Arms and legs blown off…disfigured and scarred from burns…hearing impaired…visually impaired…struggling to function while suffering a myriad of debilitating emotional PTSD wounds…a higher chance of committing suicide than the rest of the population…..These are just some of the afflictions disabled Canadian veterans struggle with..How is it possible that tens of thousands of them are being treated so badly by the country they faithfully served?.Oh, they’ve been awarded medals for their blood, sweat, and immense sacrifice. But medals don’t put food on the table or shoes on their children’s feet..The federal government continues to callously, inexcusably betray our wounded warriors by making them wait indefinitely for their disability pensions..More than 41,000 disabled veterans are on a shamefully long waiting list for these pensions that they earned..It will take at least a year to clean up a backlog of claims that continues to grow, Western Standard reporter Mike D’Amour revealed Wednesday..A year is an eternity for someone who is ill, on the verge of emotional collapse, and broke with bills to pay. And how many years have they already been waiting?.It takes cold, black hearts to let this happen to our disabled veterans..For this pension travesty alone, Lawrence MacAuley, like a string of previous veterans affairs ministers, doesn’t merit the ‘honourable’ that’s automatically attached to the title..There’s no honour in allowing this to continue..It’s not like MacAuley was caught by surprise and hasn’t had time to fix this. He’s been in this portfolio for almost two and-a-half years. .Yes, the problem began before his time, but the backlog has been ominously building under his watch..And last September the Parliamentary Budget Office warned it would take, not one, but at least three years just to stop the backlog from growing, but not to clear it..The Department of Veterans Affairs said it would work faster, explore innovative measures to efficiently process applications, and be positioned by 2022 with new tools, in a report entitled Disability Wait Times and Benefit Action Plan. .So typical of government, time to write a useless report, but not enough time to process critical claims. .As of May 1, the backlog of veterans’ claims stood at 41,541 with wait times for the initial review of a first-time application averaging more than 300 days last year, followed by 140 days for petitions on reassessment and another 340 days for departmental reviews..Last November, during testimony before a Commons veterans committee, MacAuley whined about the onerous paperwork involved..“You know this difficulty. You know about filling out forms. I mightn’t be great at it myself,” he flippantly said..Then he blamed disabled veterans..“But the thing is you need people (who) know how to fill out the forms. The problem you have with forms is there’s something missing, something vitally important that could be missing, and you have to make sure that it is all there,” said MacAuley..Has it occurred to anyone that the problem lies in the procedures, red tape and ridiculously complicated forms disabled veterans must fill out despite evidence clearly presented in medical reports and obvious injuries? .Canada has an excellent system in place for non-military citizens making disability claims. Why can their claims be processed with deposits made to their bank accounts within 120 days or less? .A skeptic might think maybe veterans affairs isn’t a priority for this Liberal government. Look at the ministerial appointments to the portfolio. .Certainly, MacAuley has his strengths. But is someone who formerly oversaw corn and fish really the best choice for veterans? .Or before him, TV personality-turned-politician Seamus O’Regan, who shamed himself by comparing the “shock” of his painful departure from media to that of veterans transitioning from uniform to civilian life..MacAuley, who has been roaming the halls of Parliament since 1988, won’t have to think about waiting for or fighting to receive the hefty pension he’s accrued, which will be substantially more than what disabled veterans are afforded..Perhaps the next time he’s enjoying a fine meal at the Parliamentary restaurant, he could pause between bites to think about the disabled veterans distraught over how they’re going to feed their children..Maybe he could ponder what they accomplished, what they endured, and the price they paid serving their country on back-to-back missions in hellholes they were sent to. .They didn’t whine about anything at all when they charged into battlegrounds in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, etc. .Mr. Minister, if you are going to accept the portfolio, the title, the prestige and pay that accompanies it – then do the damn job! Do it fast. Look after them. .And where, oh where, is the acting chief of defence staff?.Why isn’t Lieutenant-General Wayne Eyre roaring about this disgraceful treatment of disabled veterans?.Well, he’s busy concentrating doing the bidding of the Liberal government as he works on improving the “culture” of the military to make it a “truly inclusive institution.”.How about focusing on improving the culture in the lives of disabled veterans and truly including their needs in your efforts?.This is a national disgrace..Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard .lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com
Arms and legs blown off…disfigured and scarred from burns…hearing impaired…visually impaired…struggling to function while suffering a myriad of debilitating emotional PTSD wounds…a higher chance of committing suicide than the rest of the population…..These are just some of the afflictions disabled Canadian veterans struggle with..How is it possible that tens of thousands of them are being treated so badly by the country they faithfully served?.Oh, they’ve been awarded medals for their blood, sweat, and immense sacrifice. But medals don’t put food on the table or shoes on their children’s feet..The federal government continues to callously, inexcusably betray our wounded warriors by making them wait indefinitely for their disability pensions..More than 41,000 disabled veterans are on a shamefully long waiting list for these pensions that they earned..It will take at least a year to clean up a backlog of claims that continues to grow, Western Standard reporter Mike D’Amour revealed Wednesday..A year is an eternity for someone who is ill, on the verge of emotional collapse, and broke with bills to pay. And how many years have they already been waiting?.It takes cold, black hearts to let this happen to our disabled veterans..For this pension travesty alone, Lawrence MacAuley, like a string of previous veterans affairs ministers, doesn’t merit the ‘honourable’ that’s automatically attached to the title..There’s no honour in allowing this to continue..It’s not like MacAuley was caught by surprise and hasn’t had time to fix this. He’s been in this portfolio for almost two and-a-half years. .Yes, the problem began before his time, but the backlog has been ominously building under his watch..And last September the Parliamentary Budget Office warned it would take, not one, but at least three years just to stop the backlog from growing, but not to clear it..The Department of Veterans Affairs said it would work faster, explore innovative measures to efficiently process applications, and be positioned by 2022 with new tools, in a report entitled Disability Wait Times and Benefit Action Plan. .So typical of government, time to write a useless report, but not enough time to process critical claims. .As of May 1, the backlog of veterans’ claims stood at 41,541 with wait times for the initial review of a first-time application averaging more than 300 days last year, followed by 140 days for petitions on reassessment and another 340 days for departmental reviews..Last November, during testimony before a Commons veterans committee, MacAuley whined about the onerous paperwork involved..“You know this difficulty. You know about filling out forms. I mightn’t be great at it myself,” he flippantly said..Then he blamed disabled veterans..“But the thing is you need people (who) know how to fill out the forms. The problem you have with forms is there’s something missing, something vitally important that could be missing, and you have to make sure that it is all there,” said MacAuley..Has it occurred to anyone that the problem lies in the procedures, red tape and ridiculously complicated forms disabled veterans must fill out despite evidence clearly presented in medical reports and obvious injuries? .Canada has an excellent system in place for non-military citizens making disability claims. Why can their claims be processed with deposits made to their bank accounts within 120 days or less? .A skeptic might think maybe veterans affairs isn’t a priority for this Liberal government. Look at the ministerial appointments to the portfolio. .Certainly, MacAuley has his strengths. But is someone who formerly oversaw corn and fish really the best choice for veterans? .Or before him, TV personality-turned-politician Seamus O’Regan, who shamed himself by comparing the “shock” of his painful departure from media to that of veterans transitioning from uniform to civilian life..MacAuley, who has been roaming the halls of Parliament since 1988, won’t have to think about waiting for or fighting to receive the hefty pension he’s accrued, which will be substantially more than what disabled veterans are afforded..Perhaps the next time he’s enjoying a fine meal at the Parliamentary restaurant, he could pause between bites to think about the disabled veterans distraught over how they’re going to feed their children..Maybe he could ponder what they accomplished, what they endured, and the price they paid serving their country on back-to-back missions in hellholes they were sent to. .They didn’t whine about anything at all when they charged into battlegrounds in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, etc. .Mr. Minister, if you are going to accept the portfolio, the title, the prestige and pay that accompanies it – then do the damn job! Do it fast. Look after them. .And where, oh where, is the acting chief of defence staff?.Why isn’t Lieutenant-General Wayne Eyre roaring about this disgraceful treatment of disabled veterans?.Well, he’s busy concentrating doing the bidding of the Liberal government as he works on improving the “culture” of the military to make it a “truly inclusive institution.”.How about focusing on improving the culture in the lives of disabled veterans and truly including their needs in your efforts?.This is a national disgrace..Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard .lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com
