, government will once again try to resuscitate the justifiably maligned veterans’ program known as the New Veterans Charter. This latest revitalization of the 2005 Liberal legislation creates a new education benefit for veterans, renovates a caregiver allowance and […]
Minister O’Regan: on veterans, let’s compare apples to apples
OTTAWA—I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to the recent article by Brian Forbes (re: “O’Regan’s entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts,” The Hill Times, March 12, p. 14). Forbes is to be admired for his longtime advocacy for veterans, and I am fully supportive of his suggestion that we […]
Ottawa can’t afford democracy for veterans
OTTAWA—”Why are we still fighting certain veterans groups in court? Because they’re asking for more than we are able to give right now.” And with that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau betrayed a key election promise for veterans. Behind the scenes, the Trudeau government also continues a longstanding war on veterans in minimizing or denying access […]
O’Regan’s entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts
OTTAWA—Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan is entitled to his own opinion, but he is not entitled to his own facts. The minister has suggested in his recent letter to The Hill Times and in public statements that no real financial disparity will exist between compensation paid to seriously disabled veterans under the Pension Act and […]
Liberals’ plan for veterans: numbers don’t add up
OTTAWA—The new federal Liberal plan for veterans is all about saving money, yet again, at the expense of veterans. The more Canadians and veterans learn of the 2019 Liberal programs, the more the confusion and anger grow. How do we survive the dizzying daze induced by trying to understand veterans’ benefits? First, let’s cut through […]
We’re delivering to help veterans deal with very unique challenges: O’Regan
Re: “Government fails to meet veterans’ expectations regarding re-establishment of ‘lifelong pensions’ under new Veterans Charter,” (The Hill Times, Jan. 29, by Brian Forbes, chair of the National Council of Veteran Associations and executive chair of The War Amps). Our government made a promise to veterans that we would re-instate a lifelong pension for those […]
Studies on transition from military to civilian life hurting, not helping current, former members of Armed Forces
There have been numerous occasions during my tenure as Canada’s National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces Ombudsman when I felt like Sisyphus: that character in Greek mythology who was forced to push a boulder up a mountain only to have it repeatedly roll back down and hit him. In the Canadian military, there is no […]
Veterans complain government’s new ‘centre of excellence’ for PTSD prioritizes research over in-patient treatment
Veterans advocates are criticizing the Trudeau government’s new Centre of Excellence on post traumatic stress disorder and related mental health conditions for wrongly prioritizing researchers and doctors instead of improving in-patient treatment for Canadians dealing with the psychological pains of war. “This is a bag of money for them to do research, and that is all […]
Government fails to meet veterans’ expectations regarding re-establishment of ‘lifelong pensions’ under new Veterans Charter
The National Council of Veteran Associations and the War Amps of Canada contend that Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan’s announcement regarding the long-awaited “lifelong pension” has failed to live up to the Liberal government’s election commitment to address the inequities in the New Veterans Charter and continues to ignore “the elephant in the room” which has […]
