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 - October 24 2013
Presidents NVOC October Status Report
October 27, 2013
Veterans
Gordon Jenkins, president of the NATO Veterans Organization of Canada, said it’s fine to honour the dead of past wars, but it’s the still-living veterans who need the government’s attention. “What are they doing for the living? We’re not getting anything for veterans (in the throne speech) except lip service.”
He and Blais observed that the government boasts of its dedication to Canadian military history and its willingness to spend hundreds of thousands to mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. But, they said, such actions haven’t translated into serving veterans well.
“They’re going to spend millions on remembering (the First World War),” said Jenkins. “These are the dead, and let’s give them respect, but is this what Veterans Affairs is now? The war memorial doesn’t need rededicating. We need something substantive.”
Such criticism echoes a recent report from Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent, who chastised the Tory government for shortfalls in the level of financial support given to veterans, particularly those severely wounded or disabled. “It is simply not acceptable to let veterans who have sacrificed the most for their country ... live their lives with unmet financial needs,” the ombudsman said in a study that compared the old system of compensating veterans under the Pension Act with the inadequacies of the new Veterans Charter, legislation backed by the Conservative government when enacted in 2006.
Gord
Gordon Jenkins President NATO Veterans Organization of Canada
Email : gordjenkins@sympatico.ca
Last modified
October 24 2013