Local resident wants 2014 declared as Year of the Veteran in the Comox Valley
By Michael Briones, Comox Valley Echo June 21, 2013
http://www.canada.com/Local+resident+wants+2014+declared+Year+Veteran+Comox+Valley/8557875/story.html
local resident has volunteered to lead an effort to have 2014 declared as the Year of the Veteran in Courtenay and the Comox Valley.
Lewis Bartholomew, the founder and director of The Alberni Project, wrote to Mayor Larry Jangula of his idea and has invited the city to become involved.
He pointed out that as of today, there is still no national holiday honouring the country's veterans, who are still alive.
Remembrance Day, he explained, is a holiday that has been designated to recognize the Supreme Sacrifice.
"There's no day that has been set aside to honour those men and women and their families of today's wars and peacekeeping missions," Bartholomew wrote in his letter.
Next year will be the 70th anniversary of D Day, the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. It will also coincide with the sinking of HMCS Alberni.
Bartholomew is willing to spearhead a regional celebration for veterans next June 6.
"This is something that a yearlong campaign, complete with logo and events can be held locally which will not only be great for our local veterans, but also for the local economy and national attention on Courtenay and the Comox Valley rising to this occasion," he said.
Courtenay councillor Jon Ambler said that 2014 will also mark the 100th year anniversary of the start of the First World War and feels Bartholomew's plan would be a "worthwhile" project the city can look into.
Ambler asked staff whether the city has a policy on making declarations.
City's chief administrative officer David Allen was not able to give an immediate answer but would report back to council.
Counc. Doug Hillian considers the plan to be a big challenge for one community to undertake.
"I'm not sure why one community would do it apart from something perhaps a nation would do," Hillian asked. "Beyond that I don't have a problem with it."
Bartholomew aims to draw on the programs of other groups, associations and individuals that focus on Canadian veterans.
"I want to utilize their programs in one single event which puts focus on a less somber view of veterans, one in which veterans and their families are celebrated instead of mourned," Bartholomew said.
With combined efforts of CFB Comox, Royal Canadian Legions, local governments, and other groups like the Canadian Veterans advocacy, Bartholomew feels it will be seen as a good gesture to local veterans that the region is "paying attention and that we do honour them every day, not just on the dark day of November 11."
To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." in your profile.
You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/index.php?topic=10012.0
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
New announcement: Veteran Affairs eliminates nearly 300 jobs in deficit-reduction fight
Veteran Affairs eliminates nearly 300 jobs in deficit-reduction fight
By: The Canadian Press
Posted: 5:15 PM | Comments: 1 | Last Modified: 7:42 PM
OTTAWA - Nearly 300 positions at Veterans Affairs Canada are being eliminated as a result of measures in the 2012 federal budget.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union representing the federal workers, was served with a letter June 17 notifying it that 297 positions are "affected" by the reoganization.
Of those 224 jobs will actually be cut, as opposed to be reallocated.
The department's headquarters on P.E.I., locations in Ottawa and field offices across the country will be affected by the measures.
The vast majority of the reductions — 153 — will be made in Charlottetown.
The overhaul of the department will take until 2015, and the Harper government has consistently said it will not affect services to ex-members of the military and the RCMP.
A spokesman for Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney said the affected positions are information technology and communications, and do not affect client services.
"As promised we are maintaining and improving service as well as the delivery of our services and benefits to Veterans and we are confident that these back office reductions can be managed through the close to 700 employees eligible to retire in the coming years," said Niklaus Schwenker in an email.
But the union isn't buying it, noting the federal government recently signed a $318-million contract with a private, for-profit company to deliver some services being chopped in the public sector.
Officials say many veterans are losing access to front-line, face-to-face service from public service workers, and instead are being told to call a toll-free number or use a computer at a Service Canada office.
"The reduction of front-line staff at Veterans Affairs is being made on the backs of their clients, the veterans — the heroes of our nation, the men and women who have sacrificed their health and lives for the safety and security of Canadians," Yvan Thauvette, president of the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees, said in a statement.
"The needs of veterans are becoming greater and more complex, requiring collaboration between provincial and federal departments. Employees are working with fewer resources with more complex legislation and programs."
To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." in your profile.
You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/index.php?topic=10007.0
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
New announcement: Navy brass demands veterans seek permission to wear uniforms at ceremonies and p
Navy brass demands veterans seek permission to wear uniforms at ceremonies and public functions
By DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN June 19, 2013 6:06 PM
Canada's navy brass is lowering the hammer on veterans who are wearing their uniforms to ceremonial and other public functions, demanding that they receive permission in writing before doing so.
But the June 13 directive from the head of the Royal Canadian Navy has the potential to create a public relations nightmare in which elderly veterans who wear their old naval uniforms at Remembrance Day and other anniversary functions are told they are violating military rules.
A number of serving military personnel forwarded the directive to the Citizen, adding that they worry such a decree is unworkable or will backfire on the navy if it tries to prevent Second World War or Korean War veterans from wearing their uniforms during memorial events.
"Requests by former RCN service members to wear uniforms, including mess dress, will be considered on a case-by-case basis," wrote navy commander Vice Admiral Paul Maddison in the message now being circulated to units and veterans groups. "Such approval shall be limited to exceptional circumstances where the wearing of the uniform is necessary and will favorably contribute to the RCN."
The commander of the RCN is the only one with the authority to permit non-active navy members to wear uniforms, he added.
The message also noted that local units do not have the ability to give veterans permission to wear uniforms.
A navy spokesman said that the service plans to issue a response to the Citizen's questions submitted Tuesday but that it still has to receive approval before releasing that to the newspaper. Under a system put in place by the Conservative government and Defence Department leadership, that approval process can take anywhere from several days to a month.
The navy already has in place a policy that requires veterans who want to wear their uniforms to seek permission. It, however, has not been strictly enforced.
But military sources say the impetus for Maddison's message was an event honouring the navy and commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic, held at the Canadian War Museum in early May. A number of retired admirals attended in their mess uniforms even though they did not have permission to do so.
Serving officers objected to that and a number of heated emails were exchanged between the navy and retired officers after the event. Emotions are still running high, say sources, with one former senior officer threatening to return his medals because of the dispute.
Mess uniforms are specially designed tuxedos for formal occasions. They meet military specifications and officers pay for the uniforms themselves.
Maddison's message notes that the authority to permit the wearing of such mess dress for former service members lies solely with the head of the navy.
Mess dinners, in general, do not warrant the wearing of uniforms by former navy members, he added.
Requests to wear uniforms must now be sent to navy headquarters far enough in advance so approval can be issued. Blanket requests for events will not be considered except in the most exceptional circumstances, the message added.
Andrew Warden, a spokesman for the Navy League of Canada said in an email that in regard to the uniform policy for recently retired members, "the Navy League supports current DND policies relating to the wearing of uniforms by retired members."
He suggested the Royal Canadian Legion would be better able to speak about how the issue might affect veterans.
Legion spokesman Bruce Poulin, however, said since the organization has not yet seen Maddison's message it cannot comment.
Another source said that "technically speaking" the elderly veterans who wear their navy uniforms on Remembrance Day and at other ceremonial events are supposed to obtain permission but rarely do. If Maddison's directive is followed to the letter, those veterans could be challenged, the source added.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." in your profile.
You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/index.php?topic=9984.0
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Minister Blaney joins The Royal in Launching New Mobile App for Veterans
I strongly recommend this app... There's lots of info.... If you have any comments on the app, please email me. I will pass it on the OSI Ottawa Team....
Sylvain
------------
[size=12pt][u][b]Minister Blaney joins The Royal in Launching New Mobile App for Veterans[/b][/u][/size]
Published: June 18, 2013
Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/06/18/4955640/minister-blaney-joins-the-royal.html#storylink=cpy
OTTAWA, June 18, 2013 — /CNW/ - The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister for La Francophonie, today joined Dr. Raj Bhatla, Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Chief of Staff of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group (The Royal), to launch a new mobile application that will assist Veterans, personnel of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with operational stress injuries (OSIs). The app, called OSI Connect, provides information and assistance for people living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other types of OSIs, as well as their family members.
"Our Government commends The Royal and its OSI clinic for providing support and information at the touch of a button for those who are suffering as a result of their service to Canada," said Minister Blaney. "In collaboration with the OSI Clinic Network, this new app will make a real difference for our nation's heroes who are living with PTSD or other operational stress injuries."
OSI Connect was created by the Royal Ottawa OSI Clinic, which is one of 10 OSI clinics across Canada funded by VAC. The app is also a resource for professionals who work with individuals who could be suffering from an OSI. They include physicians, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers, social workers and community workers at detox centres and homeless shelters.
"This mobile app is a new channel for Veterans and serving personnel in the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP to get information and resources on operational stress injuries without any stigma," said George Weber, President and CEO of The Royal, the only specialized mental health and academic health sciences centre of the OSI Clinic Network. "We hope it will encourage those who are suffering the very painful and disturbing effects of operational stress injuries and who may not be aware of services or how to go about getting help."
OSI clinics specialize in treating conditions that come from combat, high stress or operational fatigue. Each clinic has a dedicated professional team that includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, mental health nurses, and other specialized clinicians who provide assessment, treatment, prevention and support. They use their knowledge of the military and police environments to develop personalized OSI treatment plans.
OSI Connect is free and available in English and French (Connexion TSO) from iTunes, BlackBerry and Android app stores.
SOURCE Veterans Affairs Canada
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Friday, June 14, 2013
New announcement: Canadian soldiers volunteer in search for missing Canadian (ex CF) in Australia
Canadian soldiers volunteer in search for missing Canadian in Australia
Prabhdeep Srawn missing since May 13
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/06/13/hamilton-prabhdeep-srawn-search-update.html
The search for an Ontario man missing in a mountainous region of Australia is about to get a big boost from his military comrades, his family says.
Ten members of the Canadian Armed Forces are taking it upon themselves to head to Australia to search for Prabhdeep Srawn, who disappeared May 13 during a bushwalk in the Snowy Mountains southwest of the capital Canberra. The soldiers are not going in any official capacity with the Canadian Forces.
Dr. Tej Sahota, whose wife is Srawn's cousin, tweeted early Thursday that a number of the soldiers toured in the mountain regions of Afghanistan and have extensive experience.
The family is offering $100,000 to anyone who "rescues or recovers him" — but the soldiers want no part of the reward, Sahota says.
"They're going to bring back one of their own, and they were clear that for this, they wouldn't accept any payment," he said, adding that with the exception of one or two of them, none of the men had ever met Srawn.
The official search for the 25-year-old, who was a military reservist in Hamilton before moving to Australia, finished almost two weeks ago. His family moved to Brampton shortly after he moved.
Officials have said the chances of finding Srawn alive have decreased but his family has said it won't give up its efforts. They have repeatedly slammed efforts to find the missing man by Australian authorities.
'Infuriating, shocking and intolerable'
Srawn's cousin, Ruby Singh-Sahota met with members of the Australian High Commission to Canada on Wednesday.
"We have been greatly and deeply affected by our inability to see Prabh, to embrace him, to understand what has happened and how exactly to help him," Singh-Sahota said in a letter to the commission.
"And while this has caused us to ache and yearn for him, little has been as infuriating, shocking and intolerable as the number of painfully inefficient and inexcusably time consuming administrative hurdles we have encountered in trying to secure proper permissions to facilitate the private search."
Shortly after the meeting, Singh-Sahota tweeted that there had been "no commitment" from the high commission to help the family. She says she was told search teams don't usually search this long and the family was "acting out of desperation."
Srawn went missing just over a month ago. The Australian High Commission to Canada did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
'Cold-weather training' offers hope
Srawn's family and supporters still believe he could be found alive because he had extensive survivor training and hiking experience, Sahota told CBC News in an interview earlier this week, before the reward had been doubled.
Srawn was a Canadian Forces reservist from 2005 to 2011, belonging to the 31 Service Battalion's Hamilton Company. Sahota told CBC Hamilton that Srawn had risen to the rank of master corporal and was responsible for his own unit.
That unit did forced marches and cold weather training in northern Ontario, Sahota said.
"They would do sustained cold weather training, with like two or three weeks of being in the middle of the forest with minimal equipment as part of their training. His report indicates that he did all of that with flying colours," he said.
The unit would often train in temperatures as low as –25 C, Sahota added.
To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." in your profile.
You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/index.php?topic=9918.0
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
New announcement: The NVC: Severely reducing veterans benefits through ‘improvements’ and ‘enhance
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF NEOLIBERAL SOCIAL POLICY:
The New Veterans Charter: Severely reducing veterans benefits through 'improvements' and 'enhancements'
by Matt Luloff
The New Veterans Charter: Severely reducing veterans benefits through 'improvements' and 'enhancements'
by Matt Luloff
Chapter I
Introduction
Canada has a long and storied history with a reputation for punching above our collective weight in the international community. From Banting's discovery of insulin as a treatment for diabetes to Lester B. Pearson's brilliant peace brokering in his handling of the Suez Crisis, Canada asserts her relevance by demonstrating an ability to innovate, adapt and overcome despite the bleakest of odds. This is especially true of our military history.
Two hundred years ago, fifty-five years before Confederation, a rag-tag militia of British and French colonists assisted by Indigenous and Metis warriors fought off a coordinated and significantly larger American invading force maintaining the Canadian-American border. One hundred and thirty nine years later, at the Battle of Kapyong in Korea, Canada demonstrated unrelenting resolve while holding off a Chinese and Korean brigade for three days; an amazing feat considering the Canadian contingent was demonstrably smaller and suffered seemingly endless casualties. To this day, the Canadian Forces are highly regarded as amongst the best-trained and effective organizations in the world. However, when the mission is over and the soldier returns to civilian life, a new mission lays before the returning soldier, that of re-integrating into the society he or she fought to serve while making sense of their experiences in order to wield them to their advantage in the often difficult task of establishing an existence beyond the total institution of military service. The recently restored civilian, "for whom everything (was) provided by the state, (has lost), to a certain extent, his sense of personal responsibility" (McKelvey Bell, 1919). If it is the Government who is responsible for this transformation from civilian to soldier, should it not then be responsible for the transition in reverse? Most would agree, however the chasm between what the government is mandated to provide and what provisions are available to veterans is long, and wide, and growing longer and wider still.
Despite the contemporary and extensive media coverage regarding benefits available to veterans of the Canadian Forces, caring for our injured veterans through disability pensions coupled with vocational training is certainly not a pioneering or novel idea. During the First World War, the Tory-led Unionist government of Sir Robert Borden passed the War Measures Act creating the Department of Soldier's Civil Re-establishment. Borden's government proclaimed it as and indication of Canada's strong commitment to those who had sacrificed life and limb for the Commonwealth:
"The men by whose sacrifice and endurance the free institutions of Canada will be preserved must be re-educated where necessary and re-established on the land or in such pursuits or vocations as they may desire to follow. The maimed and the broken will be protected, the widow and the orphan will be helped and cherished. Duty and decency demand that those who are saving democracy shall not find democracy a house of privilege, or a school of poverty and hardship" (Veterans Affairs Canada – Canadian Forces Advisory Council, 2004)
The newly minted Department developed and delivered comprehensive programmes designed to support the injured financially, foster professional and personal development through education and vocational rehabilitation, with the end goal of returning them to some semblance of self-sufficiency. The programmes were, by most measures, heralded as a complete success. At the time, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported:
"as soon as the returned soldier who is crippled or rendered partially disabled by disease or injury can be made to realize that life still holds interests for him in the manufacturing, the educational, or the commercial world, and that there is a department which is ready to do everything necessary to help him overcome his handicap, so soon will a step forward have been made in connection with his rehabilitation and his return to useful civilian life. The knowledge that he can still be self-supporting in spite of the handicap of the loss of limbs or of other serious defects, assists him to regain pride in his own personal effort and encourages him to make a strong endeavour to become self-supporting" (McKelvey Bell, 1919)
Certainly many things have changed since 1919, and the Government of Canada's unfettered commitment to the injured soldier as demonstrated above is, quite regrettably, one of them.
Canada's decision to support the NATO International Security Assistance Force mission to Afghanistan was an undertaking the likes of which the Canadian Forces had not seen since the Korean War, both in the size and scope of the operation, and in the amount of casualties incurred in combat. From the time the first Canadian boots hit the hot sands of Kandahar to the declaration of the end of combat operations, 158 flag-draped coffins have returned to Canada to be received by grieving families. The impact on those who fought selflessly and tirelessly alongside international allies and survived the horrors of war is without a doubt immeasurable.
In addition, many Canadian forces members returned home with injuries including some who returned home with gruesome physical injuries, and others who returned haunted by the intensity and vicious violence of the conflict; both types of injuries afflicted some soldiers. The brave men and women who stood face-to-face with the Taliban and other armed factions across southern Kandahar were prepared to give everything, up to and including their lives, for their country. On their return, their country has an obligation to them as mandated by the contemporary incarnation of veteran's legislation, the Department of Veteran's Affairs Act, which charges the Minister with "the care, treatment or re-establishment in civil life of any person who served in the Canadian Forces" (The Governnment of Canada, 1984).
With an average of two thousand eight hundred troops deployed at any given time, Canada's mission in Afghanistan was producing a constant flow of new clients for the Department. In 2005, while Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition, Stephen Harper proclaimed to an audience of Legionnaires,
"all too often we hear stories of veterans who are ignored or disrespected by government. What a shameful way to treat men and women who risked their lives to defend Canada. This shame will end with the election of a new (Conservative) government" (CTV News, 2005)
But the shame did not end when Mr Harper became Prime Minister in February 2006. The first Tory government in over a decade, seemingly delivering on its promise with fervour and without delay, produced the New Veteran's Charter (NVC) exactly two months after forming government, created an office for a veteran's ombudsman, and introduced major changes to the financial assistance available to injured clients of the department. At the time, Harper hailed the legislation as a sign his government was "begin (ning) to do the right thing for Canada's servicemen and women" (Veterans Affairs Canada, 2006). The Minister of Veterans Affairs, The Honourable Greg Thompson proclaimed,
"The New Veterans Charter is the most profound transformation of Veterans' services and benefits since the end of the Second World War. It provides all the fundamental programs and services that CF Veterans and their families have told us they need as they transition from military to civilian life" (Ibid).
Even the officially non-partisan chief of the Canadian Forces, General Rick Hillier touted the NVC as "Canada's promise to invest in (veterans) futures" (Ibid). However it was the Minister of Veterans Affairs who was closest to the results in declaring the piece of legislation a transformation.
The government was presenting the NVC as an improvement to the antiquated Pension Act, however, the major changes represented a significant decrease in the amount of financial assistance available to injured veterans at a time when hundreds of soldiers were returning home afflicted with either or both physical injuries and Occupational Stress Injuries (OSI) (Aiken & Buithenhuis, 2011). In response, Michael Blais, CD, founded the Canadian Veterans Advocacy and organized an Annual Canadian Veterans National Day of Protest, attracting thousands of angry veterans to federal riding offices and to Parliament Hill in 2010 (Canadian Veterans Advocacy, 2012). The chief complaint regarding the new legislation was the decision to remove the Life-time Disability Pension mandated by the now-defunct Pension Act and replace it with a Lump Sum Disability Award. The common argument advocating for this change is that lump sum awards provide substantial and immediate support to the veteran. The trouble is the lump sum payment does not provide the guaranteed income security needed for veterans to re-establish themselves without financial strain. If the veteran is well-versed in investment banking and has access to the best advice possible, perhaps this option would be viable, however this scenario is highly unlikely considering the social circumstances of the modern veteran.
In response, the government introduced the Enhanced New Veteran's Charter Act, addressing some of the issues raised by concerned veterans and modifying the Lump Sum Disability Award. Rather than reverting to monthly pensions as demanded by Canadian Veterans Advocacy and many individual veterans, the government opted to change payment options for the Award to include a monthly instalment option, with the reasoning that veterans had difficulty managing a large sum of money (Veterans Affairs Canada, 2010). Still, the total amount awarded to the recipient would mirror the amount of the lump sum, giving very little incentive to prolong the pay out. In fact, the Government of Canada was scaling back the fiscal benefits to injured veterans, describing the changes as 'enhancements' and 'improvements,' purporting to be addressing the concerns regarding the NVC while only making token changes to the Act in order to give the impression of understanding and to placate the affected veterans. Additional cuts to the Veteran's Affairs budget were announced in the 2012 Federal Budget while the government maintains its unbridled "support" for those who fought for Canada. While these changes are presented by the government as a means to speed up the process by making large cuts to the "rampant bureaucracy" within the Department of Veterans Affairs, indeed having less direct support for veterans by closing District Offices and slashing staff would tend to provoke the opposite result (The Canadian Press , 2012). Yvan Thauvette, president of the Union for Veterans Affairs Employees has countered "People are overwhelmed in a lot of district offices. Service delivery, they want to cut positions and most of those positions are frontline staff people. Do you believe that the service will be the same? No it won't" (CBC News , 2012). The EQUITAS Society, a Veterans Advocacy group currently engaged in a class-action lawsuit against the government in response to the Enhanced New Veterans Charter has identified the services currently available to veterans as "woefully inadequate" (Equitas Society, 2012). Can cutting resources and funding while lowering the financial support to Canadian Forces veterans truly be an enhancement to the services available to them? How can recent changes represent both a reduction and an improvement to these services?
In May 2012, the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs released its latest report, piously titled Improving Services to Improve Quality of Life for Veterans and Their Families. The Report contains seventeen (17) recommendations, most of which contain weak language including "assess the potential benefits… examine… maintaining current practices… review… continue to work," and so on (Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, 41st Parliament, 2012). In the Supplementary Opinion of the Official Opposition, New Democratic Party of Canada members of the committee expressed "very serious concerns with its content" (Ibid, p. 71). Not surprisingly, the NDP, in chorus with the Union for Veterans Affairs Employees, stated,
"New Democrats are very concerned that the cuts to staff (approximately 804 VAC staff), the elimination of nine regional offices across the country, and proposals for private sector/alternate service… will seriously impact the quality of service to veterans and their families. The Official Opposition does not believe that the Department of Veterans Affairs can maintain the same standard of care or programs and services with fewer staff and resources" (Ibid)
In its Minority Report, the Liberal Party of Canada was scathing in its criticism of the process of the committee and the content of its Report. The Party's only sitting member of the Committee, Sean Casey (MP Charlottown) pointed out that many of the recommendations lacked substantial or sufficient action, opting only for "further study" (Ibid, p. 75). Casey states,
"The Liberal Party is disappointed with the calibre and generality of this Report. Such an extensive study provided an opportunity for the Committee to make impactful recommendations to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The recommendations however, as well as the report in general, display that the majority of the Committee is far more interested in congratulating the government, than in providing advice and constructive criticism to improve services to the veterans of Canada" (Ibid)
With such vehement criticism from stakeholders, employee representatives and committee members, how does the government continue to mask deep cuts as improvements?
Research in this policy area is incredibly important. Reducing Veterans benefits is shirking Canada's responsibility to care for those who signed a contract of unlimited liability and have incurred injuries while conducting combat operations in defence of the Crown. At a time when the Government of Canada has demanded so much of its Canadian Forces with the decade-long war in Afghanistan, humanitarian efforts in Haiti, increased military presence in the Arctic, security efforts for the Olympic Games, response to domestic emergencies including flooding in Manitoba, peacekeeping operations in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, it is not fulfilling its responsibilities as outlined in the Department of Veterans Affairs Act.
(I know some of you will not like this but I have to refer to the actual link as its impossible to transfer all here, but we need to archive this information in the CVA Information Repository):
To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." in your profile.
You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/index.php?topic=9904.0
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
New announcement: City of Ottawa wants to help veterans fill vacant jobs
City of Ottawa wants to help veterans fill vacant jobs
By Drake Fenton, OTTAWA CITIZEN June 12, 2013 6:07 PM
OTTAWA — The City of Ottawa announced Tuesday it will participate in a federal initiative to help military veterans find employment with the city.
The Hire a Veteran program, organized through Veterans Affairs Canada, is aimed at assisting former military members transition into the civilian workforce.
Each year, 4,000 to 5,000 members of the Canadian Forces leave the military at an average age of 37.
According to Coun. Steve Desroches — who helped bring the program to Ottawa — the initiative isn't about creating jobs for veterans, but instead about giving them a chance to fill vacant jobs.
"They do need to compete and put their best foot forward," Desroches said. "I think our military is representative of our society. It has men and women of all different backgrounds that would be well positioned to work for the city."
Desroches said members of the military have a variety of transferable skills that would make them candidates for a vast number of city jobs.
Brampton, Ont., is the only other municipality currently taking part in the Hire a Veteran program.
dfenton@ottawacitizen.com">dfenton@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/drakefenton
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." in your profile.
You can view the full announcement by following this link:
http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/index.php?topic=9903.0
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)