This week’s Remembrance Day ceremonies at my granddaughter’s public school reminded me once again what most Canadians don’t remember on Nov. 11. Of course we all give thanks to our troops past and present. But I wonder how many are incensed at the way the physical and psychological needs of today’s soldiers are being neglected once they come back home. Some 152 Canadians have died in Afghanistan. Fully twenty times that number have returned alive but damaged.
The truth is that for most of us, whether we support or oppose Canadian participation, the Afghan war is a remote abstraction. Except for the tiny number who have enlisted and their families, the war touches no Canadian directly. Despite the extra costs of waging war, no extra contributions are asked of us, including those among us who keep getting richer and richer even as the war and recession continue. Imagine the heartfelt sacrifice Defence Minister Peter MacKay seems about to make on behalf of his boys and girls if, following Jim Prentice, he too jumps to Bay Street.
Not a single business person has stood up and offered to share the sacrifices of those noble soldiers they all support so patriotically. None is offering to take home a less staggering amount in earnings. Those powerful lobbies representing business interests have not demanded higher taxes from their members to help the government provide jobs and training and scholarships and homes and proper treatment for returning troops. In fact, as everyone knows, they very publicly demand the very opposite.
Not only do our vets sacrifice alone, when they return home their sacrifices are somehow forgotten. Somehow, we’re more committed to honouring them than to helping them. A Progressive Conservative member of the Ontario Legislature wants to honour our troops even more by giving the rest of us a statutory holiday every Remembrance Day. Hey, more time for shopping! But how does it honour wounded or traumatized returnees if they can’t get the support they need and have earned?
The Royal Canadian Mint pays for an entire page in The Globe advertising its new commemorative poppy coin and its Remembrance Day collector cards. The cards sell for $9.95 (not $10?), half of which will go to the Military Families Fund. I first discovered this fund a year ago, on the eve of Remembrance Day 2009. An organization I’d never heard of called the True Patriot Love Foundation held a gala in Toronto to raise $2-million for this fund, which assists military families facing urgent financial need resulting from conditions of service.
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Walter Natynczyk, was there to tell the 1,700 glitterati that part of the foundation’s mission was – what else? – “recognizing the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform and their families are making today.” But no one at the Mint or at the gala seemed to ask the obvious question: Why should military families need private charity if they have issues arising from serving overseas? Two million dollars is chump change for any government. Stephen Harper's office alone now costs us $10-million a year. So why do our vets and their families need $2-million from private sources? What if they need more than $2-million? Why should the soldiers we honour so loudly be dependent on charity?
Ask Patrick Stogran, who has spent three frustrating years desperately trying to get someone to actually care about the needs of our vets instead of just loving them with occasional private handouts. Mr. Stogran is – sorry, was – Canada's first veterans ombudsman, and a man not easily scorned in the way this government treats anyone it can’t control. First, he was appointed by Stephen Harper. Second, he’s a 30-year veteran. He knows first-hand how messed up many soldiers are when they return from the front lines and how pitifully little has been done to help them.
