****the Conservative governments oft-maligned new veterans charter will leave those particular ex-soldiers in poverty in their old age. **** ...Hillier wanted the matter left to the discretion of the chief of defence staff, who must sign-off on discharges. The current system, introduced under Hillier, gives severely wounded troops up to three years to recover. If they are unable to meet the standards for overseas service, then they face the possibility of being forced to leave. Mike Blais, an outspoken veterans advocate and former member of the Royal Canadian Regiment, said he believes the pension fight is a dollars-and-cents issue for a government determined to balance the budget by 2015. I definitely think this is a consequence of the budget restraint at National Defence, said Blais president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy. Allowing these wounded guys to stay; theyre (seen as) excess baggage. They cant fulfil the requirement, boom — theyre gone. Figures put before Parliament last year show that out of 1,218 medical releases, 199 kf them involved members who hadnt reached the pension threshold. At the height of the Afghanistan war in 2010, 1,782 members were medically discharged, and of those roughly 250 fell below the 10-year pension mark. The countrys veterans ombudsman zeroed in on this issue of wounded soldiers without a pension in a report earlier this month. Guy Parent said the Conservative governments oft-maligned new veterans charter will leave those particular ex-soldiers in poverty in their old age. Liberal veterans critic Jim Karygiannis demanded Wednesday that Hawkins be reinstated, while the NDPs Jack Harris called an immediate halt to this disgraceful practice. ...
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:48:57 +0000
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