The Royal Mail Steamer (RMS) Titanic
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Esprit de Corps Magazine January 2023 // Volume 29 Issue 12
Let's Talk About Women in the Military Column 46
by Military Woman
Question:
What issue could the Veteran community come together to support in 2023?
Answer:
One issue that all Veterans could potentially stand behind, is the need for a formal renewal of Canada’s social covenant, or commitment, around the care and support owed to injured and ill Veterans and their families.
2022, by anyone’s account, has been a tumultuous one for Veterans. First, is the ongoing inability of Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) to fix their backlog of disability benefit applications. The ongoing backlog leaving many Veterans, especially francophones and women, without timely access to required treatment benefits for their service-related injuries and illnesses. Second, the number of Veterans dealing with social isolation, financial stress, housing insecurity and mental health distresses/suicidality continues to mount. Combine that reality with an ever-growing number of Veterans confirmed to have sought help with their living circumstances from VAC, only to be offered unsolicited discussions on medical assistance in dying (MAID).
Meanwhile, calls are also mounting for VAC transparency around how an over half-a-billion-dollar rehabilitation services contract occurred without meaningful consultation with those most impacted, Veterans and their VAC case managers. Corporal (Retired) Bruce Moncur, co-chair to VAC’s Service Excellence and Transition Advisory Group, told a parliamentary committee that his group was not consulted with on this important change in the service delivery to Veterans. As a result, Moncur – who is also involved with the Equitas Society, Afghanistan Veterans Association of Canada, and Valour in the Presence of the Enemy – has called for the resignation of the Minister of Veterans Affairs. Several courageous VAC case managers and consultants also testified at committee that they too, were not meaningfully consulted about this important service delivery change to Veterans. The Veterans’ Affairs Employees Union have also taken up this issue and become frustrated with VAC to the point that they also have publicly called for the minister’s resignation.
Now – let’s situate Veterans into the larger context of the defence community as a whole. A recent Globe and Mail headline stated that “The Canadian Armed Forces are heading for a Titanic collapse”. Formal military reconstitution plans have been stood up to address the record low recruitment and retention rates. Here is where a call for common sense versus political rhetoric is made. Surely, we all understand that the best military recruiter possible – is a happy, well taken care of Veteran? As such – shouldn’t ensuring Veteran health and wellbeing be an intrinsic part of any and all defence reconstitution plans?
For all these and other reasons, the present status quo for Veterans does not feel like it is working. The social covenant between Canadians and the post-Korean war Veteran feels uncertain, if not outright broken. Without a renewed, refreshed social commitment from Canadians, asking Canada’s daughters and sons to voluntarily sign up for unlimited liability, including the potential of being ordered into harm’s way, seems unlikely to result in the voluntary recruitment levels sufficient for full military reconstitution.
Today, Veterans and their families are faced with the co-existence of three benefit frameworks – the Pension Act, New Veterans Charter/Veterans Well-being Act, and Pension for Life – leaving Veterans with a complex maze of programs, benefits, and eligibility criteria. As a result, Veterans with similar injuries are compensated differently based on when and where they served. This is not fair. The last time an independent full review of the Veteran support required from VAC was undertaken was in 1965 with the Woods Committee Report.
It is past time to reflect, refresh and more clearly define the desired health and wellness outcomes due to Veterans under one common legislative program for all who have been injured or made ill as a result of their service to Canada.
The timing is right for Veterans, and Canadians alike, to unite in 2023 behind a call for a Royal Commission (also now called a Commission of Inquiry). We need a Royal Commission to ensure, once and for all, that all Veterans and their families receive the care and support they need, when and where they need it. Anything less than a Royal Commission will be tantamount to ‘moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic’.
