ANDREA GUNN OTTAWA BUREAU Published December 9, 2015 - 8:40pm Last Updated December 9, 2015 - 8:46pm
VVi 11 Dec 2015 db
Canada’s veterans ombudsman Guy Parent speaks after releasing the Report on the New Veterans Charter and Actuarial Analysis in October 2013. (CP File)Local veterans are echoing the Liberal government’s call for veterans ombudsman Guy Parent to step aside. Parent was one of 33 officials, quietly appointed by the former Conservative government before the federal election, who received letters from the office of the government leader in the House of Commons this week urging them to resign voluntarily. The letter told the appointees they were welcome to apply for their positions under a new, merit-based selection process. Doug Roberts, a 11-year Canadian Forces veteran who lives in Upper Stewiacke, said veterans have no faith in Parent’s mandate and that he should listen to the government’s request. “He’s political,” Roberts said. “He wasn’t supporting veterans. He was supporting the (Harper) government. “He was put in to stack the government so changes couldn’t be implemented by a new government. We voted (the Conservatives) out, and we want them out.” Parent was given a three-year extension to his mandate via a cabinet order in July; his term was supposed to expire in November without renewal. The previous government selected Parent to replace outspoken former army colonel Pat Stogran at the end of his five-year term in 2010. “The original intent of the veterans ombudsman was to be one five-year appointment. Then so be it, and that should apply to everyone,” 27-year army veteran David MacLeod told The Chronicle Herald. MacLeod, from Antigonish, said he feels Parent was too soft on the government during his five years in office and failed to act on important issues such as access to benefit services for veterans. “His focus seemed to be one of educating veterans on the need to co-operate with government …(and) pursuing government’s (interests) rather than veterans’ interests.”He also said Parent failed to grasp the need for the political neutrality required for his office when he endorsed the Conservative government just days before the start of the election campaign. MacLeod was referring to comments made in an Ottawa Citizen article published July 27, a day before an order-in-council was adopted renewing Parent’s term, where Parent said the Harper government had made “great strides” for veterans, and that partisan veterans groups were “confusing” Canadians about how veterans had been treated under the Conservatives.“Throwing his support behind any party during an election is unacceptable,” MacLeod said. Ron Clarke, a Sydney veteran and outspoken critic of the Harper government’s treatment of former military personnel, shared similar sentiments. “(The veterans ombudsman) is supposed to be apolitical. Once you stick your nose into the politics, you should be out of a job, and he should be out of the job.” Clarke said he believes all 33 of the appointees made by the Harper government should vacate their offices and make way for the new process. “If they’re good enough, the Liberals might just appoint them.” Parent has not said whether he will step aside. When contacted for an interview, a spokesperson from his office said he had no comment on the matter. The government has not said how it will proceed if individuals choose not to vacate their offices voluntarily. With The Canadian Press
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