"Tories mull shrinking Veterans Affairs as old soldiers fade away "?

[Dennis Ruhl]

On further reading - definition of actual theatre of war - WWII from War Veterans Allowances Act:

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/W-3/page-12.html#anchorbo-ga:s_37

(c) in the case of World War II,
(i) with respect to a former member of His Majesty’s Canadian forces or a merchant navy veteran of World War II, any place where the person has been on service involving duties performed outside the Western Hemisphere, including

(A) service involving duties performed outside Canada, Newfoundland, the United States, Saint Pierre and Miquelon and the territorial waters thereof in aircraft, and

(B) service anywhere in a ship or other vessel, which service is classed as “sea time” for the purpose of advancement of naval ratings, or which would be so classed were the ship or other vessel in the service of the naval forces of Canada, and



Further clarified by:


Meaning of “sea time”

(8.1) For the purposes of clause (8)(c)(i)(B), “sea time” for the purpose of advancement of naval ratings includes time served in

(a) a sea-going ship,
(b) a defensively-equipped merchant ship, or
(c) any ship employed in harbour, other than a boom defence scow, gate vessel, depot ship or harbour craft,
as well as time served in combined operations organizations, but does not include time served on any ship prior to its commissioning


Thus a soldier on a ferry to Vancouver Island would have met the qualification of serving "anywhere in a ship."  That is if my reading is correct.

 

[Nemo888]

Looks like the Ombudsman got sacked for speaking up.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/08/17/veterans-ombudsman-stogran.html

I love this quote from Col. Strogan, “I was told by a senior Treasury Board analyst, who shall remain nameless, that it is in the government’s best interest to have soldiers killed overseas rather than wounded because the liability is shorter term.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/ottawa-failing-its-troops-watchdog-warns/article1676115/

http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100817/strogen-veterans-ombudsman-100817/20100817/?hub=WinnipegHome
"It is beyond my comprehension how the system could knowingly deny so many of our veterans the services and benefits that the people and the government of Canada recognized a long, long time ago as being their obligation to provide," he said.

"After a mere two years and nine months, we've been confronted with the tasks of staffing the office, identifying the ways that our veterans are being unfairly treated and developing doctrines and protocols to redress them," he said. "All the while being impeded by a bureaucracy that was deliberately obstructive and deceptive."

"It's hard for me not to get angry when I think how our vets are being treated,"

VAC is such a disaster now with the New Screw Veterans Charter.

Maybe this should be a new thread. Feel free to move it.