August 28, 2014
By Deveryn Ross
In an op-ed entitled "It's a myth veterans are mistreated", published in last Wednesday's Halifax Chronicle Herald, Veteran Affairs Minister Julian Fantino lashed out at veterans who are unhappy with the treatment they're receiving from the Harper government, and at unionized members within his own department.
The minister wrote that, "One myth is that veterans no longer receive monthly benefits and just receive a lump-sum payment. This is simply not true. Veterans are eligible for a range of services and benefits that enable them to get the financial help and support they deserve."
He cited a Statistics Canada report which he claimed, "found veterans who are receiving benefits from Veterans Affairs Canada are earning approximately $70,000 a year. This independent report also found that veterans who are medically released earn approximately $60,000 a year. This is in addition to a lump-sum given where a veteran is critically injured."
In a shot aimed at public service union members, he added that, "Another myth is that unions put veterans ahead of their own interests."
Fantino's claims are contradicted by findings contained in a report by Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent, released last Tuesday. Parent concluded that almost half of Canada's most severely disabled veterans are not receiving a government allowance intended to compensate them for their physical and mental wounds.
"Many severely impaired veterans are either not receiving these benefits or may be receiving them at a grade level that is too low," wrote the Ombudsman. "This is unfair and needs to be corrected."
The next day, the Canadian Press reported that "Fantino told a House of Commons committee last spring that some permanently disabled soldiers receive more than $10,000 per month, but figures from his own department show that only four individuals in the entire country receive that much."
Brandonite Glen Kirkland, an Afghanistan veteran and leading advocate for his comrades, is unimpressed by Fantino's latest broadside.
In 2008, Kirkland was the victim of a Taliban ambush that killed three other soldiers. He suffered serious injuries, including the loss of 75 per cent of his hearing, a partial loss of vision and a brain injury that has left him permanently dependant on insulin.
"I was critically wounded, am on life sustaining therapy (eight - 10 insulin injections a day) and since I've been released, I have had zero coverage", he told me on Wednesday. "I am in the process of getting compensated but am currently paying over $3,000 per month for my medicine that was a direct result of serving Canada."
Kirkland says what he and those who served with him in Afghanistan want -- and what the Harper government refuses to provide -- is the same treatment as veterans of earlier conflicts receive. "In 2006, the government amended the pension program which covered wounded military personnel. The changes were made months before Canada took on its largest combat mission since Korea. It wasn't done to look after the soldiers, but rather to save money on the backs of those who serve."
"What soldiers are fighting for now is not more financial gain but to have one standard for all", he says. "Whether it's the older WWII veterans or the more recent veterans, they are coming home with the same injuries and deserve equal compensation."
Kirkland's position, resting on principles of fairness and common sense, is reasonable. The belligerent position taken by Fantino in response to veterans' concerns is not.
It begs the question: What justification is there for the minister of veterans affairs misrepresenting the plight of Canada's veterans and questioning the motives of his own departmental staff?
Since assuming the veterans' affairs portfolio, Fantino has taken a combative, adversarial approach toward Canadian men and women who have experienced actual combat, with many having the scars to prove it. Soldiers such as Glen Kirkland.
Far from being their advocate, Fantino has repeatedly portrayed them as ingrates, malingers and, in some cases, liars. Wednesday's salvo is the latest, and perhaps the most egregious, example.
Enough is enough. If the Harper government has any desire to repair its fractured relationship with veterans before the coming election, it starts with a new veterans' affairs minister. Fantino must go.
Care to comment?
Email: deverynrossletters@gmail.com, Twitter: @deverynross
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
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