Veteran Voice.info

VVi is for you, all veterans, regardless of whether you belong to a veteran organization or not. VVi is a distribution centre, a conduit for making sure that the information you need as a veteran is there for you in a timely fashion. Our aim is to provide a forum for all Canadian veterans, serving members and their families to have access to information pertaining to veteran rights.

VVi is an independent site, not associated with any governmental department, agency or veteran organization. VeteranVoice.info is maintained by independent contributions.

My Name is Not Chicken Little...BUT

Perry Grey
Chief Editor VeteranVoice.info (VVi)

Perry Gray is a Regular Force veteran, serving as the Chief Editor of VVi. Perry has been with VVi for 13 years.

Veterans disappointed with lack of delivery on Liberal campaign promises

GLORIA GALLOWAY

The Globe and Mail  Monday, Jul. 25, 2016

Nine months after the Liberals came to power saying veterans would not have to fight the government for support and compensation, former soldiers say they are disappointed that so many commitments have yet to be fulfilled, including a promise of a free education for those who complete their service.

The failure of the government to quickly meet its promises on an education benefit, as well as on restoring the option of lifetime pensions to those with disabilities, are the two deepest disappointments for veterans, said Mike Blois, the former president of the Afghanistan Veterans Association of Canada.

“Betrayed is the way people feel,” he said. “Veterans who generally vote very conservatively, lots of them voted Liberal because they thought the Liberal Party was going to do something for veterans.”

When the party was campaigning to form the government last fall, it promised to “invest $80-million every year to create a new veterans education benefit” that would cover the full cost of up to four years of college, university or technical education for those who have completed their military service.

But the promise that the education benefit would be available “every year” apparently did not include fiscal year 2016-17, since it was not part of the March federal budget. That has been a disappointment for veterans and those who are helping them to find jobs.

Many veterans say a free education would be especially helpful for the young men and women who served in the infantry. Their primary job was combat-related and they did the most difficult and dangerous assignments in places such as Afghanistan, but they didn’t always emerge from the military with skills that translate to the private sector.

Mr. Blois was entitled to some educational assistance from the Veterans Affairs Department because a permanent brain injury forced his release from the service. But with a veterans education benefit, “I wouldn’t have gone into significant debt to go through law school,” he said.

The education benefit was to be modelled on the American G.I. Bill, which was introduced during the Second World War and currently provides any U.S. veteran with full tuition after three years of service, plus a monthly living allowance and a book stipend.

Sarah McMaster, a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, said in an e-mail that the government is intent upon paying for veterans’ education. “Understanding that some commitments will take more time than others, we are working hard to deliver on the remaining items – including the veterans education benefit,” she said.

Canada Company, a charity founded in 2006, helps veterans find employment in Canadian corporations – in large part by helping employers understand how the skills acquired in military service would be valuable to their work force.

Angela Mondou, its president, said she is excited by the fact that more than 360 veterans have obtained jobs since the start of 2016 with the help of her organization. But 6,000 veterans, reservists or serving members of the military remain registered on the group’s website because they need help to make the transition to life after serving with the Canadian Armed Forces.

“Somebody may spend nine years in the infantry, serving their country and going to operations around the world, and come out with a huge amount of team-leading experience, the ability to work in high-risk scenarios, project-management skills, you name it, but they don’t have the equivalent credentials in the business world,” said Ms. Mondou, who did not direct any criticism toward the government. “So that’s where this [educational] support would be very welcome.”

Vince Fowler, a Calgary-based business coach who left the military with the rank of corporal in 1996, said the education benefit would have been an “excellent” tool for those who have been released from the Forces. Degrees, diplomas and technical training are the tickets many veterans need to get jobs that they consider meaningful, he said.

Help with educational expenses would mean veterans “can go get a ticket” to a new job, said Mr. Fowler, who is a guest speaker for Canada Company. “We gave up years of our lives, on purpose, for our country. … Help us on the way out so we can be productive citizens.”

And $80-million “is just pocket change to the government,” he said. “So just give it.”

Conservative MP Erin O’Toole, who was the veterans affairs minister in the previous government, said he does not agree that Canada should create the equivalent of the American G.I. Bill.

Soldiers, sailors and airmen and women who retire as a result of a service-related injury are already entitled to educational assistance, and not all able-bodied veterans need to have their full tuition paid for by the government, he said. The Conservatives would prefer that the limited resources in federal coffers be targeted to have as much of an impact as possible, he added.

But the veterans education benefit is a Liberal campaign promise that has gone unfulfilled, along with other promises to veterans, Mr. O’Toole said. “I think, sometimes, false hope is worse than nothing.”

Veterans Affairs is broken and the system needs to be fixed now.

By Emily Mountney-Lessard, The Intelligencer Thursday, September 1, 2016

That’s the message that came across – loud and clear – from veterans and their spouses who attended a town hall style discussion hosted by Bay of Quinte MP Neil Ellis in Belleville Wednesday evening.

Ellis, who is also the chairman of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, hosted the discussion in order to gather information on how veterans can be better served by the government as part of a “Canada-wide fact finding mission.”

Attendees did not pose questions to the MP, instead a list of questions was provided to Ellis from the Minister of Veterans Affairs. Attendees were asked for feedback on those specific questions which touched on a variety of topics. The information, along with feedback from other similar town halls held across the country, will be compiled and sent to the minister.

Much of the discussion revolved around how the system is failing veterans by not allowing their spouses to help them get the help they need.

For Louise McFaul, navigating the Veterans Affairs system has been a nightmare. She told Ellis she cares for her husband, a medically retired member of the Canadian Forces. She feels Veterans Affairs should be more proactive in assisting spouses of veterans and advising them what services are available, instead of just leaving the spouse to navigate the system alone.

“I feel from my perspective, they could recognize my contributions as a caregiver of a medically retired member of the Canadian Forces, that they would be to provide me services before I need them. I’ve found, over the last decade, my difficulty that I’ve experienced comes from having to know what to ask for,” she said.

“I have to know the different options available to me, know who to ask, know how phrase it, what form to fill out, when to ask, when to phone, when to phone back, when you phone back again and who to write a letter to when no one returns my call.”

Yvonne Burke echoed those statements and said every spouse should be able to have their own Veterans Affairs Canada account. Her husband, Joseph, was also present. They both represented the Canadian Aboriginal Veterans and Serving Members Association.

“Veterans Affairs spends most of their time beating the veteran around the bush continuously, and the spouse has to put up with their denial, their disappointment and the sleepless nights,” she said.

One woman, whose military husband recently died, said navigating the system was complicated, hard to understand and the money is not reaching her as fast as it should be.

McFaul later told Ellis that Veterans Affairs needs to better serve the new generation of veterans — “the 30-year-olds with tiny children.”

“In a time of horrible crisis in my family, when I turned to Veterans Affairs and they could not provide help, they said ‘go to the Legion’. I went to my Legion and it’s run by volunteers, who have their hearts are in the right place,” she said. “What I needed wasn’t someone to mow my lawn, or do my laundry or clean my eaves toughs. I needed someone to watch my kids so I could go grocery shopping, so I could make it to one of my group therapy sessions, to do some self care.”

She said the country is facing a crisis with the number of young veterans committing suicide.

“I’m not discounting generations before me, I’m not discounting people who are retired but I’m saying you have a whole new batch of people to provide services to and Veterans Affairs, as it stands, does not have the tools to deal with it. It’s coming to a crisis and it has been coming to a crisis in the past years with the number of suicides.”

She said 70 per cent of the men her husband served with are dead by their own hand.

Attendees also called for the re-establishment of life-long pensions for injured veterans and to change the perspective surrounding medical marijuana – it should be treated like a pharmaceutical and those who use it for medical purposes shouldn’t be ostracized.

Veterans need access to medical marijuana in other forms, so they can consume it without the potentially harmful effects of smoking it.

Further, the culture of the Veterans Affairs system needs to be changed. Ellis admitted that sometimes “culture ruins strategy.”

The best way to change the culture of the system? Hire veterans or their spouses to work there.

Several suggestions were made about not taxing veteran's pensions and several people questioned why there were no staff or representatives at the town hall from the Trenton-based Veterans Affairs office.

“If they're of limited value down there, why in heaven's name are they there?” asked Wellington resident Ian Inrig.

When asked “what does service excellence mean to you?” the answer was clear: “Get rid of all the red tape people have to get through to get the services they require. Simple.”

There was little discussion of homeless veterans as that was not included in the list from the minister.

“There are seven or eight key areas that the minister is tackling right now,” said Skip Simpson, a veteran working for Ellis, specializing in veterans cases. "The feedback we’re getting out of Ottawa is that it’s not in the top eight or nine in this particular moment.”

Kent Hehr, Liberals Not Living Up To Promises To Veterans: Lawyer

The Canadian Press
Posted: 09/02/2016


CALGARY — The lawyer for Canadian veterans involved in a legal battle with the federal government says the Department of Veterans Affairs is playing politics with his clients.

Don Sorochan said Thursday that Minister Kent Hehr is not standing by his party's promise in the last election to re-establish lifelong pensions for veterans.

Hehr, who was in Calgary Thursday, said his government is moving forward as quickly as it can to do that.

The legal action was launched in B.C. Supreme Court in 2012 by six severely disabled veterans over changes made to their compensation six years earlier.

The federal government replaced lifelong pensions with lump-sum payments, upsetting veterans, who argued they deserved disability payments on par with workers' compensation.

Efforts by the federal government to have the case thrown out were dismissed, which led to an appeal.

The lawsuit was put on hold in 2015 while the parties agreed to wait and see whether new legislation and a federal election would allow for an out-of-court resolution.

Feds argue they don't owe 'extraordinary obligation'

The deadline for a decision passed in June, and the Liberal government filed documents in court in July saying the government does not owe an "extraordinary obligation'' to modern-day veterans.

The Trudeau government's position in court was initially held by the former Conservative government before the Tories changed their stance in December 2014 after a public backlash.

Justice Harvey Groberman of British Columbia Appeal Court said the court will consider whether to take into account contradictions between the government's current legal position and the stand the Liberals took during the election.

A decision is expected this fall.

"We have to run government by good policy and yet I understand that those members who are engaged in that lawsuit have served this country bravely and boldly,'' Hehr said when asked about the state of the lawsuit.

"To a large extent, we have drafted much of our policy in the last election based on some of their concerns, so we're moving forward as quickly as we can.''

Sorochan dismissed Hehr's response.

"Get real and get on with it rather than issuing carefully crafted statements that avoid saying that there's a legal obligation to them,'' he said.

'Veterans want to be with veterans,' say new generation of vets shut out of wings devoted to their care

By Ashley Burke, CBC News June 13, 2016

If there's one thing Alannah Gilmore, a retired sergeant, can't forget — it's that anything could happen at any moment. 

As a former combat medic for the Canadian Forces, she cared for those wounded after suicide explosions in Afghanistan. Her husband lost both of his legs to a land mine during the same tour of duty. Gilmore had always hoped that if she ever needed long-term care, it would be at a facility dedicated to vets. But like roughly 600,000 veterans, she doesn't have that option.

"I'm highly disappointed," Gilmore said. "These hospitals exist. The programs do exist. Why are we taking away this as an option for families?"

As it stands now, only those who fought in the Second World War and the Korean War are eligible for long-term care homes dedicated to veterans, while anyone who served after the 1953 ceasefire in Korea is not.

More than 1,000 delegates from across Canada will discuss the issue at a Royal Canadian Legion convention in St. John's today.

Members are expected to vote on a resolution to push the federal government to open up access to 15 veterans facilities to all generations — before veterans wings become a thing of the past.

"It's an expiry date. Why are the newer generations of veterans not deserving?" Gilmore said. "The difference between having the veterans wings is it's full of veterans. It's being with like-minded people. Maybe you have a wing and half of them have PTSD. Who relates better to someone with PTSD is someone who has been in a similar circumstance." 

If veterans wings disappear, all modern-day veterans — those who served in the Cold War, peacekeeping missions and in Afghanistan — will have to get in line with the general public on provincial wait lists for care. Veterans Affairs will cover the cost if a veteran's illness or injury is related to their service.

It was a decision made half a century ago that's to blame for excluding post-Korean War veterans from the same long-term care as those who came before them.

During the First World War, the federal government operated 44 hospitals across Canada to give treatment to injured soldiers. As universal and provincial health care services evolved, Veterans Affairs Canada said the need for treatment declined. The number of facilities open to veterans reduced and in 1955 there were 18 remaining.

Then in 1966, the Government of Canada decided to transfer all of its federal health care facilities over to the provinces — a move that was only recently completed when Ste. Anne's Hospital was transferred to Quebec in April 2016. Part of the agreement was that Second World War and Korean War veterans would have the same priority access to these facilities. 

Meanwhile, modern-day veterans have the same access to long-term care as the general public.

Minister of Veterans Affairs Kent Hehr said the system has evolved — and what's in place today is much better than the old model.

"In fact, veterans have access to over 1,500 places where they're getting care in their communities, where they can be closer to their families," Hehr told CBC News.

"Our veterans are overwhelmingly happy that they're there. They have access to care in their communities, not in some antiquated place far away from home. It's really actually working quite well."

More than two-thirds of the 6,640 people Veterans Affairs currently supports are in community beds in nursing homes across Canada rather than the remaining 15 provincially operated facilities with veterans wings.

Veterans facilities are expected to turn into nursing homes for the general public when the last of the Second World War and Korean War veterans are gone.

But the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre in Ottawa doesn't want to lose a program it calls successful. The head of the centre said it gives a higher level of care for veterans thanks to $8.7 million annually in funding from Veterans Affairs. More than half of its 450 beds are devoted to vets, while the rest are available for the general public.

The centre has developed a reputation for its arts and crafts studios, music therapy, as well as a dedicated psychogeriatric resource nurse who helps veterans with dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder and behaviour issues. 

"We have a very valuable asset here," CEO Akos Hoffer said. "You can see how beautiful it is. We also have just the most wonderful staff anywhere here, who now have decades of experience of providing care to veterans to civilians. When it comes to veterans they have unique cultural and clinic needs."

"We are more than willing to work with the province and Veterans Affairs to see if there's a way to extend that benefit to modern veterans as well."

George Couillard, injured in a factory during the Second World War, now lives in the centre's veterans wing. He's upset future generations could miss out. 

"It bothers me to be honest with you," Couillard said. "Who else has offered so much for his country? No one else has put his life on the line for his fellow man more than veterans."

Disappointment over what's being called an "unfair" double standard by some has sparked veteran advocacy groups and politicians to start pushing for change before the veterans wings close.

"I'm hearing from veterans and their families, this is what their parents want and talked about throughout their whole life," said Ray McInnes, the director of the services bureau for the Royal Canadian Legion.

"Many of these people, they served their country, they never asked for any money from the government. No disability pensions or awards. And yet now, they want to go into long-term care, spend their time with other veterans and they're being denied. Let's take care of all our veterans. It's time for policies to change."

Retired Major-General Lou Cuppens would be ineligible to access a veterans' home, despite 38 years of service. 

"I feel I should be with my brothers in arms," Cuppens said. "It's like being a member of a very large family. We bond when we start our training. And we bond right through our whole service. We all suffered the same hardships. We have experienced the same combat, strife, the same period of time away from family."

A stalled Ontario private member's bill proposed giving veterans priority access to jump the wait list in Ontario long-term care homes.

It won all-party support at Queen's Park during second reading in April 2015 but still has to be called to committee, said NDP MPP Cindy Forster, who introduced the bill.

"It's very disappointing," she said."At the same time, this is at a standstill. We have the health system saying the veterans beds aren't even full."

But Ontario MPP Dipika Damerla, who is the associate minister of health and long-term care, said the provincial government is doing its due diligence on the proposed legislation.

"The Liberal government wants to make sure the bill has no unintended consequences," Damerla said.

"To make sure that, as we prioritize people, that people who are in urgent need and in crisis care always have that priority, as well." 

The department of Veterans Affairs said that as demographics change, changes may come. If it comes to the point where there is a major problem with veterans accessing long-term care, the department said it will be on their radar.

You  Can Help!

All veterans are encouraged to pass information, opinions, links to self-help sites onto VVi. VeteranVoice.info is a distribution centre and we are dependant on others to pass information. This is your site. Tell other veterans about your site.  

Email: info@VeteranVoice.info

Facebook Messenger: https://www.facebook.com/VeteranVoice.info  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VetVoiceinfo