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
President's News
Updated - December 22 2012
Presidents Status Report - November 2012
Posted November 20, 2012
Veterans
It has been a busy month - November always is- for NATO Vets both in Ottawa -and the Regions. NATO Vets are growing and with recognition comes responsibilities and - alas - more work. NATO Vets has tried "cooperative advocacy" - non confrontational - working with other veteran organizations and working "within the system" This is about to change.
In last Saturday's National Post the entire front page was dedicated to a photo of the Vimy Memorial composed of 107,162 dots. Each dot, according to the heading, "...represents a single Canadian life lost in both World Wars, the Korean War, peacekeeping operations and the conflict in Afghanistan." Presumably those who died in NATO service weren't worth a dot! We are becoming the forgotten gen-eration of veterans. We have been writing letter after letter - to the Minister VAC, to CDS, to Letters to Editor.
We don't seem to be getting anywhere with "letter approach" with cooperative advocacy. We are called to be "eye candy" for the increasing number of CAC events - from Ministers Announcements to CFL football games.
What do all these events do to help the Canadian veteran? Not much!
If "cooperative advocacy" gets us nowhere, the only recourse is the assertive way. Turning up the heat slowly but discernibly is the way is probably the way to go, while doing our best to maintain a good relationship with the Minister and VAC Department. We don't want to be seen by the VAC staff as be-ing pushovers.
So this is the major item of this Status Report. Watch for future positive developments as NATO Exec reacts to this challenge.
Do you - as veterans - as modern day veterans -want to be heard? Well - we obviously have to change our approach.
Gord Jenkins- PresidentNATO Veterans Organization of Canada
Last modified
December 22 2012