Table of Contents What is VeteranVoice.info? Bill C-201 Hunger Strike of Veteran Steven P Dixon New VVi Polls How you can help! Recommended Links www.VeteranVoice.info 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.
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Bill C-201 Passed
On it's 2nd Reading in the House of Commons, Bill C-201, a private member's bill introduced by Mr Peter Stoffer, MP Sackville-Eastern Shore passed by 10 votes (Yeas) on the 13 May 2009 session.. The Bill will now go through the regular review and approval procedural Parliamentary chain, including the Senate and finally to be brought into law by the Governor-General. The CFSA and RCMPSA will then both be brought into line as demanded of the new legislation.
The text of the 1st Reading of Bill C-201 may be viewed here: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Parl=40&Ses=2&Mode=1&Pub=Bill&Doc=C-201_1&File=24
Info on Bill C-201 may be seen through this link: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=E&query=5565&List=toc
2nd Reading of Bill C-201 and the resulting votes, by MP may be viewed below, or for the official totals, at: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Housebills/BillVotes.aspx?Language=E&Parl=40&Ses=2&Bill=C201
Canadian Forces Superannuation Act The House resumed from May 12 consideration of the motion that Bill C-201, An Act to amend the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act (deletion of deduction from annuity), be read the second time and referred to a committee.
The Acting Speaker (Ms. Denise Savoie): The House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division of the motion at second reading of Bill C-201 under private members' business. * * * (The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:) YEAS Members Allen (Welland) André Andrews Angus Ashton Asselin Atamanenko Bachand Bagnell Bains Bélanger Bellavance Bevington Bigras Blais Bonsant Bouchard Bourgeois Brison Brunelle Byrne Cannis Cardin Carrier Charlton Christopherson Coady Coderre Comartin Cotler Crête Crombie Crowder Cullen Cuzner D'Amours Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) Davies (Vancouver East) DeBellefeuille Demers Deschamps Desnoyers Dewar Dhaliwal Dion Dorion Dosanjh Dryden Duceppe Dufour Duncan (Etobicoke North) Easter Eyking Faille Foote Fry Gagnon Garneau Godin Goodale Gravelle Guarnieri Guay Guimond (Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques) Guimond (Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord) Hall Findlay Harris (St. John's East) Holland Hughes Hyer Jennings Julian Kania Karygiannis Kennedy Laforest Laframboise Lalonde Lavallée Layton LeBlanc Lee Lemay Leslie Lévesque MacAulay Malhi Malo Maloway Marston Martin (Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca) Martin (Winnipeg Centre) Martin (Sault Ste. Marie) Masse Mathyssen McCallum McKay (Scarborough—Guildwood) McTeague Ménard (Hochelaga) Ménard (Marc-Aurèle-Fortin) Mendes Murphy (Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe) Murphy (Charlottetown) Murray Neville Oliphant Pacetti Paillé Paquette Patry Pearson Plamondon Pomerleau Rafferty Ratansi Regan Rodriguez Rota Roy Russell Savage Sgro Siksay Silva Simms Simson St-Cyr Stoffer Szabo Thi Lac Thibeault Tonks Valeriote Vincent Volpe Wasylycia-Leis Wilfert Wrzesnewskyj Zarac Total: -- 139 NAYS Members Abbott Ablonczy Aglukkaq Albrecht Allen (Tobique—Mactaquac) Ambrose Anderson Arthur Ashfield Baird Benoit Bernier Blackburn Blaney Block Boucher Boughen Breitkreuz Brown (Leeds—Grenville) Brown (Newmarket—Aurora) Brown (Barrie) Cadman Calandra Carrie Casson Chong Clarke Clement Cummins Davidson Day Dechert Del Mastro Devolin Dreeshen Duncan (Vancouver Island North) Dykstra Fast Finley Flaherty Fletcher Galipeau Gallant Glover Goldring Goodyear Gourde Grewal Guergis Harris (Cariboo—Prince George) Hawn Hiebert Hill Hoback Hoeppner Holder Jean Kamp (Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission) Keddy (South Shore—St. Margaret's) Kenney (Calgary Southeast) Kent Kerr Kramp (Prince Edward—Hastings) Lake Lauzon Lebel Lemieux Lukiwski Lunn Lunney MacKay (Central Nova) MacKenzie Mark Mayes McColeman McLeod Menzies Merrifield Miller Moore (Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam) Moore (Fundy Royal) Nicholson Norlock O'Connor O'Neill-Gordon Obhrai Oda Paradis Payne Petit Poilievre Prentice Preston Raitt Rajotte Rathgeber Reid Richards Richardson Rickford Ritz Saxton Scheer Schellenberger Shea Shipley Shory Sorenson Stanton Storseth Sweet Thompson Tilson Toews Trost Tweed Uppal Van Kesteren Van Loan Vellacott Verner Wallace Warkentin Weston (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country) Weston (Saint John) Wong Woodworth Yelich Young Total: -- 129
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Hunger Strike of Veteran Steven P Dixon On 06 Apr 2009, Steven Dixon began his hunger strike in protest to his treatment, and the treatment of other disabled veterans at the hands of VAC. Mr Dixon was diagnosed with PTSD due to his military service. To greatly complicate his treatment in living with the symptoms of this mental wound, Dixon was also diagnosed with Huntingdon's Disease (HD). As Dixon states, that are not many cases that have both of these disorders concurrently, and hence treatment is difficult. Although Dixon still has a few outstanding claims against VAC, his main intent of the hunger strike was to bring attention to Operational Stress Injuries (OSI) wounds suffered by soldiers on operations in Special Duty Areas (SDA). Further, he wants VAC to recognize that there are older generation vets that were released with mental wounds before the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) acronym became a favourite term of politicians, bureaucrats and journalists to throw around. In 1993, DND seriously started examining mental disorders inflicted by military service with OSI and PTSD being one of the extreme mental conditions contracted by active service personnel. Dixon's concern is that there are probably many vets medically released from the CF who may not know what is wrong with them or that they may have developed PTSD. Although warned by his doctors of certain consequences of his hunger strike, Dixon nevertheless proceeded with his strike in Charlottetown, but under a watchful eye of medical personnel. By 10 Apr 2009, he achieved success, or what appeared to be success with VAC. He had his first meal that day and the hunger strike was temporarily suspended, However, it became apparent by 12 Apr, the VAC promises made as understood by Dixon were not be followed through. The hunger strike recommenced. As 17 Apr rolled round, it again appeared that Dixon may have had achieved success. However, he was more leery this time if VAC was going to commit. The hunger strike was once again suspended waiting the outcome of VAC's actions. On 04 May 2009, Dixon proceeded again with the hunger strike on behalf of another veteran. This latest action on Dixon's behalf was then suspended, again waiting the outcome of VAC's decisions. Such decisions may take weeks or months to become official, and hence the strike has been postponed until some time in the future if VAC fails to agree to Dixon's concerns or it has become apparent that VAC is not going to deal with the issues put forward by Dixon. Mr Dixon's 'manifesto' can be viewed along with his diary at http://www.veteranvoice.info/newsgeneral.htm .
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New VVi Polls As @ 17 May 2009 The following polls do not follow scientific methodology. Rather, they exist to allow subscribers to voice specific opinions and preferences, providing a general train of thought for the respondents. In some instances though, certain chosen preferences are very clear. Should the Veteran Review and Appeals Board (VRAB) come under the authority of.... Total Votes: 735 Answers Votes Percent 1. Veteran Ombudsman 350 48% 2. Veteran Affairs Canada 16 2% 3. legislation as an independent agency 369 50%
Should the Veteran's Ombudsman mandate include the authority to protect veterans' disability awards? Total Votes: 537 Answers Votes Percent 1. No 15 3% 2. Yes 522 97%
For you, what is the most pressing issue facing veterans? Total Votes: 798 Answers Votes Percent 1. VRAB fairness 63 8% 2. VAC bureaucracy 61 8% 3. New Veteran Charter (NVC) 212 27% 4. Clawback at Age 65 169 21% 5. SISIP Clawback 231 29% 6. Rehab training 23 3% 7. Veterans Ombudsman Mandate 39 5%
Visit the VVi Polls and provide your feedback @ http://www.veteranvoice.info/guestBookPolls.htm .
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