NATO Veterans Organization of Canada
Organisation canadienne des vétérans de l’OTAN
A Voice for today’s Veterans ~ Une voix pour les vétérans d’aujourd’hui
Members News
Updated - September 08 2012
Documentary explores lives of Canada's disabled, injured vets
Posted April 18, 2012
Good day everyone, hope this note finds you all well, I know you will be busy. I have all the pleasure of being invited to the showing of this documentary, a week or so ago. There were three member present, in fact, if you get a chance, and I hope you do, you will identify Constable Beehan appear at all content shifts within the film. The film was funded by many but the Provincial and Federal Governments were kind.
This real life experience will give you an idea of some of the hurdles you may encounter as you advance in your service with a number of venues i.e., politicians, Veterans' Affairs Canada, issues concerning treatment and entitlement as a result of serving Canada.
A special request to the CO/SRR's, The Royal United Services Institute, Veterans Emergency Transition Services (V.E.T.S.), Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping, Royal Canadian Legion, and the RCMP Veterans Association of Nova Scotia to distribute this notice to those within the viewing premiter of the enclosed media service below. The viewing of it is a personal choice the learning opportunity is price-less. If there is someone within you would like to be put in touch with and you have no luck, let me know and I will provide you the contacts you need. Thank you for your time and patience, Murray.
BROKEN SOLDIERS on EastLink TV - Promo from Dale Stevens on Vimeo.
http://www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/Entertainment/2012-04-03/article-2946080/Documentary-explores-lives-of-Canadas-disabled,-injured-military-veterans/1
Documentary explores lives of Canada's disabled, injured military veterans
Dennis Manuge, disabled military veteran, and Dale Stevens, producer/director of Broken Soldiers, sit at the foot of the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Ont. (Submitted)
Published on April 3, 2012
Joanne Oostveen
A television production company located in Cole Harbour has produced a one hour documentary that explores the lives of Canada's disabled and injured military veterans.
Broken Soldiers, presented by Clerisy Entertainment and produced and directed by Dale Stevens, will be broadcast across Canada to all Eastlink customers every Sunday night in April at 9 p.m.
"This documentary uncovers what many Canadians know about only in bits and pieces," said Stevens. "This is all about medically released, disabled veterans and the challenges they have. This gives them a voice."
Stevens first became aware of the plight of the veterans when he was approached by an Eastern Shore man, Dennis Manuge, who in 2007 launched a class action lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of 6,500 disabled veterans who had been affected by the disability benefit clawback.
Manuge's story affected Stevens deeply.
"I wanted to be a catalyst to clear something up," he said. "I have so much compassion for veterans. Anyone who puts on the uniform and serves our country deserves to be heard, and that is what this film does, it gives them a voice."
Manuge is not the only veteran to be showcased in the film. Stevens' film also highlights the struggle of those veterans challenged by PTSD and homelessness. Injustices and misunderstandings that affect thousands of people across the country.
"When you sit down and talk with these people, as I did, you realize that they all have problems with Veterans Affairs," said Stevens.
"This film isn't about a rant, and it isn't a partisan problem, it is about the mismanagement of the past 50 years."
Stevens is a native of Musquodoboit Harbour and in 2009 completed producing, writing and directing his first television series called Ghost Cases. The 13-episode ghost hunting series is currently being distributed internationally.
While vice president of Arcadia Entertainment from 2005 to 2008, he worked on many television productions, including Chasing WildHorses, Buried at Sea, Dreamwrecks, Freemasonry Revealed, That News Show and Go Deep.
Broken Soldiers makes no attempt to make excuses for the veterans. Each person is honest and direct in their interpretation of their lives after being discharged from the military. And each veteran recommends the military as a career, it is in the moment that they are released that the problems begin.
"But what I am doing, through the film, is showing how these guys are not milking the system," said Stevens. "I am showing how the only way to get rid of ignorance is to push it into the light."
The film takes a complex problem and makes it easily digestible.
Stevens says if there is hope for change in a mismanaged system then it will come from the veterans themselves.
An organization called Veterans Emergency Transition Services, run by local veteran Jim Lowther, is responsible for helping get at least 13 veterans get off the streets of Halifax in the last year.
In the film, Stevens highlights the group and their success in getting Rob Dobson off the streets and onto a more positive path in life.
Dobson says there should be an army of people patrolling the streets looking for veterans who have fallen though the cracks.
"I just hope this film gives people an opinion," said Stevens. " It is about sadness, hope, injustice and strength and the positive that has come out of the attention given to the brotherhood of veterans found across this country."
joanneoostveen@accesswave.ca
Broken Soldiers will be broadcast every Sunday night in April at 9 pm on Eastlink television.
Last modified
September 08 2012