The moral obligation to know our veterans: Mike Haynie at TEDxUniversityofNevada
Published on Feb 3, 2014
Dr. Mike Haynie is the Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families and the Barnes Professor of Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University's Whitman School. In this talk he discusses how as a result of the all-volunteer approach to military service, most people in the United States do not understand the challenges facing our veterans.
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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
New announcement: FREE B&B ACCOMMODATIONS ON REMEMBRANCE DAY TO HONOUR VETS AND MILITARY PERSONNEL
BBCanada.com is proud to be assisting Canadian Bed and Breakfast owners in launching the 2014 B&Bs for Vets campaign to celebrate Remembrance Day. Canadian B&B owners would like to honour and say THANK YOU to our veterans and active military personnel and for this reason they are joining hundreds of B&Bs across North America in the "B&Bs for Vets" initiative. This unique program allows veterans and military personnel to stay at a participating B&B, FREE OF CHARGE for either the night of Monday November 10th or Tuesday November 11th, 2014.
We hope that we can count on your support to get the message out to Canadian veterans and military personnel about the B&Bs For Vets annual event. In order to publicize this event, attached is a press release in both English www.bbcanada.com/bb_demo/enews/2014/october/Vetsposter.pdf and French www.bbcanada.com/bb_demo/enews/2014/october/Vetsposter_f.pdf and a link to our English and French posters. Please feel free to print and display or hand out these posters as needed.
BBCanada has dedicated a web page to the campaign B&Bs for Vets. Your members will be able to view all participating B&Bs, and link to their homepage, http://www.bbcanada.com/bbforvets , which offers a full description of the B&B, along with their policies and contact details in order to make a reservation. Last year, many B&B owners were disappointed that no one booked their FREE rooms. This year, we would like to make a special effort to get the word out to our "Vets" so they can enjoy being treated ~ they certainly deserve it!
If you require any additional information, please feel free to contact Lisa by email or call 1-800-239-1141 ext. 6679.
Thanking you for your support
.
Best regards,
Cathy Lisa
Cathy McGowan Lisa Le Chatton
General Manager Director of Sales and Marketing
Web: BBCanada.com Web: BBCanada.com
Web: GitesCanada.com Web: GitesCanada.com
Email: cmcgowan@bbcanada.com Email: llechatton@bbcanada.com
Toll-free : (800) 239-1141 ext. 6675 Toll-free : (800) 239-1141 ext. 6679
Fax / Télécopieur : (905) 297-7351 Fax / Télécopieur : (905) 297-7351
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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Military suicides outnumbered deaths in Afghanistan, new stats show
Military suicides outnumbered deaths in Afghanistan, new stats show
Dominique La Haye, QMI Agency
First posted: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 04:26 AM MDT | Updated: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 04:50 AM MDT
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MONTREAL — There were more suicides in the Canadian Forces since 2002 than combat deaths during Canada's Afghanistan mission, according to a report obtained by QMI Agency.
In the 12 years that Canadians fought in Afghanistan, 158 Armed Forces members were killed. According to records obtained from the Department of National Defence, there were 178 Canadian Forces suicides in the same period.
Due to standard military practice to issue only the numbers of suicides of full-time male soldiers — so the military can compare those statistics with the same age in the general population — previous numbers did not include female soldiers or reservists.
This has allowed the government to state that the suicide rate of a full-time male members of the Armed Forces is no different than that of the average Canadian from a similar demographic.
"I think the problem is much bigger than the numbers show," military lawyer and retired Col. Michel Drapeau said. "Many suicides occur after the person has left the Armed Forces and those numbers aren't included in the totals.
"Often, the ones who have just left the Forces are the most desperate."
Defence Minister Rob Nicholson has ensured the "Forces have taken great strides in recent years to make sure that more attention is being paid to mental health issues, whether they are deployment related or not," Ministry of National Defence spokesman Johanna Quinney told QMI Agency.
"We have augmented the military budget by $130 million, including an increase of $11.4 million for mental health initiatives, raising the total to $50 million. We now have 29 mental health clinics across the country."
The father-in-law of one young soldier who committed suicide says the military still needs to work on the basics.
Marc Tardif said if not for the Army's mistakes, his daughter-in-law, Anne Crevier, may still be alive today.
Crevier, 19, joined the forces in May 2011. On her final exercise of basic training, she was hit in the eye by a paintball. Crevier was wearing goggles, but not a full face mask.
The military transferred her for treatment to Valcartier in Quebec -- far from her family, friends and basic training mates.
"She was really left all on her own," Tardif said.
Crevier told Tardif that she was harassed while at Valcartier, and told that she was better suited to "work in an office."
Nine months after the paintball accident, Crevier committed suicide. "She lost all hope," Tardif said.
Two and a half years later, the family still waits for the results of the inquiry to Crevier's suicide.
-- ---- -----
Suicides in the Canadian Armed Forces (2004 to March 31 2014):
2014 (March 31) :
Male - regular forces: 5
Female - regular forces: 0
Male and female reserves: 3
Total: 8
2013
Male - regular forces: 9
Female - regular forces: 1
Male and female reserves: 3
Total: 13
2012
Male - regular forces: 10
Female - regular forces: 3
Male and female reserves: 4
Total: 17
2011
Male - regular forces: 21
Female - regular forces: 1
Male and female reserves: 3
Total: 25
2010
Male - regular forces: 12
Female - regular forces: 0
Male and female reserves: 1
Total: 13
2009
Male - regular forces: 12
Female - regular forces: 2
Male and female reserves: 8
Total: 22
2008
Male - regular forces: 13
Female - regular forces: 1
Male and female reserves: 1
Total: 15
2007
Male - regular forces: 9
Female - regular forces: 1
Male and female reserves: 2
Total: 12
2006
Male - regular forces: 7
Female - regular forces: 1
Male and female reserves: 3
Total: 11
2005
Male - regular forces: 10
Female - regular forces: 0
Male and female reserves: 1
Total: 11
2004
Male - regular forces: 10
Female - regular forces: 0
Male and female reserves: 3
Total: 13
-- Source - Department of National Defence
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Veteran’s advocate rallies for Torbrook woman
Veteran's advocate rallies for Torbrook woman
Heather Killen
Published on September 08, 2014
© Heather Killen
Leah Greene, a 36-year-old private, couldn't find the support she needed from the military and has turned to Barry Westholm, a national veteran's advocate.
Former sergeant major speaks out about poor process
By Heather Killen
The Spectator
A national veteran's advocate, working on behalf of Torbrook woman, is urging the government to start putting people over process.
Leah Greene, a 36-year-old private who was stationed at 14 Wing Greenwood, says she was lost in the shuffle and couldn't find the support she needed after a spinal cord injury ended her military career and left her in chronic pain.
She says the military abandoned her at a time when she needed it the most.
Desperate, Pte. Greene contacted Barry Westholm, a well-known Ontario-based veteran's advocate last fall, to help her pull her life back together.
Westholm made headlines last year after his resignation from the Joint Personnel Support Unit (JPSU) and more recently his break with the Conservative party, openly criticizing the government for its poor treatment of ill and injured military personnel.
The JPSU is a military branch created to help ill and injured military members, but with so many veterans now returning from tours of duty with injuries and emotional crisis, Westholm says the department is often too overwhelmed and understaffed to be much help.
Injured In 2009
Pte. Greene, a cook, was injured in 2009 during a ball hockey game, an activity she was required to do as part of her physical training. Before the injury, her life was moving in the direction of her dreams, but she says the accident has left her in limbo.
She was playing the game for the first time when she accidently twisted her back. She pulled back to take a shot that was blocked by another player. The force of the blocked motion wrenched her lower back and severely impacted the vertebrae.
"I was the only female playing, but I loved it," she said. "I knew I was hurt real bad, but I kept on playing. I didn't want to admit I was injured. Later at work, I was trying to cook the asparagus and I couldn't hold myself up."
Greene said she went to the emergency room that night and was treated for a strain. She knew something was seriously wrong, as she would temporarily lose sensation and control of her lower body. She would sit down and then find she couldn't stand, she would lie down and be unable to get up.
Toughed It Out
She says she tried to tough it out, but after a series of visits to the emergency room and a battery of tests, she was diagnosed with cauda equina syndrome, an extreme pressure and swelling of the nerves at the end of the spinal cord.
"They told me if you have this surgery, you'll be up dancing in six weeks," she said.
So she underwent the prescribed surgery, but experienced further complications that have left her permanently disabled and emotionally scarred.
Doctors prescribed various pain medications. She was taking as many as 16 different prescriptions to control the pain. Her life began to spiral out of control and eventually she lost her family, her home, and her independence, she said.
Left Alone
Unable to climb the stairs to access her bed and bathroom, she slept on her living room sofa and used a makeshift commode that was set up in the entryway of her front door.
For years no one from the military came to see her. She added that while she was still being paid by the military, her disability kept her from active duty and she was no longer part of anything.
It's the ugly machine of government. When you look at her military record before the injury, it was stellar. When I met her, she was a rambling wreck. The government puts process over people. When you see what happened here, you can see we are in big trouble as a country. Barry Westholm
As her physical independence deteriorated, her mental health also declined. She spiraled into depression, anxiety, and eventually thoughts of suicide. Trying to get the support she needed, she continued to reach out to the military for help.
Her behavior was viewed as erratic and she was institutionalized twice. She added that her situation finally degraded to the point where she was stationed to a room in Juno Towers in Halifax, her family was separated, and the military process that was intended to help her, was slowly erasing her life.
"At that point I took a leap of faith and reached out to Barry," she said. After hundreds of hours spent in meetings, writing letters, making phone calls and teleconferences on Pte. Greene's behalf, Barry Westholm says he's hopeful she will soon have what she needs for the road to recovery.
Home Modified
Her two-storey home has been modified to allow her to live on the main floor and Westholm has been able to provide her the moral support she needed to rebuild her confidence and independence.
He says Pte. Greene's case is an example of how cases can be mishandled and can subsequently spiral into a complete breakdown of the person's emotional, mental, and family life.
"It's the ugly machine of government," he said. "When you look at her military record before the injury, it was stellar. When I met her, she was a rambling wreck. The government puts process over people. When you see what happened here, you can see we are in big trouble as a country."
He added that many of the people he encountered during his time with JPSU expressed a similar sense of betrayal. In the early stages of military training, the individual is broken down to become part of a team.
But, once an injury separates a member from active duty, it's as though the team abandons the member. Feeling betrayed and isolated, all too often the condition spirals to a complete emotional breakdown, he said.
Conned
"From day one, they tell you that you are part of a team, but the minute you are injured, you realize you are on your own and you feel like you've been conned," he said. "She put her heart into her career, her military record was stellar. But after she was injured, no one came to see her for two years."
These cases are complicated and require many hours of intervention to resolve, he said. People need lots of support throughout the process in order to rebuild their lives.
"The work we were doing at first was good, but people kept coming and we were not staffed to handle the number of cases that were coming at us," he said. "We lost three people to suicide, I began hearing other stories."
Westholm says that complexity of these cases require countless hours of personal intervention that the government process doesn't include.
"These are complicated lives with complicated stories," he added. "There are just not enough people to help them."
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
New announcement: PTSD awareness march reaches New Brunswick
PTSD awareness march reaches New Brunswick
3 veterans left B.C. in June on cross-Canada journey
CBC News Posted: Aug 30, 2014 2:49 PM AT Last Updated: Aug 30, 2014 2:49 PM AT
(Check the Video) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/ptsd-awareness-march-reaches-new-brunswick-1.2751493
The men are aiming to raise awareness about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. (CBC)
Three former soldiers are marching through New Brunswick as they enter the final few weeks of a cross-Canada journey aiming to raise awareness about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Laden with military backpacks, Steve Hartwig and two fellow veterans left CFB Gagetown on Friday, hoping to make it to Saint John on Saturday.
Their journey began in British Columbia back in June.
"Everybody has some misunderstanding about PTSD," said Hartwig. "When you come home a lot of people just don't understand what you go thorough."
The three men all served in Croatia in the 1990s and have been diagnosed with PTSD themselves. They're marching because they want the public to better understand the disorder, a condition affecting thousands of Canadians inside and outside the armed forces.
Veteran Paul Bilton welcomed the marchers.
"I was really upset there today when somebody said to me, 'Oh you're PTSD, just get over it and grow up.' That means I have to suck it back inside and try to deal with it. Well it's not going too good," he said.
Bilton served in three conflicts, most recently in Afghanistan. Some painful memories still linger.
"The dog sat on the anti-personnel mine. But what hurt, it was trying to talk to the kids and wiping the dog parts off their faces," he said.
It's stories like Bilton's that inspire the walking veterans.
"That's our motivation everyday is people coming and telling us it's making a difference for them," said Jason McKenzie.
The men hope to finish in St. John's, N.L. on Sept. 14.
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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Canada’s war vets a potentially powerful electoral force: Tim Harper
Canada's war vets a potentially powerful electoral force: Tim Harper
Tensions between vets and their minister, Julian Fantino, continue to simmer and no détente appears on the horizon.
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By: Tim Harper National Affairs, Published on Thu Aug 28 2014
So far, it sounds like loose, angry talk.
But the governing Conservatives are playing with fire with the country's war veterans.
If they can — as they have threatened — organize, mobilize and speak with one voice during next year's federal election, the government will have a major problem on its hands; a problem of its own making.
Right now, the Conservatives are dealing with veterans who have yet to find that united politically damaging voice.
But relations between Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino and those who have returned home with physical and psychological wounds have not improved during the summer, with social media the main battleground in ongoing battles that are simmering just below the public eye.
A day of protest in June largely fizzled, but one veterans' advocate says he doesn't have to mobilize the multitudes on Parliament Hill to let Canadians know the manner in which they feel they have been treated by the Conservatives.
"We merely have to tell Canadians our story,'' said Michael Blais of Canadian Veterans Advocacy.
"If I have to make YouTube videos of stumps to show Canadians how egregiously we have been treated, I will damn well do it.''
As first reported by the CBC this week, veterans groups are now raising objections to the amount of money the Harper Conservatives are spending to commemorate past wars, while cutting back spending on helping veterans in the here and now.
They know the value of remembering but point to the total of spending.
According to documents obtained by the federal Liberals, Canadian Heritage budgeted almost $40 million to commemorate the World Wars and the War of 1812 between 2010 and 2015.
National Defence has budgeted some $27.5 million between now and 2020 to mark events of the 100th anniversary of World War I and the 75th anniversary of World War II.
Veterans Affairs has budgeted another $80 million to mark events of the world wars over the next two years.
According to the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, the contract for advertising for this year's Remembrance Day services has gone to a Halifax company for $678,000.
This, veterans will tell you, is millions spent on promoting a government that uses the military for self-aggrandizement while shortchanging those who have served in Afghanistan.
"Sending Canada's D-Day heroes back to the beaches of Normandy, many of whom were in their 90s, does not come at the expense of treatment for veterans here at home,'' said Fantino's spokesperson, Ashlee Smith.
Anyone suggesting that veterans should not be properly honoured is doing them a "disservice,'' she said.
This week, the veterans' ombudsman, Guy Parent, and the Canadian Forces ombudsman, Gary Walbourne, jointly agreed to probe the arduous process wounded soldiers face while transitioning to civilian life.
The wounded soldiers have had to validate their conditions with doctors upon release from the forces, beginning a process that can take months and has cost some their benefits.
Parent, in a study, concluded half of the most badly wounded war veterans are receiving no disability benefits, while those who are receiving benefits routinely receive the lowest-grade payments.
A social media war was triggered by Fantino, who took to Facebook and Twitter to make the case that disabled veterans are being treated generously, but veterans and critics labelled the minister's charts and graphics misleading because so few of the permanently disabled vets receive the amount of money he claims is available.
This has, of course, been a bad year for Fantino, who has fumbled the file in two highly publicized events, arguing with veterans and appearing to snub the wife of a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
But the minister is refusing to swap his combativeness with empathy.
He took matters into his own hands with a letter to the Halifax newspaper this month, because, he said, it was time to explode some myths.
He pointed to a Statistics Canada report that veterans are receiving $60,000 to $70,000 per year and he — again — accused public sector unions of using veterans for their own purposes, then trying to block their entry into the public service.
It is an ongoing puzzle why Fantino mounts such an aggressive counterattack against those who have served this country in wars.
There are no signs that the coming year will result in a détente between the minister and the country's veterans.
Right now, the government can benefit only because veterans groups seem unable to speak as one political voice.
Should that change, there can be few other lobby groups that could mount a more powerful or politically damaging campaign against a government seeking re-election.
Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1
Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.
To repair fractured relationship with veterans, Fantino must go
To repair fractured relationship with veterans, Fantino must go
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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