Today we honour the dead. And that's as it should be. "If ye break faith with us who die," John McCrae wrote, "we shall not sleep." It's easy to keep faith with the dead. It doesn't cost much.
But we have broken faith with the living, the veterans who have come home and who will carry the wounds of war for the rest of their lives. Guy Parent, who replaced military ombudsman Pat Strogan, is doing the same thing for which Strogan was fired. Parent reports that the government has abandoned returning veterans. According to the Canadian Press,
Guy Parent's long-awaited assessment of the government's so-called veterans charter found that veterans are receiving inadequate compensation from the government for their pain and suffering.
Hundreds of severely disabled veterans, in particular, will also take a financial hit once they retire because some of their benefits will end and they don't have military pensions, Parent says in the report.
And the proposed budget will cut the offices which deliver veterans services. The Globe and Mail reports that:
The Conservative government says it is closing the offices in Corner Brook, Nfld., Charlottetown, Sydney, N.S., Windsor, Ont., Thunder Bay, Ont., Brandon, Man., Saskatoon, Sask., Kelowna, B.C., and Prince George, B.C. by February to adjust to the changing needs and demographics of veterans across Canada.
Veterans Affairs officials point out that veterans will still be able to obtain help at Service Canada locations. They can also call the department, use their computers or request a home visit.
In its quest for re-election, the Harper government has decided that Canadian veterans are expendable. The truth is that, for the prime minister, breaking faith is standard operating procedure. Everyone is expendable -- except the man Alison, over at Creekside, calls "Commander Dress-up."
6 comments:
We have included your post in our 'Around the Blogs' section at looniepolitics.com.
Thanks, Robert.
Harper was Policy Chief for his, Northern Foundation of 1989. Harper had hired Wolfgang Droege and his Heritage Front. That should have been everyone's first clue of, what Harper really is.
I applaud the Veterans, turning their backs on Conservative Politicians, attending Armistice Day Services.
Dressing up like a soldier doesn't make you one, Anon.
The veterans served Canada a great deal better than Canada has served them.
The veterans, like everyone else is expendable once their usefulness to stevie slime, is gone. Whether you are a veteran, a senator, or Nigel Wright, if you are of no use to the p.m., then you are gone. Unfortunately the vets gave a great deal more than the rest of them, who harper threw under the bus.
The Veterans deserve better. If this is how the cons treat citizens who fought for their country, just think of what the cons will do to those of us who they never had any use for.
In Harper's world, a person's dignity is measured by his or her usefulness to the prime minister, e.a.f.
And in that world, everyone eventually becomes obsolete.
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